Climbers risk all in 12-hour mission to save woman left to die on Everest

timesonline.co.uk ^ | May 25, 2007 | Jeremy Page

[jwh_Denver]

“Yea, though I climb the “Mountain of Death” I shall fear no evil, because I’ve hired the cheapest bidder!”

[Old Student]

“Always fight for the right thing.”

Well said, and well done.

[Daus]

Also like Sharp, she was too weak to move when she was found by David Hahn

Don't get me wrong, I always though those guys should have at least tried to help Sharp, but there is a difference in trying to drag a full sized male down the face of Everest than trying to drag down a Nepalese woman. It's somewhat suspect of the author not to point that out.

[LeGrande]

I know that I can’t change you, but I can ask you to at least give support to the brave and righteous of the world.

You misunderstood my post. I am a climber and if I needed rescuing on one of the big peaks, I would not want someone to risk their life to save me. Simply standing upright at 29,000 feet without oxygen is almost a superhuman feat. A single breathing error can leave you with insufficient oxygen in your system to maintain consciousness. Weather windows often leave no margin for error and if you get caught you will die. Critical thinking skills are seriously degraded at that altitude and any variation from training can be fatal. Carrying or dragging someone up even a slight incline at that altitude is impossible except for a few genetic freaks.

Everyone is dying at 29,000 feet. Everyone that survives will suffer from short term memory loss, permanently. People have been known to simply sit down and die. Rescue is an option for only a very lucky few. Conditions have to be almost perfect for anyone to even contemplate a rescue operation. Many rescue attempts are abandoned because the victims refuse to allow the rescuers to put themselves at greater risk.

People who have never experienced this kind of stuff simply have no conception of what it is like. Avalanches, Rotors in rivers, Altitude, etc. will simply kill you and people who go in with the expectation of being rescued should simply stay away. It is not the duty of a rescuer to put their life at risk to save your sorry ---. A huge part of surviving these conditions is knowing that you are on your own and can't depend on anyone else to help.

I am a member of a search and rescue team and we will not put ourselves at risk to save anyone. Of course risk is relative ^_^

[ansel12]

“Always fight for the right thing.”

Well said, and well done.

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“The dramatic rescue of the Nepalese woman has reopened a passionate debate about mountaineering ethics, a year after the controversial death on the mountain of the British climber David Sharp.”

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Thanks, after the Sharp incident I bit my tongue because operating there is a little like operating in Space or on a life raft, the conditions are very unusual and unforgiving, but thank goodness that these people could talk themselves out of doing the wrong thing.