Dying Brit climber 'too big' to rescue off Everest (the REAL story)

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.

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."

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.

Anybody who uses the word "Greed" should be thrown off this forum.

That being said, 40 people could not carry a man down from the summit of Everest.

A climber in trouble must....MUST, be able to walk / crawl and be able to descend 3 rock faces known as "steps" and traverse several areas that are just a few feet wide with a 14,000 ft. drop on one side, and a 10,000 drop on the other over snow with shifting rocks underneath.

All this while your own body is consuming itself, your mind is sluggish if not hallucinating, and when it can take minutes to take one step while also contending with below zero temperatures and winds that can exceed hurricane force.

But hey.....have at it.

Here is from another FR thread (posted by elli1)about the climber that WAS rescued after being struck by a cerebral edema and collapsed only 165 feet below the summit. So yes, it does seem possible to lower a person down these technical parts.
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More of the story, from another source:
... feeling fit, Lincoln had gone on and reached the 8850-meter (29,035 feet) summit at about 9 a.m. on May 25. After some celebratory radio calls, he and the two Sherpas accompanying him headed back down. Not long afterward Lincoln was hit by cerebral edema (swelling of the brain) and became disoriented, ataxic and at 8800 meters (28,870 feet) collapsed. For almost 9 hours the Sherpas tried to help and lowered him down over very technical sections of the mountain. But under the influence of extreme altitude sickness, Lincoln became delusional and obstructive and they determined at 7 p.m. that they could not help him further.

With night coming on, expedition leader Abramov ordered the Sherpas to abandon him and save themselves, so they returned to the camp at 8300 meters suffering snow blindness. Abramov issued the news that Lincoln Hall had perished, and the report hit the wires across Australia soon after.

At 7 a.m. the next morning, American guide Dan Mazur was climbing towards the summit with some clients when they came across Hall who, though inert, showed weak signs of life. One report on EverestNews.com claimed Lincoln was sitting with his legs dangling over the face of the mountain half undressed and without a hat. They report his first words were, "I imagine you are surprised to see me here."

Mazur administered tea and radioed down to base camp. Immediately 13 Sherpas camped at the North Col (7000 meters) began climbing back up to rescue Lincoln, under the direction of Abramov. By 11 a.m., three Sherpas with medicine, oxygen and tea reached Lincoln at the Second Step (8600 meters) and with the help of Mazur and team they began to move him down on a stretcher....

...Sirdar Mingma Gelu and more Sherpas arrived, and brought Hall to the North Col Camp at 7000 meters where he was treated by Russian Doctor Andrey Selivanov for "acute psychosis" and given oxygen while sleeping. So rapid is the recovery from edema after descending, Lincoln walked the last 500 meters into camp unaided. A further day-long descent brought him back down to Advanced Base Camp (ABC) and much thicker air — the best medicine for altitude problems....

Link

30 posted on 06/08/2006 3:36:02 PM PDT by elli1

On This Day 1953: Hillary and Tenzing conquer Everest BBC ^ | 5/29/06

The New Zealander Edmund Hillary, and the Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, have become the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest on the Nepal-Tibet border. They reached the top of the world at 1130 local time after a gruelling climb up the southern face.

The two men hugged each other with relief and joy but only stayed on the summit for 15 minutes because they were low on oxygen.

Mr Hillary took several photographs of the scenery and of Sherpa Tenzing waving flags representing Britain, Nepal, the United Nations and India.

Sherpa Tenzing buried some sweets and biscuits in the snow as a Buddhist offering to the gods.

They looked for signs of George Mallory and Andrew "Sandy" Irvine who had disappeared in 1924 in a similar attempt to conquer Everest, but found nothing.

Then they began the slow and tortuous descent to rejoin their team leader Colonel John Hunt further down the mountain at Camp VI.

When he saw the two men looking so exhausted Col Hunt assumed they had failed to reach the summit and started planning another attempt.

But then the two climbers pointed to the mountain and signalled they had reached the top, and there were celebrations all round.

Careful planning

Col Hunt attributed the successful climb to advice from other mountaineers who had attempted the feat over the years, careful planning, excellent open-circuit oxygen equipment and good weather.

Mr Hillary described the peak, which is 29,028 feet (8,847 m) above sea level, as "a symmetrical, beautiful snow cone summit".

He was one of the members of the expedition led by Eric Shipton in 1951 that discovered the southern route to the top of the mountain.

A year later, Tenzing reached the record height of 28,215 feet (8,599 m) during a Swiss expedition led by Raymond Lambert.

Mount Everest was named after Sir George Everest, the surveyor-general of India who was the first to produce detailed maps of the Indian subcontintent including the Himalayas. News of the conquest of Mount Everest did not reach the outside world until 2 June, the eve of the Queen's coronation.

Colonel Hunt and Edmund Hillary were knighted on their return.

Sir Edmund took part in several expeditions after that including a trip across Antarctica to the South Pole in 1958. He set up a medical and educational trust for the Sherpa people in 1961 and was New Zealand High Commissioner to India in Delhi from 1984 to 1989.

