INTO THIN AIR TRAGEDY ON MT. EVEREST IN 1996
On May 11-12, 1996, eight climbers perished on Mt. Everest in the middle of huge storm that hit mountain just as 31 climbers, who HAD reached the summit, began their descent. Beginning after purplish clouds engulfed the summit, the storm produced raging winds, horizontal sheets of snow and wind chill temperatures below -100̊F.
According to Guinness World Records: 10 May 1996 - On 10 May 1996, a severe blizzard on Mt. Everest claimed the lives of eight climbers and caused serious injuries to more than 20 others. The climbers, from the USA, India, Japan and New Zealand, were surprised by 145 km/h (90 mph) winds which sent temperatures plummeting to -40°C (-40°F).
About 440 people were on the Nepalese side of Mt. Everest, when the disaster happened: 140 climbers and 300 Sherpa guides and porters in 11 groups from 14 countries. The youngest was 16-year old boy and the oldest was a 67-year-old man. They would have been the youngest and oldest persons to make the summit if they hadn't turned back because of the storm.
The eight deaths was the worst one day disaster in Everest history up to that time. Sherpas believed that one reason for the disaster was an unidentified couple has sex at base camp, and this angered the mountain's gods. All told 12 people died on Mt. Everest in the April-May, 1996 season and three more died in the October-November season, bring the 1996 death toll on Mt. Everest to 15.
The 1996 disaster began on May 10, when several groups began their push for the summit, including one group that started for the summit at 10:00pm the night before. "It was pitch dark and we were finding our way with head torches," wrote Jon Krakauer in Outside magazine. "Then from 11:30 we had a brilliant moon over Makula. The weather was perfect, and [our guide] thought it was going to be a great success."
Trouble began at Hillary Step, where guide ropes had not been set and climbers began backing up. "It was so many people — like a supermarket," one climber told Newsweek. People got past the impasse but lost valuable time and too far from the nearest camp — Camp 4 ---- when the storm, not unusual for that time of year, hit. In all, 33 people made it to the summit on May 10.
The event is chronicled in the book “Into Thin Air” by journalist Jon Krakauer. The book was on the New York Times bestseller list for nearly a year and made Krakauer a celebrity and a millionaire.
Dead on the 1996 Tragedy on Mt. Everest
The five climbers who died on the south, Nepalese side were Doug Hansen, a postal worker from Renton, Washington; Bob Hall, an veteran guide who was leading a New Zealand team; Scott Fischer, an experienced guide from Seattle; Tasulo Namba, a veteran female Japanese climber; and climber Andy Harris.
On the sheer northern face, three members of the elite Indo-Tibetan Border Police — Tsewang Paaljor, Dorjee Morup and T. Samania — disappeared during their descent. They had apparently made it to the summit in the middle of the blizzard and then became trapped during the descent. They were last seen dangling from their ropes by Japanese climbers.
Yasuko Namba died only a about 100 meters from the South Col Camp, where she and Beck Weathers, had been found by rescuers but left for dead. Harris was one of Hall's guides. At first it was reported that he had fallen off of a cliff or in a crevasse, after became disoriented when he left his tent to take a leak in the middle of the storm. Later it was discovered that he actually died trying to help climbers on the mountains
Scott Fischer and Bob Hall
Scott Fischer was leading a Mountain Madness tour of amateur climbers that paid US$65,000 to climb Mt. Everest. He had stayed behind to help other climbers get down off the mountain and on the way down stopped to help Taiwanese photographer Makalu Gao. Both climbers became too tired to continue and got trapped on the mountain at night. The next day rescuers made it to Gao and Fischer. It was decided that Gao had a better chance of surviving so he was rescued and Fischer was left behind.
Bob Hall stopped to help Doug Hansen, who had been part of Hall's unsuccessful 1995 Everest ascent. The two built a small shelter in the snow a 120 meters below the summit. Hansen died during the night next to Hall, who was still alive the next morning. At 4:45 he radioed the base camp: "Is someone coming to get me?...I'm too clumsy to move." When asked about Hansen he said, "Doug is gone."
Hall had a reputation for being one of the best and safest guides on Mt. Everest. Between 1990 and 1995, he guided 39 people to the summit. Through wonders of technology he was patched through by phone and walkie talkie to his wife, who was seven months pregnant with their first child. In the last transmission he said, "I love you. Sleep well, my sweetheart. Please don't worry about me too much." A rescue group tried to reach Hall near the summit but was turned back 200 meters away by worsening weather.
Survivors of 1996 Tragedy on Mt. Everest
One of the members of the Mountain Madness tour that made it to the summit was Sandy Hill Pittman, a New York socialite who was friends with NBC television announcer Tom Brokaw. She had brought along a cappuccino maker to the Everest base camp and transmitted daily reports via satellite phone to the NBC television web site. In one of her messages she reported that climbing Mt. Everest was "cheaper and more satisfying than a New York shrink." She was later criticized for zapping the energy from a Sherpa guide by coaxing him to pull her to the summit rather than laying rope on a crucial section of the trail.
Pittman, Namba, Weathers, Charlotte Fox and her boyfriend Tim Madsen and several other stronger climbers were trapped only 100 yards from the South Col Camp by darkness and snow at particularly dangerous part of the route. At midnight the weather cleared enough for strong climbers to make it the camp. A Russian climber named Anatolu Boukreev rescued Pittman, Fox and Madsen but left behind Namba and Weathers who were unconscious and deemed to near death to rescue.
