Lucky Shot

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial...25/1043217.asp

Sure the end goal is to climb Mt. Everest, but is that goal so great to ignore your fellow humans suffering on the side of the trail? 40+ climbers did just that as David Sharp struggled on Everest before he finally froze to death. Many of them passed him without offering any assistance and really none helped try and bring him off the mountain. So for these 40+ people, the goal of the summit meant more than helping their fellow man.

Lucky Shot

tau_neutrino

I'm willing to bet that the circumstances aren't as clear-cut as the article describes it. I'm reserving judgment on this until more info is verified.

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TacticalGamer TX LAN/BBQ Veteran:

icky

There was no way to save that man. He was close to the summit and close to death in -100 degree weather. All they could hope to do is prolong his death while risking their own lives and console him as he died. Nobody that high up is carrying anything extra with which to carry out a rescue.

The headline should be "Man dies attempting a VERY DANGEROUS solo climb to the summit of Mt. Everest". Beyond that, there is no story. He joins dozens of others who experienced the same fate.

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leejo

I agree. It's certainly a grim thing to consider 40 people walking past a dying person without stopping to help him, but that's reality at that altitude. Any evac would have taken 2 days minimum to get him to a hospital and in the meantime his brain would have been swelling. Very dangerous and extremely unlikely to change anything. Pass.

Trooper

Climbers like that are a special breed, they know they are on their own when they start to climb. Trying to save that man could have killed more then just him, might even have killed all 40 others in the group. It happens, thats why its an extreme sport

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that sounds like a good idea trooper.
-Vulcan

Diceman

The first guy to climb Everest, who arguably knows a thing or two about mountaineering, also takes the view that he should have been helped.

Even consolation until death would've been something.

On the other hand, it's not my place to judge. As tau said, we don't know the surrounding circumstances. I only hope it was not as callous as it sounds.

Edit: The first bit is only what I recall from another story on the subject, and should be taken with a grain of salt.

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leejo

Diceman you're making baby Beatnik cry. Source? I'd like to read Sir Hillary's thoughts too.

leejo

From: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/st...ectID=10383743

So it appears that the pros on the mountain were in fact doing what they could. Another sad truth about Everest is the fact that the vast majority of people on the mountain are wholly unqualified in wilderness first responder techniques and would only have gotten in the way or endangered themselves by trying to help. I think that focusing on the 40 people who walked past this climber is a little like blaming motorists for passing a crash site when an ambulance is already on the scene.

Now, should a lot of those people be on the mountain? Maybe not. If they hadn't all been there it would be a less dramatic headline but it wouldn't have saved that climber

Diceman

Whoops. Umm....I can't find the source. I'll edit my post to make clear that it's only conjecture and hearsay.

Thanks for the second link though. It adds more light to the event.

Edit: Everyone who didn't read the original article, raise your hand. The quote from Hillary is in there.

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TheFeniX

I was going to jump in and make a comment about how much I doubted no one even gave him a second glance, but leejo was on top of it and posted actual evidence that proves they at least tried to help him. Good show.

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CingularDuality

While I certainly want to believe that it's true, I don't know that statements from those accused of ignoring this guy qualify as proof of anything...

That said, I think that there are certain situations in life when you have to look out for number one. I think that being a thousand feet from the summit of Everest is a place where you have to make sure you take care of yourself first and foremost. A hundred degrees below zero and you can't walk? You're screwed. Period.

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TacticalGamer TX LAN/BBQ Veteran:

Coridon

Ah, this thread reminded me of this...

Seriously, has anybody read Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer? I did after it came out, so it's been several years but I remember that it dealt with this subject matter very intimately...

leejo

Yep! Several times.

Ultimate High: My Everest Odyssey by Goran Kropp is a ton of fun. He's the "crazy swede" who rode is bike and all his equipment from Sweden to Katmandu, packed his gear to the mountain, climbed the mountain solo, then rode back. I'm sorry to have just read that he's dead. http://www.mountainzone.com/html/new...p_release.html

Anatoli Boukreev's The Climb is another excellent account, and a somewhat different one from Krakauer's, of those days on Everest. He's dead too.

Lucky Shot

Source is original article, 3rd paragraph....


The whole situation reminds me of the Alaskan Gold Rush where thousands of "stampeders" hiked up and down White Pass. Holding onto the rope was the only way to the top. Horses that were used to haul gear often turned ankles and broke legs. Injuries to the animals often meant that on the narrow trail, they were abandoned and crushed to death under the weight of the stampeders who often didn't have room to walk around them.

http://www.yesnet.yk.ca/schools/carc...ilway_main.htm

Sometimes the goal gets to be so big that people will bypass life in order to achieve their goals. The ironic part in the gold rush was that by the time people arrived in mass to look for the gold, much of the gold had already been mined.

Lucky Shot

Saimaiwolf

I read that book and it was quite good. It really gives you the feeling of the experience. Highly reccomend it!