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
I certainly will! Given that each climber probably paid about $15k for the chance to climb Everest what did these climber encounter?
Hmm, a dying man...what shouuld we do? If each us help we lose our $15k, but wait...
The fact book says it can't be done so let just assume he's dead already.
So there you have it "greed,greed,greed"!
"That being said, 40 people could not carry a man down from the summit of Everest."
First, the circumstances at that altitude are so deadly that I'm not one to second-guess what they should or shouldn't have done.
But from what I've read the guy was immobile by the time they understood his predicament.
If so, that meant lowering his body down the Steps, etc., *all the while trying to keep him alive*, and with all the implications thereof. Also, of those 40 people, maybe 5 were physically capable of participating in a rescue. If that.
At altitude in the Himalaya you are focusing on two things: putting one foot in front of other, and breathing. Period. Each and every step is a monumental effort of body and mind. And let's not forget that the descent is always demonstrably more dangerous than the ascent.