Weathers' Miraculous Recovery
Buck Weathers, a 50-year-old Texas pathologist, lay unconscious on the slope. His exposed hands and face became frostbitten. He had been found and chipped out of the ice twice and given up for being too near death to rescue twice. He was with Yasuko Namba, who died, only a about 100 meters from the South Col Camp. The people who found him radioed Everest base camp and told Weather's wife there as no hope of rescue and "there's been a positive body identification."
Then miraculously after 12 hours Weathers roused himself and made it back to camp. "I was lying on my back in the ice," he later recalled. "It was colder than anything you can believe...I woke up in the snow, opened my eyes and directly in front of me was my ungloved right hand, which was clearly dead. It looked like a marble sculpture of a hand. I hit on the ice and realized that so much tissue was dead, I wasn't feeling any pain."
"That had the marvelous effect of focusing my attention. I had an innate awareness that if the cavalry was going to rescue me they would have already been there. If I didn't stand up, I realized, I was going to spend eternity on that spot."
When he realized he was on the verge of dying, Weather said, "I could see the faces of my wife and children pretty clearly. I figured I had three or four hours left to live so I started walking." It was light and he walked up to what looked like a blue rock. "It was smooth like a tent. I walked right up to it and somebody stood up. I said to myself, 'Rocks don't do that.'"
Describing Weather's arrival at the camp, American climber Todd Burleson said, "I couldn't believe what I saw. This man had no face. It was completely black, solid black, like he had a crust over him. His jacket was unzipped down to his waist, full of snow, His right arm was bare and frozen over his head. We could not lower it.
Weathers' Is Revived and Rescued
Weather was placed in a tent. His clothes were so frozen they had to be cut off his body. Stuart Hutchinson, a Canadian physician there told Jon Krakauer, "None of us thought Beck was going to survive the night. I could barely detect a carotid pulse, which is the last pulse you lose before you die. He was critically ill. Even if he did live until morning, I couldn't imagine how we were going to get him down."
That night the blizzard blew open the doors of Weather's tent and filed it with snow. Then the wind collapsed his tent and drove him partially out his sleeping bag. He almost suffocated on the tent and could do nothing because his hands were frozen.
The next morning everyone in the camp left without checking in on him, Only the last person to leave, Krakauer, looked in on him and found him "shivering convulsively" but ready to descend. Weather was able to descend without using his hands as far as the Khumbu Icefall.
Makalu Gao, the Taiwanese photographer, was rescued by Sherpas after spending the night on the mountain near Fischer. He was chosen for the rescue because he responded a little when given oxygen and Fischer didn't. He was then brought down the mountain by Sherpas.
Gao and Weathers were brought down Mt. Everest by Sherpas who sometimes carried them, sometimes slid down the slopes in sleeping bags and sometimes places their feet in the toeholds because they frostbitten fingers and toes couldn't feel anything. The next morning the were rescued by helicopter at 5,820-meter (19,100-foot) -high Camp 1, it was is believed to be the highest helicopter rescue at that time (rescues at high altitudes are next to impossible because the helicopter blades don't catch in the thin air).
Weather lost his nose, which was surgically rebuilt using different parts of his body and grown upside down on his forehead before being placed in position. He also lost His right arm below the elbow and all the fingers on his left hand. His left hand was rebuilt into a kind of mitten with a movable thumb, and a prosthetic device was attached to his right arm.
Book: “Left for Dead” by Beck Weathers
Deaths in the Late 1990s and Early 2000s
In the May 1997 — the season following the 1996 tragedy — there were more climbers on Everest than ever. There were 150 climbers from 12 expeditions on the Chinese side and 180 climbers from seven teams on the Nepalese side in addition to hundreds of Sherpa and Tibetan guides and porters. Anatolo Boukreevm a Russian guide of Fisher’s ream, was killed on Christmas Day in other Himalayan peak.
In 1997, nine people died on Mt. Everest. Seven died in May. Three Kazakh climbers and a German climbers perished on Mt. Everest when 150 mph jet stream winds suddenly dipped down and blew the men off the north face. Another Kazakh and a Nepalese fell to their deaths on the North Ridge. On the Southwest face a Sherpa porter with a Korean team slipped and fell 3.050 meters (10,000 feet) to his death after his rope apparently snapped. A Taiwanese climber who was rescued from a crevasse on May 9 by Sherpas died suddenly during the descent even though he hadn't complained about any pain or problems.
In May 2001, a Russian struggling near the summit of Mt. Everest, died in the arms of fellow Russian climbers. Earlier an Austrian engineer fell to his death only 50 meters below the summit on the Tibetan side. An Australian died of high-altitude exposure. Baba Chiri, a Sherpa who broke the world's record for the fastest trip up Mt. Everest and stayed the longest on the summit without oxygen, died in a fall. In 2003, a cargo helicopter bringing supplies to the Everest base camp, crashed, killing two people on board and injuring six, including a German woman walking nearby.
Climber Left for Dead Rescued from Everest But 11 Die in 2006
A total of 11 people died on Everest in 2006. Lincoln Hall was left for dead but made it back to camp after being found half dressed and sitting on the edge of a precipice 150 meters (500 feet) from the summit. David Fickling wrote in The Guardian: Sherpas pronounced Hall, 50, dead at sunset after he had shown no signs of life for two hours. The five-strong team then left him behind at 8,800 meters, forced to continue down the mountain before their own oxygen supplies ran out. [Source: David Fickling, The Guardian, May 29, 2006]
“But the next morning, climber Dan Mazur found Mr Hall, who is Australian, alive but disoriented. "I imagine you are surprised to see me here," he told Mr Mazur, sitting without a hat and dangling his legs over the edge of the 1,000 meter Kangshung Face. The Age newspaper reported that he had removed his shirt and gloves and was "twitching around", believing he was sitting in a boat. The team gave him tea, medicine and oxygen before starting an 11-hour descent to the North Col camp at 7,000 meters. Mr Hall had severe frostbite, water on the brain and a chest infection but managed to walk into the camp and talk to his wife by satellite phone, the mounteverest.net website said.
