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 ...
that was in the 1996 climb Krackauer wrote about.
There are no good Samaritans to be found on Everest and the place will be cursed.
Beck Weathers is his name.
Sailors these men are not.
...(the doctor had the laser surgery so he wouldn't need glasses, but the altitude affected his eyesight)...
..and he, in sheer determination, knowing they left him there to die...
...got down the mountain!
He lost fingers, nose and more....but he's alive.
I didn't know Terry Shiavo's husband was into mountain climbing.
LOL .... was = saw....
that'll teach me to trust the spell checker.....
A couple of years ago, it may have been last year, I don't remember. Anyway, the 2nd Mallory & Irvine expedition ran into a similar situation on the North side. The people that were trying to summit, chose to save the guy they found dying on the mountain. They almost ended up dying themselves. Fortunately, they all made it back to the bottom of the mountain. Dave Hahn is the guy that made the decision to save the guy and skip the summit. He is a true hero.
Emotionally, I am torn up at the thought of someone dying alone in a remote place like that. Having said that, I suspect that the other climbers were at the mercy of their guides, who would have kept moving, having seen this more than a few times and gotten calloused to it.
There's a reason that people who do heroic things are the exception. The rest of us would like to believe we would do that, but never know for sure until we're in the situation.
Well his accomplishment means nothing to me now.
Well, admittedly, it didn't mean anything to me in the first place. It just means a whole heck of a lot less.
For the latest Everest News... go to: http://www.everestnews.com/Default.htm
All the dirt and horrible things going on right now on the mountain.
I hope Mr. Inglis stopped and had a photo taken with the corpse so he can remember his successful climb.
"So sayeth the self absobed Mountain climber who happened to have paid $35,000 to reach the summit to justify writing a book about his on greatness. "
Question. This man is dying on the mountain and another party comes across him. They give him some oxygen and continue on their merry way.
OK. Where was this guys party and why didn't they help him? Climbing, like most extreme sports is dangerous and deadly. One of the risks of participating in this activity is that you are trusting your life to a group of human beings who also have their own agendas.
Selfish of not, at the base, everyone knows before they go up that if they die or are going to die, their bodies will remain on the mountain. It has always been that way, it always will be that way.
Unlike the military where everyone comes home or will die trying to get their comrade out.
Sounds like he made a good decision.
I wonder if he would recommend the EXACT SAME ADVICE to EVERY climber who finds himself in a similiar circumstance.
Hmmm.
Actually, I think that was the 2nd time he has made that choice.
Would he do it every time? I doubt it.
"Is that anything like "I am a rock..."?"
I am an eye.........land.
Every one of those climbers knows it could be their last climb. Sad, but thats how it is.
agree
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