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 ...
If the other climbers had been in dire straits themselves trying to get down your point might stick, but they were just busy with their climb to the top.
striving for excellence and all...
LOL
yeah right, they dying to get to the top.
Stopping your own hike to the top to help someone down does not qualify as 'heroic'. It's just a change in plans.
Now if these others had been on the way down, low on oxygen in a blizzard and then help this poor soul that would be heroic.
hmmmmm [giving it some thought]
If it's you in trouble I'll just continue with my hike.
For everyone else I'll give up my hiking plans and try to save their life.
Their camp 3 is on a 45o slope. It indicates the kind of ground they are on. Loose rocks. One guy got out of his tent to take a leak w/o his spikes and tumbled all the way down.
Read the story. The decision to move on was made because the two most experienced Sherpas knew that even they could not get his body down the mountain.
Most climbers die on the way down the mountain- even when they are not lowering a 250 frozen body down a 30 degree ice slope in the death zone on the highest mountain in the world.
But I'm sure you could make a better decision with all you experience and all. BTW, how hot was it today where you live?
One guy got out of his tent to take a leak w/o his spikes and tumbled all the way down.
Well I hope everybody went down there after him....you know....being good Samaritans and all.
Looks closer to me. That's ~2.3 mi down and it means 3.2 mi of horizontal structure is missing.
Sounds like they did. That's how they know what he was up to.
If he's near the top, that number is correct.
Here's a good aerial photo I found of the Everet Complex as seen from the West.
To the left is the North Face of Everest.
The bowl in the center is the Western Cwm. The peak directly at the back of the bowl is Lhotse and the mountain making up the right (South) side of the Western Cwm is Nuptse.
The beautiful Mountain poking up in the far distance is Makalu.
BTTT
Wasn't David Brashear's IMAX crew the one behind Rob Hall's in 1996?
I hate to use such sweeping generalizations, but I believe this one to be dead on accurate.
Thanks. I'll have to study these to get oriented.
Yes....and a good thing too.
They were good Samaritans (because Beck and the Taiwan guy could walk) and were rewarded with good weather later and got that camera up to the top!
..."This guy MUST be a democrat"
Or most of today's Pubes.!!!!
Thanks much.
While I might hate myself for awhile, this is a sad, sinful world. No way I can, from the comfort of my home, rightfully judge what I'd do up there. Hell, I felt "buzzed" at 10,000 feet on Mt. Adams here in Washington (FANTASTIC sunset over Mt. Hood, if you climb).
While I understand their moral position, I must vote against the Armchair Samaritans. Feels like hell to do so, but, well, the participants knew the risks. If we're past High Camp, well, ditch my ass, go home, and kiss your wife and kids. Of course, I am unmarried without kids - but if I weren't, would I really take on such an endeavor?
Hate to relativize the situation (like lefties love to do), but I'd have to be there to pass judgment.
Thanks for the GREAT shots. I can't get enough of this stuff: "Touching The Void" gets read tonight.
This from a satellite straight above the summit (red star).
North is up toward the left corner of the picture with the North Face mostly in shadow.
The very bright side is the seldom seen (and climbed maybe twice) eastern Kangshung Face. When Mallory was first scouting routes for the 1921 British Expedition, he looked at the Kangshung Face, snorted, and just kept walking. (Eventually blazing, and dying, on the North Ridge route)
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