“The incident comes in one of the deadliest Everest climbing seasons. At least 10 people have died on the mountain since the season began earlier this month, a record surpassed only in 1996 when the mountain claimed 12 lives. Mr Hall's expedition had experienced tragedy before he was abandoned on Thursday night. His partner Thomas Weber, who had failed to reach the summit, collapsed and died seven hours earlier at 8,700 meters. Weber suffered attacks of blindness in low-altitude conditions and was attempting the mountain as a disabled climber to raise money for the Himalayan Cataract Project, a Nepalese charity. Mr Hall is an experienced climber who had attempted to climb Everest without oxygen in 1983. "No view is worth that price," he wrote after turning back at 8,300 meters in fear for his life. His survival after more than two days in the "death zone" is rare, especially as he spent nearly 12 hours without oxygen.
Pete Thomas wrote in the Los Angeles Times: “Hall was sitting cross-legged near a ledge with a 10,000-foot drop. He had his suit unzipped to his waist. He wore no hat, gloves or sunglasses. He had no oxygen mask, not even a water bottle. Reports indicated the temperature was well below zero. “His [frostbitten] fingers looked like 10 waxy candlesticks," Myles Osborne, one of the climbers, said in a dispatch posted on Everestnews.com. "He seemed to be in deep distress, shivered uncontrollably, and kept trying to pull himself closer to the edge of the cornice, to the point that we physically held him back and eventually anchored him to the snow." [Source: Pete Thomas, Los Angeles Times, June 1, 2006]
“They gave Hall oxygen, warm water, juice and snacks while radioing Advanced Base Camp for help. A sherpa team above Advanced Base Camp (ABC) at a higher camp was dispatched and reached the Mazur party in four hours. Hall was still "fairly active" but not able to speak clearly. The next day he was delivered to ABC "by a massive rescue effort involving several teams," and is receiving treatment for various injuries.
“For the Mazur expedition, the morning summit window had closed and the team was eventually reunited with Hall, who told the climbers that he thought he was on a boat, not a mountain, when they found him and that he was contemplating jumping overboard. Hall also talked profusely about his wife and family, leading Osborne to comment, "I could not help but wonder how in any way is a summit more important than saving a life? The answer is that it isn't. But in this skewed world up here, sometimes you can be fooled into thinking that it might be. “But I know that trying to sleep at night knowing that I summited Everest and left a guy to die isn't something I ever want to do. The summit's always there, after all."
Climber Found Alive Left to Die in 2006
Also in 2006, British mountaineer David Sharp died after 40 mountaineers had walked past him on their way to the summit as he sat, close to death, in an ice cave 300 meters from the peak. Sir Edmund Hillary, who, with Tenzing Norgay, was the first person to climb Everest in 1953, said his team "would never have left a man under a rock" to die like Mr Sharp. "He was a human being, and we would regard it as our duty to get him back to safety," he said. [Source: David Fickling, The Guardian, May 29, 2006]
Tom McKinlay wrote in the New Zealand Herald: “Sharp was the seventh climber to perish on Everest this season. He died about 300m below the summit on his way down after running out of oxygen. A website dedicated to climbing Everest summarised Sharp's passing: "He did not get himself down and therefore he died. Very sad." Sharp's mother, Linda, was quoted in the Evening Gazette newspaper in Britain as saying that she did not blame other climbers for her son's death. “Your responsibility is to save yourself — not to try and save anybody else." [Source: : Tom McKinlay, New Zealand Herald, May 24, 2006]
“Mountaineer Graham Dingle said people should be helped but that the circumstances of a climber in trouble had to be considered. If he was close to death and close to the summit there is probably very little that could be done. Mr Dingle said the tradition of always helping a fellow mountaineer in trouble is being overtaken by ambition and the large sums of money tied up in any climb of the mountain. People who should not be on the mountain were now climbing it and it had become a mess, with junk and even bodies on the ascent.
“A scientist who has studied oxygen use on Mt. Everest believes British climber David Sharp could have been saved. University of Otago scientist and mountaineer Dr Phil Ainslie said it might have been possible to revive the climber with bottled oxygen and even get him down to safety. What might have determined Sharp's fate was the intense commercial pressure on Everest climbers, who generally had one very expensive shot at the peak, Dr Ainslie said.
“At least 40 climbers passed Sharp, who was identified as being in difficulty and later died on the mountain. Dr Ainslie, a lecturer in Otago's physiology department, said had Sharp been given oxygen by another climber he could have recovered something like 80 per cent of his capacity. The line of 40-plus climbers that day probably had one shot at the summit: "There would have been a line like at the supermarket." Many on the mountain had paid upwards of US$75,000 and were effectively being dragged up by guides, he said.
“Had Sharp been without oxygen for a time when the other climbers found him, he would have needed someone to give up their chance of making the summit and share their supplies with him immediately. “Which really is what it boils down to," Dr Ainslie said. "If he has been using oxygen all the way up there and all of a sudden he's had a problem, he would probably have five or six hours to live unless he gets more oxygen." He said getting Sharp down the mountain would still have been difficult, but possible for other climbers breathing bottled oxygen.
