Posted on 06/14/2006 5:50:58 AM PDT by Mr. Brightside
Dying Brit climber 'too big' to rescue off Everest
By MICHAEL FIELD
The New Zealand mountaineer who ordered climbers to leave a dying Briton near the summit of Mt Everest says it was impossible to carry the big man off the peak.
Double amputee Mark Inglis was one of four New Zealanders in a group of 40 who walked past dying David Sharp during their descent of Everest on May 15. Most of them were part of a Discovery Channel film crew, which included Queenstown cameraman Mark Whetu.
The crew filmed the dying British mountaineer in his last conscious moments on the mountain.
Inglis' party and the Discovery crew were under the direction of Himex, a major professional guiding company run by Kiwi mountaineer Russell Brice.
Brice revealed yesterday that Sharp was lying on top of the body of an Indian climber known as "Green Boots". The Indian's body had been in a small 8500m high cave since 1996.
The gruesome events on top of Mt Everest this summer, in which 11 people eventually died, sparked a storm of controversy led by Sir Edmund Hillary, who said the attitude displayed by the climbers was horrifying.
As Inglis was last week having surgery on his frostbitten hands, a fuller story of what happened has begun to emerge as professional climbers and support crews get home.
Brice said on the day of the incident he had been based at the North Col camp, watching his clients' progress through a telescope.
At 1.41am his "sidar" or head sherpa, Phurba Tashi, radioed saying he was at "Green Boots" but made no mention of Sharp. Ten minutes later the main group, including Inglis, reached that point.
"At no stage during the ascent did I know that there was a man in trouble," Brice said.
Most of Brice's climbers reached the summit between 6.15am and 7.03am, but Brice said he noticed two of his clients were ascending too slowly and ordered them down. Both needed help to get off. After reaching the summit, Inglis began his descent and joined the other two climbers at the Third Step at 9.15am.
Fifteen minutes later Brice said "one of the climbers called me to say that there was a big man about to die". This was the first he heard of Sharp's predicament.
"I established that David was still alive but unconscious and that his arms were frozen to the elbow and his legs were frozen to the knee, and that he had frost bite to the nose," Brice said.
"The climber said that David had an oxygen system with him but was not wearing it, and was trying to assist with getting the mask back onto David."
Brice said he was acutely aware of the "struggle" going on to get Inglis and the other two off the mountain and knew the sherpas had been out of camp for more than 10 hours and were low on oxygen.
"I told the climber who encountered David to continue down the mountain as at this altitude and with this terrain it is not possible to carry an unconscious person with only the people that I had on the mountain at that time."
A Turkish group tried to help and Phurba found some oxygen and gave it to Sharp.
"They attempted to get David to his feet, but he kept collapsing, so they shifted David just a few feet into the sun."
Brice said he had worked with Phurba, one of the strongest sherpas on the mountain, for years.
"We have been involved in many self, and assisted rescues over the years, so I know that if there was a chance to help he would willingly do so, and would have immediately called me to start the logistics that would be required. His silence was ominous."
Brice said he had no idea of Sharp's movements before his death and had no reports about him in trouble before finding him at "Green Boots."
He assumed people did not see him on the way up because it was extremely cold and their hoods and oxygen masks would have severely restricted vision.
"Our people saw David, but assumed that this was the body of the Indian who died in exactly the same place in 1996, and whose body I had told members to expect to see," Brice said.
"In fact David was lying right on top of the Indian when Phurba found him on the descent. Our people saw David and assumed that he was already dead."
Brice found out who the dead man was and although it was not his responsibility, telephoned Sharp's family.
"I told them that we had seen David the day before, and that we had left him even though he was still alive, but in an unrecoverable state, and that he was confirmed dead that morning.
"This was a very hard call to make but something that I felt had to be done."
Brice said had he known on the way up that Sharp was in trouble he would have investigated the possibility of a rescue. Since 1994 he had initiated or been involved with 15 major rescues on Everest.
"During this time I have been responsible for the unenviable job of removing about 10 bodies from the mountain, something that we never mention."
Almost exactly 82 (lost June 1924)
There are some little black birds that can make it up that high for a few months a year.
Wow. Time flies, huh?
(lol)
I guess that answers the question that one mountain climber asked: "Why so blue?"
It took them a month to come up with this excuse. You'd think it would have been the first thing they said.
Inglis told Television New Zealand last month that members of his party found Sharp close to death, tried to give him oxygen and sent out a radio distress call before continuing to the summit. Inglis said that when they radioed Brice at base camp he had advised them to carry on with the summit bid without attempting a rescue.
What makes you think that this story is any different that the one they have been telling since the accident?
What happened to the people the dead guy was climbing with? Do people actually try and climb Everest alone?
When Brice first knew about Sharp may have had little effect on whether anything could be done for him.
The man was still frozen at the top of the highest mountain in the world.
The account said he successfully made a 'solo' ascent to the summit before he stopped 1000 feet below.
Well it seems that it is big news only today that they said "he's too big". I've never heard that before, but I'm too lazy to see if it has in fact ever been published in the previous month.
The ghoulish thing to me is that all of those bodies are just sitting up there forever, preserved by the cold, and serve only as landmarks. This bothers me, and it's wrong in multiple ways.
The critique of the climbers hinges on whether they knew he was dying on the way up or didn't find out until the way down. There are conflicting stories about that because it obviously looks bad to walk around a dying man to get to the top. Whether they could have saved him instead of going to the top may well remain an open question.
They left the guy to die so they could finish their little recreational trip. What else is there to know? They participated in this guy's death.
So I'm to believe that 40 climbers couldn't carry a single person?
What a bunch of bull! They left him behind out of their own greed.
How would you like to go from being a human being to being a landmark known only as 'Green Boots'?
I don't know. Not many humans get to end up as landmarks. If you have to go, there are worse legacies to leave, IMHO.
I don't see his head. Could you point it out?
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