Tenzing Norgay was awarded the George Medal for his achievement and later became director of the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling. He died in 1986.

The body of George Mallory who had attempted the ascent in 1924 was found on Mount Everest in 1999.

By the 50th anniversary of the ascent in May 2003 over 1,300 people had reached the summit of the roof of the world.

Australian climber left for dead on Everest reaches base camp
AFP (via Yahoo News) ^ | 5/27/06

In an astonishing feat of survival, an Australian mountaineer left for dead shortly after conquering the summit of Mount Everest has been found alive and walked back to base camp in "reasonably good" condition, a colleague said.

Lincoln Hall, 50, had been reported dead by his expedition teammates after reaching the 8,848-meter (29,028-feet) summit of Everest on Thursday but then succumbing to acute altitude sickness as he began his descent.

Hall, one of Australia's most experienced climbers, became disoriented, lay down in the snow and resisted attempts by accompanying sherpas to help him, according to an account of the incident posted on the Internet by his expedition leader, Alexander Abramov.

The two sherpas with Hall were forced to leave him behind when they ran out of oxygen and Abramov issued a statement Friday that the Australian was dead.

But another team of climbers led by American Dan Mazur came upon Hall several hours later and found the Australian alive.

Mazur radioed the news back to camp and in a rescue operation involving about a dozen sherpas and a Russian doctor, Hall was brought to safety.

Duncan Chessell, another Australian climber who organises mountaineering expeditions, said one of his guides on Everest informed him Hall had spent the night in a heated tent at North Col camp, at 7,000 meters altitude.

He was then able to walk Saturday morning into the advanced base camp, which is at 6,400 meters, he told the Australian national news agency AAP.

"He's in reasonably good condition but he doesn't have much memory of things at this stage," Chessell said.

"Basically he's been able to come down under his own steam, without assistance," he said.

"I imagine he got up in the morning after being treated with oxygen and hydration and left (North Col)."

Hall still faces a 22 kilometer (14 mile) trek across loose rocks and ice to reach the Everest base camp at 5,000 meters.

Abramov said earlier on an Everest news website that Hall was suffering "acute psychosis, a disorientation in space" and had been resisting efforts to help him.

He was diagnosed as suffering from acute edema of a brain, a frequently fatal swelling of the brain that occurs at extremely high altitudes.

Hall, who lost several toes to frostbite on an earlier climb, was also said to be again suffering from frostbite.

He was a member of the first Australian team to climb Mount Everest in 1984, but had to stop short of the summit.

He also served as a director of the Australian Himalayan Foundation and was the author of several books, including "First Ascent" and "The Life of an Explorer", and numerous magazine articles.

His second, and now apparently successful, assault on Everest was part of an expedition that included 15-year-old Sydney boy Christopher Harris, who was aiming to become the youngest person to climb the mountain.

Harris turned back short of the summit because of respiratory problems, but Hall continued with a team of sherpas.

Another member of the same expedition, Thomas Weber from Germany, who was visually impaired, stopped 50 meters (165 feet) short of the summit after his sight failed and died during the descent.

The initial decision to leave Hall on the mountain and the erroneous reports of his death are likely to revive debate about the ethics and practices of the high-priced Everest expeditions.

Last week a British climber, David Sharp, 34, died on Everest after being passed by up to 40 climbers who said they were unable to help him.

Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to conquer Everest, joined in a raging controversy over the incident, sharply criticising the climbers who left Sharp to die.

Not in my day, says Everest legend Hillary

The first man to conquer Everest has criticised a New Zealand double amputee and other climbers for leaving a young Briton to die near the summit of the world's highest mountain.

Sir Edmund Hillary said climbers including Mark Inglis, who became the first double amputee to scale the 8,848-metre peak on May 15, were wrong to leave David Sharp to die while they carried on to the summit.

"It was wrong if there was a man suffering altitude problems and was huddled under a rock, just to lift your hat, say 'good morning' and pass on by," he told the New Zealand Press Association.

"I think it was the responsibility of every human being. Human life is far more important than just getting to the top of a mountain."

Inglis, who lost both of his legs to frostbite after being trapped on a mountain in 1982, was on his way back to New Zealand on Wednesday but said earlier there was nothing he could do to save Mr Sharp's life.

Mr Sharp, 34, ran out of oxygen just 300 metres from the summit on his way down the Himalayan mountain.

"You know, we couldn't do anything... he had no oxygen, he had no proper gloves, things like that," Inglis told Television New Zealand in a program broadcast Monday.

Inglis said he accepted suggestions his party should have stopped to rescue Sharp.

"Yep, it's a very fair point. Trouble is, at 8,500 metres it's extremely difficult to keep yourself alive, let alone keeping anyone else alive," the 47-year-old said.