Double Amputee Everest Summitter Criticized for Not Helping Near-Dead Climber
Pete Thomas wrote in the Los Angeles Times: “Mark Inglis' journey to the top of Mt. Everest appeared to be one for the ages, courageous and inspirational, proof that with enough desire a person can overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles. But the first double-amputee to scale the world's tallest mountain may be remembered more for what he didn't do. May 15, the day the New Zealand climber realized his dream of attaining the Himalayan peak, was also the day that David Sharp, a 34-year-old British climber, was hunkered down in a nearby snow cave, taking his last breaths. [Source: Pete Thomas, Los Angeles Times, June 1, 2006]
“Inglis was the first to reach Sharp and one of an estimated 40 climbers who marched on rather than help as Sharp sat in a daze, deprived of oxygen, disoriented and supposedly near death 1,000 feet beneath the summit. Sharp was making his return after reaching the peak. He died on the mountain and remains there...Since Inglis was the one who disclosed what otherwise might have remained a tight-lipped secret — and such secrets do exist — he received the brunt of criticism, including a harsh condemnation from revered Everest pioneer Edmund Hillary.
It is quite common for climbers to see near-dead or severely-stressed climbers near the summit of Everest. According to the South China Morning Post: Mingma David Sherpa saw a corpse for the first time in 2010 while on his maiden expedition to the summit. He also remembers seeing climbers in distress, waiting to be rescued, but had to walk past them because he had to assist his client. [Source: Omkar Khandekar, South China Morning Post, June 16, 2019]
Inglis, 46, the Los Angeles Times reported, “a former search-and-rescue mountaineer for Mt. Cook National Park in New Zealand, was himself the subject of a spectacular rescue after spending 14 days in a cave on Mt. Cook during a blizzard. He lost both lower legs but, with artificial legs, continued climbing with the ultimate dream of scaling Everest. His 40-day expedition, led by veteran guide Russell Brice, included two teams totaling 22 climbers and six sherpa guides. The weather cooperated except for high winds that delayed the summit attempt a couple of days. It was savagely cold and difficult to breath without supplemental oxygen, which the climbers used while en route. At one point, Inglis had a long fall and broke one of his prosthetic legs, which he repaired with duct tape.
“It was during the summit assault, on a well-traveled route, that the party stumbled upon Sharp, who sat cross-legged in a shallow cave, without oxygen, motionless and barely breathing. One of the sherpas attempted to revive him with oxygen, but it was ultimately determined that he was beyond help. Though details are unclear, Sharp had become separated from teammate Vitor Negrete of Brazil. Negrete, in a solo attempt, reached the summit three days after Sharp's death but became ill and was unable to make a descent. After being taken to one of the high camps by a sherpa, he also died.
“Inglis, who remains hospitalized while recovering from frostbite to his fingers and injuries to his upper legs, is stung by the criticism and has stopped doing interviews, said his wife, Anne. However, he told the Dominion Post of New Zealand, "I did nothing at all to help David because I wasn't in a position to. Some of our sherpas and other team members were far more qualified and capable and did what they could, but to no avail. “There were simple facts that determined whether someone was going to live or not. We had those facts, and they were facts that I'm sure Sir Edmund didn't have."
“Brice, who has led expeditions up Everest for 16 seasons but no longer travels to the summit himself, told the Christchurch (New Zealand) Press on Wednesday that he instructed the team to abandon Sharp from base camp after learning from the sherpas that he was close to death. "Yes, we let him die, but we could not help him," Brice said upon his arrival in Katmandu. The Press supported Inglis in an editorial proclaiming that "all who climb on the world's high peaks know that the explicit pact of those taking part in such enterprises is that an accident or physical collapse on the high ridges is a sentence of death. “Other climbers can do no more than husband their resources to ensure their own survival in the thin cold air, beyond the reach of helicopters and rescue parties. Rescue is not catered for and not expected."
“Jan Arnold, widow of climber-guide Rob Hall, who was among nine mountaineers who perished in one day during a freak storm that swept through the Death Zone in 1996, told a New Zealand news program that it was wrong to point fingers. “When you're up there and can barely breathe, you can't eat, you can barely drink — all you can really do is plod on upwards with this one thing in mind," said Arnold, who has climbed to Everest's summit. "What it would involve to launch a rescue would almost be beyond the brain capacity of a person at high altitude." Edmund Hillary's son, Peter, a climber and guide, said this week that slowly climbing upward in such extreme conditions, suffering from depleted levels of oxygen, knowing that a misstep could be disastrous, "You're just focused on taking another step. You're not joyously strolling up the mountain. You almost want to just curl up in the snow. It's a desperate place."
“Ed Viesturs, who has scaled all 14 of the world's 8,000-meter peaks without bottled oxygen, said there is an unsavory aspect at play as well. "This isn't the first time this has happened," he said of the Sharp incident. "Passing people who are dying is not uncommon. Unfortunately, there are those who say it's not my problem. I've spent all this money and I'm going to the summit." Viesturs was careful not to implicate Inglis and pointed to several instances in which climbers have come to the aid of others. Rob Hall perished, in part, because he refused to leave the side of his ailing client. Viesturs himself participated in the successful rescue of a French female climber who, like Sharp, was suffering from oxygen depletion just 300 feet beneath Everest's summit, on the same route Sharp had been using. “We put her on oxygen right away and we carefully pushed and pulled her down the mountain," Viesturs said. "If you're strong enough to mount a summit attempt, you're strong enough to attempt a rescue, or at least sit there with him and try to provide a little comfort."
