Posted on 05/23/2006 8:42:02 AM PDT by Paddlefish
Mark Inglis, an amputee who conquered Mount Everest on artificial legs last week, yesterday defended his party's decision to carry on to the summit despite coming across a dying climber. As his team climbed through the "death zone," the area above 26,000 feet where the body begins to shut down, they passed David Sharp, 34, a stricken British climber who later died. His body remained on the mountain.
Mr. Inglis, 47, a New Zealander, said: "At 28,000 feet it's hard to stay alive yourself. He was in a very poor condition, near death. We talked about [what to do for him] for quite a lot at the time and it was a very hard decision. "About 40 people passed him that day, and no one else helped him apart from our expedition. Our Sherpas (guides) gave him oxygen. He wasn't a member of our expedition, he was a member of another, far less professional one." Mr. Sharp was among eight persons who have died on Everest this year, including another member of his group, a Brazilian. Dewa Sherpa, a manager at Asian Trekking, the Katmandu company that outfitted Mr. Sharp before his climb, said he had not taken enough oxygen and had no Sherpa guide.
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The company charges $6,000 to provide services as far as base camp -- far less than the $35,000 or more cost of guided trips to the summit. Other mountaineers have criticized the commercialism of climbing the 29,035-foot peak, with guides charging huge sums to climbers with minimal experience.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
2 more deaths on Everest reported today. That makes 11 on Everest and one on Lhotse this year.
Apparently, also record summits.
My head and ears feel all filled up and painful at a measly 7000 Ft. no matter how many times I keep my jaw moving or how often I "open" my ears up.You guys must have Herculean eustacian tubes! I'm jealous.
The Sherpa heroes
Here's Jamie's testimony of the nights David and Vitor died:
"Dawa from Arun Treks also gave oxygen to David and tried to help him move, repeatedly, for perhaps an hour. But he could not get David to stand alone or even stand resting on his shoulders, and crying, Dawa had to leave him too. Even with two Sherpas it was not going to be possible to get David down the tricky sections below."
"Dawa, who did not summit because of giving his oxygen to David, told this to me less than 24 hours later when I met him on the fixed ropes. He was close to tears even then."
"At the time I thought the climber may be David Sharp, who had climbed with me twice, but it was only when I was on the way to the summit I had this confirmed when we passed him. A very sad moment. He was dead by then (18 May)."
"David was far too sensible to die"
"I will remember David as a strong and independent climber, for example on Cho Oyu, rather than pull on old ropes, he free-climbed a difficult section. We spent a glorious half hour eating lunch on top."
"Later when I was working as a Sherpa for the Team David was on he turned back around the Second Step with minor frostbite developing on his face. Little did he realize until later he had frostbitten feet from using plastic mountaineering boots. This time he was wearing the latest boots and was climbing with oxygen, apparently. He was strong at altitude, and I thought far too sensible to die."
"David was clean, easy company and a very likeable chap, I will miss him. I have a feeling that his personal wish may be to stay there and frighten-inspect every climber that goes by, although for the moment his face is covered by a classic Berghaus pack."
"Jamie McGuinness"
There was another guy whose name I can't recall at the moment. He wasn't a mountaineer, though, just a traveller (who didn't even know Joe and SImon's last names). They'd run into him on the way and convinced him to come along and watch the camp while they climbed so that the locals wouldn't loot everything. When Simon came off the mountain, he was in pretty bad shape himself, exhausted and suffering from frostbite. More importantly, though, he simply assumed Joe was dead. He'd seen the drop and the crevasse below.
Also, wasn't mention made by these climbers that they prided themselves on climbing with minimal gear, and would more gear have made any difference?
They were doing it "alpine style", which means you carry everything with you and do the mountain in one push from base camp, as opposed to the expedition style where you establish a series of stocked camps all the way up over a series of days. I'm not sure what more gear would have accomplished, though, and that mountain--which was essentially just a giant rock face up to the ridge, wasn't really appropriate for the expedition style.
Thanks. The scene with Dawa and the other Sherpa is what I envisioned in this story.
If he wasn't below the yellow band, only God himself could have saved him.
So would a party of 40 ascended via the North route? I can't believe that, frankly.
Thanks for all of the info.
The party of 40 later came later, a next day thing. By that time it's too late. The time to have done something is when he first went down. Before he froze. He did go alone, so maybe he was the last one headed down that day. That's not clear yet.
In that kind of temp. you have to keep moving. You can't just lay down, or you freeze. You nod out and start freezing up hard. You need the sleeping gear, which is below. Also Ox, else the body doesn't produce the heat anyway.
Thanks. I'm only familiar with the South Route Freeway. I guess you just nod off for an hour or so at Camp Five, start out an hour before sunrise, snap a few pics, then get the hell out of there.
I don't see how they do it. It's too bad they seem to let almost anyone try it, particularly on the North route.
Thanks, yes it was the N, up from Kathmandu. I don't know what any of the trails look like though.
That's right. Even if there is no hope of saving him, you STAY and die with him..... it's the thought that counts!
Unfortunately, the graphic came through as a "red x."
Got a web address for it?
Everything I have seen says he was at 8000 or above. That puts him in the 'Death, Death Zone'...
Not a chance of getting him down.
There really aren't parties of '40' persay... That is how many that Inglis estimated I believe that passed him.
A party of 40 up there would probably cause death for most at one time. Not a good idea. They were probably traveling in small groups of 2 to 6 at most.
That would be the South....up from the Nepal side
Here's a picture with a green line showing the South route. (The big, flat side on the left is the North Face)
First, Base Camp, then over the Khumba Ice Fall (frozen waterfall) and into the Western Cwm (pronounced coom...welsh word for "valley", named by George Mallory).
Go up some and rest (Camp 2)
Next day to the end of the Western Cwm and up the Lhotse (worlds 4th highest peak) Face. (stop for Camp 3)
Then to your left, over the Geneva Spur (rock outcropping in your way) onto the South Col (26,000 ft .... 4th and final camp).
Then 14 hour "sprint" to the top
The North route starts at Rongbuk Monastery on the Tibetan side up the East Rongbuk Glacier.
Here's the North Route:
It's the one with the notorious "Second Step".
If Sharpe was somewhere on the ridge...esp. above the Second Step....well....
You are awesome!
And, I would just like to say that this has been a wonderful thread.
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