"On that morning over 40 people went past this young Briton. I was one of the first, radioed, and (expedition manager) Russ said, 'Look mate, you can't do anything. You know, he's been there X number of hours, been there without oxygen. You know, he's effectively dead'."

But Sir Edmund, 86, who reached the top of Everest with sherpa Tenzing 53 years ago, said Mr Inglis and other climbers could have done more.

"My expedition would never for a moment have left one of the members or a group of members just lie there and die while they plugged on towards the summit," he said.

"They certainly could have put in a considerable effort to get him to safety."

Sir Edmund also said there should be a limit on the number of expeditions allowed to attempt Everest's summit.

"People are still going up in vast numbers and people are dying on the mountain - 150 people have died on Mount Everest," he said.

-AFP

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200605/s1646192.htm

Everest pioneer blasts climbers who left dying man
Updated Thu. May. 25 2006 10:12 AM ET

CTV.ca News Staff
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060525/everest_death_060525?s_name=&no_ads=

The climbing world is facing tough criticism after dozens of mountaineers are thought to have passed by a dying climber struggling to survive as he descended from the summit of Mount Everest last week.

The British climber, 34-year-old David Sharp, had climbed the mountain solo and was on his way down from the summit.

More than 40 climbers are thought to have seen him as he lay dying, but almost all passed him by.

He was later found dead in an ice cave, apparently from oxygen deficiency.

Sir Edmund Hillary, a New Zealander and the first climber to successfully summit Everest, along with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953, slammed the climbers who left Sharp behind.

"If he'd been a Swiss or from Timbuktu or whatever that didn't matter," Hillary said in a television interview.

"He's a human being, and we would regard it as our duty to get him back to safety."

In another interview, Hillary said many climbers today are more concerned about scaling peaks than they are about human life.

"There have been a number of occasions when people have been neglected and left to die and I don't regard this as a correct philosophy,'' Hillary told the Otago Daily Times newspaper.

"I think the whole attitude toward climbing Mount Everest has become rather horrifying. The people just want to get to the top.''

Praise for Mark Inglis, a disabled climber who became the first double amputee to scale the peak on prosthetic legs quickly turned to criticism after he admitted his team stopped and tried to help Sharp, then continued on their way.

Inglis, also a New Zealander, told Television New Zealand that his party stopped during its final push for the summit to check on Sharp, who appeared to be close to death.

A slight movement of the eyeballs was the only indication that Sharp was still alive.

Inglis said they tried to give oxygen to him and sent out a distress call, then continued to the summit, leaving Sharp where they found him about 300 metres short of the 8,850-metre summit.

Inglis said there was little they could do for Sharp, and his party put the safety of its own members first.

"I walked past David but only because there were far more experienced and effective people than myself to help him,'' Inglis said.

"It was a phenomenally extreme environment; it was an incredibly cold day.''

Ben Webster, a Canadian who has guided five expeditions to Mount Everest, told CTV's Canada AM the recent situation exhibits a common phenomenon in the high peaks.

"My first reaction is that it isn't surprising. This happens every year, it just happened to be this incident that has caught the attention of people. But this happens pretty consistently on high mountains, and in particular Everest," Webster said.

In fact, during a Discovery Channel expedition that Webster led in 2004, his team encountered a group of struggling climbers and was able to help save four people.

Prior to the climb, he said, the team had a discussion about what they would do if they encountered climbers who needed their help. His team decided they would help.

"In the case of 2004, that's what we did. We actually provided oxygen and helped people down."

But, Webster said, it's easy to be an "armchair quarterback," and pass judgement.

The question to ask, he said, is whether the people who passed Sharp climbed by him as they made their way to the summit, or on the way down. If they were on the way down, they could have decided, within reason, that they didn't have the resources to help Sharp down the mountain.

If they were on their way up, the decision to pass him by is less understandable.

"If you're on your way to the summit, that begs the question of whether you're putting the price of someone's life tied to a piece of rock and ice, which is the summit of Everest. That's the more troubling question."

In the case of the Inglis team, the climbers were on their way to the summit.

Death is no stranger to Everest. In the last 53 years 1,500 climbers have reached the summit, but about 190 have died in the attempt.

A couple of things:

For almost 9 hours the Sherpas tried to help and lowered him down over very technical sections of the mountain. But under the influence of extreme altitude sickness, Lincoln became delusional and obstructive and they determined at 7 p.m. that they could not help him further.

When he was still able to motor himself, they were able to help over the impossible terrain and got him past the First Step.

THEN he quit but somehow rallied (Much like Beck Weathers on the "Up In Thin Air" disaster.)

So my statement still stands....you cannot be brought down from the Summit if you are unable to walk and grasp.

Second point though...I followed the link and NOW they are saying that Sharp was ALSO down past the First Step and that the Green Boots cave is at the start of the gully down and 300 yards from Camp three (an hours walk uphill, 15 minutes down)

If THIS is true, I will join in the chorus condemning the actions of the climbers who walked past.

Sharp on the ridge...they get a pass.
Sharp below the First Step, they are ghouls.

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