Eleven Dead on Everest in 2012
A total of 11 people died on Everest in 2012 when long Everest traffic jams became an issue. That year a German mountaineer snapped a photograph of a “human snake” of some of the 600 climbers making their way toward the summit. Describing the scene near the summit,Robin Pagnamenta wrote in The Times: “More than 8,000 meters up, close to Everest’s South Col, dawn was just breaking when David O’Brien spotted what at first he thought was a rock lying in the snow. “As I got closer I could see the yellow of a down suit — it was a climber lying still on his side,” the British mountaineer said. “His oxygen mask was off and his nostrils were white, frostbitten. I asked him his name and what group he was with but only got a slurred, unrecognisable response.” Mr O’Brien and his team spent the next few hours on May 20 trying to save the man, a Polish climber who had been abandoned by his team but who survived largely because of Mr O’Brien’s help, by dragging him down the mountain. [Source: Robin Pagnamenta, The Times, June 2 2012]
“What Mark Shuttleworth, another British climber, saw on the mountain was “not an easy thing to cope with”. He said: “On our ascent, we actually passed three of the dead and another two who were in an awful state.” But people like Mr O’Brien, who abandoned his summit attempt to help someone else, cannot be sure of any recognition — not even from the person whose life has been saved. “The following day I met him on the fixed ropes going down to Camp Three, and then again at base camp. He could only remember parts of what had happened,” he said. But this year, the busiest in the 59 years, ten other climbers were not so fortunate. Exhausted and dazed by the high altitude and lack of oxygen, they died on its slopes, some stumbling down crevasses, some suffering from strokes, others left to freeze as fellow climbers stepped past them.
“The Everest industry is not just limited to dealing with living climbers. Shriya Shah-Klorfine, a 33-year-old Canadian woman, was climbing with Utmost Adventure Trekking, which charged US$36,270 for a place on its 69-day Everest expedition this year, when she died on May 19 as she descended from the summit, near a spot known as the Balcony. Her body was brought down last week by two teams of sherpas in an elaborate operation that involved the use of a helicopter — and which apparently cost US$25,000, paid for by her insurer and her family.
“Ganesh Thakuri, the expedition manager, said: “The first team took it down from the South Col about 600 meters. Then I sent another team up and they managed to get it down a bit farther to a place where we could get the helicopter in.” He continued: “There are still a few bodies up there — a German climber and a Chinese who died on the same day. They are planning to get them down but they will have to wait until next season now as there is no opportunity to climb any more.”
2012 Dead Including Some That Paid US$75,000
Robin Pagnamenta wrote in The Times: “The high death toll, pictures of hundreds of climbers ascending in “traffic jams” on fixed lines and tales of rubbish, human waste and bodies strewn across the mountainside, have provoked criticism that — far from its glorious image as the peak of human achievement — scaling Everest is becoming something else: a commercialised tourist attraction, in which crowds of often inexperienced climbers pay up to US$110,000 (£72,000) to be taken to the top by sherpas, often with little regard for their own safety, or that of others. [Source: Robin Pagnamenta, The Times, June 2 2012]
“Mark Jenkins, an American mountaineer who reached the summit with a team from the National Geographic Society on May 25, said that “a full 25 per cent” of those attempting Everest this year lacked proper experience or training. “This is a mortal sport, not tennis or bowling,” he said. “You make one mistake, the mountain might forgive you but if you make two or three you die.”
“The delays and the huge sums of money paid to commercial guide operators with names like Peak Freaks and Altitude Junkies, spur many climbers to take unnecessary risks by leaving their summit attempt until dangerously late in the day and spending too long in the so-called death zone above 8,000 meters, where low oxygen levels and high altitude are particularly treacherous.
“Luigi Rampini, a 69-year-old Italian, was rescued with frostbite this week after spending four days at nearly 8,000 meters, without oxygen, because he refused to descend without reaching the summit. Mr Jenkins said the problem was fuelled by the type of people that Everest attracted. “Many of them are very succesful in other areas of their life — banking, real estate, whatever. They are type-As who come to prove themselves, and often their attitude is, ‘I paid so much money I deserve to get to the top’.”
“But he has little sympathy for those who ignore the warnings then get into difficulty. “The mountain didn’t kill these people, they killed themselves,” Mr Jenkins said. “In many cases, the sherpas told the client, ‘You are moving too slowly, you are going to die’ and the client refused — and they died. They viewed the summit as more important than their own life.”
“For Zimba Zangbu, the sherpa president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association who has climbed Everest four times, said that the average total amount paid by climbers to scale Everest was about US$70,000 per person plus tips — including the cost of permits, guides, sherpas, equipment and food — although some would pay up to US$110,000 if they wanted to be taken up by a personal western guide. With about 446 foreigners trying to climb the mountain this season, his estimate suggests that more than US$31 million was spent in total, with nearly US$5 million going directly to the Government. “It’s a very lucrative business,” Mr Jenkins said. “But more people means more deaths, more pollution and more mess.”
Sixteen Killed in Khumbu Icefall Avalanche
In April 2014, 16 Sherpas were killed in an avalanche on the Khumbu Icefall. It was Everest’s deadliest event ever. Soon after it happened, Gopal Sharma of Reuters reported: An avalanche swept down a slope of Mt. Everest, killing nine Nepali mountaineering guides at the beginning of the main climbing season, a Tourism Ministry official said. The avalanche hit the most popular route to the mountain’s peak and three Nepali guides were injured and some people may be missing, Tilak Ram Pandey, an official at the ministry’s mountaineering department, told Reuters. The avalanche hit the sherpa guides between base camp and camp 1 Pandey said. Madhusudan Burlakoti, a senior official at the ministry, said helicopters and rescuers on foot had been sent to the site. [Source: Gopal Sharma, Reuters, April 18, 2014]
Video captured the Sherpas minutes before they were killed in the avalanche.Ellen Barry wrote in the New York Times: “The Sherpas setting off up the Khumbu Icefall on the morning of April 18 were young, strong, healthy men. They were also, it is clear from the video that one of them shot that morning, a little nervous. When they move forward, you can see why: Heavy, clanking loads are strapped to their backs, and they are waiting in line to climb a ladder, inching their way up an ice field known to be one of the most dangerous places on Mt. Everest, under a “hanging glacier” that mountaineers have been eyeing anxiously for years. “Are you happy?” Ang Kaji Sherpa asked his friend. His friend’s responding laugh is not happy; it has an edge to it. Then Ang Kaji turns his viewfinder to the mountain peaks, blindingly white as light from the rising sun slides down them. [Source: Ellen Barry, New York Times May 8, 2014]
“Nearly all of the men in the video would be killed around 30 minutes later, their bodies smashed under house-sized chunks of ice that broke loose from the glacier and barreled down the ice field. Last month’s disaster set off a reassessment of the labor contract at the center of the Everest tourist industry, in which Sherpas, who are mostly members of a small ethnic group renowned for its mountaineering skills, receive extra pay (high by Nepali standards, not by Western ones) in exchange for incurring extra risk to their lives.
Chip Brown wrote in National Geographic: “So vast is the amphitheater of mountains around Everest Base Camp that climbers often see avalanches before they hear them. The sound follows like thunder after lightning, an oceanic hiss as cataracts of snow and ice and rock pour down steep gullies or over the lip of hanging valleys. But the avalanche of April 18 sounded different, especially to Sherpas who heard it while in the icefall itself. Almost all of them described it the same way: a deep tuuung, like the blow of a hammer against a muffled bell or a plucked string from some titanic bass. A section of ice shaped like an enormous canine tooth, 113 feet tall and weighing 16 to 30 million pounds, exploded off the great ice mantle on the west shoulder of Everest and came hurtling down, fracturing into pieces and driving before it a wall of wind. As it gathered momentum and material, some Sherpas thought the avalanche took minutes to reach them; others said it struck in a matter of seconds. About two dozen climbers were directly in the path of the avalanche, and many others were at the margins above and below. [Source: Chip Brown, National Geographic, November 2014]
“At 6:45 a.m. Kurt Hunter, the Everest Base Camp manager of Madison Mountaineering, was on a radio check with Dorje Khatri, the company’s 46-year-old sirdar... Khatri had just gotten to the top of the triple ladders. Suddenly over the radio Hunter heard “shouting and yelling” and then “absolute silence.” As the roar of the avalanche reached Base Camp directly, he dashed out of the communications tent to see the upper icefall consumed in a boiling cloud.
Sherpa Survivors of 2014 in Khumbu Icefall Avalanche
Chip Brown wrote in National Geographic: “Hustling down for ten minutes, Nima Chhiring had reached the Football Field when the sound of the tuuung confirmed his worst fears. In seconds he was plastered in freezing rime, one of many survivors who staggered to their feet cloaked like ghosts in snow and ice. Pemba Sherpa, a young Everest veteran from the village of Phortse who had departed Base Camp at 4 a.m. on an acclimatization hike with a client from Alaska, had just reached the Football Field. Hit by a rush of wind, he looked up to see “a block of ice as large as a big house” bowling off the west shoulder. He bolted downhill with his client, and they threw themselves behind an ice formation as the sky was blotted out. [Source: Chip Brown, National Geographic, November 2014]
“Karna Tamang, a 29-year-old guide with five Everest summits, had left Base Camp at 3 a.m. He was less than five minutes above the broken ladder when he heard the tuuung. “I had no chance to run,” he recalled. “There was a shocking wind. To protect myself, I got down on my knees by a large block of ice and tried to save my face. I was covered by two inches of snow.” Babu Sherpa was about a minute above the broken ladder in a group of six Sherpas. “We huddled together. When the snow cleared, I looked down, and there was nobody below me,” he said.
“Fifteen minutes before the avalanche, Chhewang Sherpa, a 19-year-old working for New Zealand-based Adventure Consultants, had scraped through the section where the broken ladder had been. He was on his first Everest expedition and traveling with his brother-in-law, Kaji Sherpa, a 39-year-old father of three. Kaji clambered up a small ice cliff, secured to the fixed rope by his safety line. When the avalanche hit, Chhewang unclipped from the fixed rope and ran, and then crouched under his pack. As he later told his uncle Chhongba Sherpa, the Nepal-based director of the Khumbu Climbing Center, ice severed Kaji’s safety line and knocked his brother-in-law unconscious. Chhewang was able to catch him and drag him to a safer spot. He poured a hot drink from Kaji’s thermos, hoping to revive him. “Kaji slowly woke up. He had a radio, I pressed the speak button because both of Kaji’s arms were not working at all. He said, ‘Please save me!’ If I hadn’t caught him, he would never have been seen again, because the crevasse was so deep.”
“Pasang Dorje Sherpa, a 20-year-old working for Seattle-based Alpine Ascents International, was climbing with two other AAI Sherpas, Ang Gyalzen and Tenzing Chottar. It was Pasang’s second season on Everest. He was carrying a large dining tent pole, a thermos, and a coil of tent rope. When he heard the tuuung, he and Ang Gyalzen were about 45 seconds beyond the broken ladder — Tenzing Chottar only steps behind them. Tenzing, 29, was another Everest rookie. “I saw the ice coming, and I thought, We are gone, I am going to die,” Pasang Dorje recalled. “The wind was pushing me. I dived behind a big serac. If I hadn’t been clipped into the fixed rope, I would have been swept away.” The ice slammed the tent pole against his head. It shattered his thermos and cut the rope. Flying ice punched a hole in Ang Gyalzen’s down jacket. When the devouring cloud cleared two minutes later, the two Sherpas hugged each other, then looked around in horror. What had been a yawning chasm in the icefall requiring ropes and ladders to cross was now filled in with ice blocks as big as tables and couches. “Tenzing! Tenzing!” they shouted in vain.
Twenty -Two Killed by Earthquake-Induced Avalanche at Everest Base Camp
In April 2015, 22 people died and dozens were trapped in icy terrain after an avalanche swept through Mt. Everest base camp area that was caused by the huge 7.8-magnitude earthquake that killed 8,000 people in Nepal. Dramatic videos showed the earthquake, avalanche and efforts to dig out survivors.
Annie Gowen and Brian Murphy wrote in the Washington Post: “Every climber is attuned to the sound: deep, earthy, unmistakable. The slopes letting go of their weight. “A huge, tremendous boom” is how Nick Cienski described it. He and his wife knew they had only seconds until the wind-packed snow and sawtooth ice would reach Mt. Everest’s base camp, a cluster of nylon tents and gear of teams waiting to push higher during the brief window each year when conditions are favorable to reach the world’s highest summit. [Source: Annie Gowen and Brian Murphy, Washington Post April 29, 2015]
“They prayed. They huddled together — thinking perhaps these were their last moments. “We knew it was going to hit us. There was absolutely no doubt about it,” Cienski told The Washington Post. “It was so huge. We weren’t sure we were going to survive it or not.” Cienski, 48, has remained at base camp — now a mournful sprawl of bulldozed tents and debris at 17,700 feet — to assist with the transport of the dead and injured. That has been the only mission for days.
“They were in their tent watching the television legal drama “Damages” when they heard the sound. “Holy crap,” Cienski recalled thinking. Then they saw the wall of white rise above them against the ice-laced rocks and steel-gray clouds. “It was huge,” he said. “It was hundreds and hundreds of meters wide. It’s like a tidal wave, a tsunami. It was the same idea.” The tent began to shake. Its sides were slapped by the onrushing snow. But luck had put them on the outer edge of the avalanche zone. “It sounded like a freight train right next to your head,” Cienski recalled. “It was deafening.. like the world was coming to an end.”
“When it was over, they checked themselves for injuries. Nothing serious. They weren’t buried. Can you breathe? he asked Sandi. Good. So can I. They clawed themselves out. Around them, survivors were walking around dazed. Other parts of the camp were wiped away. “Completely decimated. Zeroed out. Not one tent left standing,” he said. They dug for survivors, stopping every few moments to listen for muffled cries, and tending to the wounded as best they could.
“But there still remains a chance for climbers to make summit bids despite the disaster. Nepal’s government said it will allow expeditions on Everest to go forward. Although avalanches triggered by the earthquake swept parts of the base camp, officials said the route to the summit is less affected. And at least 42 teams are at the base camp, waiting for the weeks in May when the winds and weather ease near the 29,029-foot peak. Following the avalanche Saturday, many of the guides and porters headed back to their villages in the Everest region. Those who are in charge of fixing ropes and ladders — referred to as the “icefall doctors” — will resume working on the route within two days.
Mt. Everest Avalanche Survivors
Gregory Korte and Aamer Madhani of USA TODAY wrote: As survivors made their way off Mt. Everest, dozens of people who were on the mountain remained missing. Among them: Google executive Daniel Fredinburg, who was part of a Google team attempting to create a Google street map of the trek to Everest Base Camp, and Marisa Eve Girawong, an emergency room physician assistant serving as a base camp doctor for the Seattle-based Madison Mountaineering expedition company. The avalanche left Garrett Madison, who is the expedition company's owner, and 14 other climbers stranded at a camp farther up the mountain. [Source: Gregory Korte and Aamer Madhani, USA TODAY, April 27, 2015]
“Survivors of Nepal's massive earthquake and ensuing avalanche on Mt. Everest continue to face difficulties amid the devastation. “We are running low on food and fuel and we have to get down. There's no path or route through the Khumbu icefall," Madison said in a satellite phone call posted on the company's website. "Our only option to get down is by helicopter evacuation." The Jagged Globe expedition company reported that injured climbers were evacuated by helicopter to Katmandu, while those who were not injured began a four-day trek to Lukla, a mountain town with a small airport. Another Jagged Edge team elsewhere in Nepal is missing, the company says.
“A video shot by German climber Jost Kobusch shows an avalanche beginning seconds after the ground started shaking, followed by panic as climbers tried to outrun a wall of snow and ice, fleeing into tents. At least 15 injured climbers returned to Katmandu, including Bhim Bahadur Khatri, 35, a cook and a Sherpa who was working in a meal tent when a huge wall of snow overwhelmed him. “I managed to dig out of what could easily have been my grave," he told the Associated Press. "I wiggled and used my hands as claws to dig as much as I could. I was suffocating, I could not breathe. But I knew I had to survive."
“Aftershocks — including one that measured at magnitude 6.7 — were complicating the rescue effort Sunday, with more snow and rocks cascading down the mountainside. “We were sitting here in base camp, feeling the situation was getting better," climber Carsten Pederson told CNN. "And then suddenly, we felt the aftershock. And immediately after the shock, we hear avalanches from all the mountains around us." Alex Gavan, a mountain climber who was at the base camp, wrote on Twitter on Sunday that "large areas of base camp look like after a nuclear blast. great desolation. high uncertainty among people."
Six Die in Four Days in 2016, Including a Vegan Who Can Do Anything
In 2016, seven people in Everest. Six of them died over four days in May. Andrew V. Pestano of UPI wrote: “Subash Paul, 44, likely died from altitude sickness while at Base Camp II. He was part of a team four climbers, two of whom — identified as Paresh Chandra Nath and Goutam Ghosh — went missing” and were later found dead, “while the other — Sunita Hazra — was rescued. “It is not clear what happened. We believe the weather suddenly deteriorated at some point, and the team lost direction," Wanchu Sherpa said, CNN reported. Officials were attempting to locate the missing climbers but the altitude and the weather have hindered efforts. [Source: Andrew V. Pestano, UPI, May 23, 2016]
“The group of four wasn't the only to encounter problems on the mountain over the past few days. Maria Strydom, 34, from Australia, died on Saturday from altitude sickness. Eric Arnold, 36, from the Netherlands, died from a suspected heart attack.Phurba Sherpa fell to his death near the summit and more than 30 people suffered from frostbite and altitude sickness. About 330 climbers have successfully scaled Mt. Everest this season, which began in April after a two-year hiatus following a 2014 avalanche and the 2015 earthquake in Nepal.
Travis M. Andrews wrote in the Washington Post: For Maria Strydom and her husband, Robert Gropel, climbing Everest while adhering to a strict vegan diet was their “own personal Everest.”The 34-year-old Strydom, a lecturer at Monash Business School in Melbourne, Australia, had a message she wanted to share with the world: Veganism is not a handicap. She and her husband, a veterinarian, both stuck closely to the rigorous diet required by vegans — no animal products whatsoever, which extends from scrambled eggs to most chocolate chip cookies — for which they experienced criticism. Some thought they didn’t receive enough iron and protein in their diet for such strenuous physical activity. “It seems that people have this warped idea of vegans being malnourished and weak,” Strydom said in an interview on Monash’s blog. “By climbing the seven summits [in each continent] we want to prove that vegans can do anything and more.” [Source: Travis M. Andrews, Washington Post, May 23, 2016]
“Everest, though, proved unscalable for them. The couple reached Camp 4, the final camp, at 3,000 feet below the summit, before both suffered from high-altitude pulmonary edema, colloquially known as altitude sickness. It caused fluid to build up in Strydom’s brain, which killed her. Gropel, alive but fighting a fluid buildup in his lungs, had to be taken down the mountain by sled, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. He was taken to a hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal.
“After four years of attempts, Arnold finally reached the summit, and even managed to send a tweet from it, but he began suffering from altitude sickness during his descent, the Associated Press reported. Although he had with him enough oxygen, Arnold grew too weak to make it to the lower altitude required for his symptoms to begin subsiding. He died Friday evening. “Before his fatal attempt, his fourth in all, Arnold told The Post that he didn’t feel as if he had a choice, even knowing the risks. “A lot of people say, ‘Maybe it’s not your turn, maybe it’s not your fate, maybe the mountain is telling you not to climb it,’” he said. “But I still have a passion for it. When I realized that, I decided I have to go back.”
“The fourth person who has died during this year’s climbing season was simply doing his job. Twenty-five-year-old Phurba Sherpa plunged to his death Thursday while attempting to fix a route for future climbers about 500 feet under the summit, CNN reported. Although deaths of the men and women who attempt to scale the mountain each year often make headlines, those of the Nepalese Sherpas who both guide climbers and perform maintenance along the route rarely do.”
Some who had difficulties and were difficult made it. The South China Morning Post reported: In 2016, a member of the Pakistan army was too tired to walk on his way down from the summit. “He was a very slow climber. I knew we wouldn’t make it up and back in time,” recalled Dawa Sange Sherpa, just 20 years old at the time. “I told him to turn back several times. Then he switched off his radio.” Seeing his client running out of oxygen, Dawa radioed for help and lent the man his own oxygen bottle. On arrival, the rescue team found them unconscious. Both eventually lost their fingers to frostbite. [Source: Omkar Khandekar,South China Morning Post, June 16, 2019]
Famed Swiss Speed Climber Ueli Steck Plunges 1,000 Meters to His Death Near Everest
In 2017, six people died on Everest, five on the south side and one on the north side. One of those who died was Ueli Steck, a famous speed climber broke many records, had many adventures and was a big celebrity in mountaineering circles. Katie Mettler wrote in the Washington Post: “The last time Ueli Steck traversed the route near Mt. Everest that would eventually kill him, the famed Swiss climber was forced to flee from a brawl with angry Sherpas. That was in 2013, and the incident made Steck — considered the most accomplished mountaineer of his time — question whether he’d ever again return to Everest. But this month, he gave the world’s highest peak another shot, plotting out a route in Nepal that had been completed only once before. It connects the summits of Everest and Lhotse, the fourth highest mountain, a course Steck, 40, told a Swiss newspaper was more about the physical challenge than the adventure checklist. “Failure for me,” he said, “would be to die and not come home.” [Source: Katie Mettler, Washington Post, May 1, 2017]
“So it came as a shock to the climbing world Sunday when Nepalese officials announced that Steck, a man nicknamed the “Swiss Machine” for his unparalleled athletic abilities, had died. Mingma Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks told the Associated Press that Steck died at Camp 1 of Mount Nuptse. He reportedly fell 3,280 feet down the mountain, which he had climbed to acclimate to the altitude before tackling Everest and Lhotse in May. Steck was alone because his trekking partner, Tenji Sherpa, had stayed behind at Everest Base Camp with a frostbitten hand, reported the New York Times.
Steck was best known for his speed-climbing technique, a feat of endurance that emphasized the thrill of the athletic challenge over the adventure. In 2012, he summited Everest without oxygen, the AP reported. He set numerous records throughout his career, including climbing all 82 peaks in the Swiss Alps higher than 13,100 feet in 62 days. In 2007, he nearly died climbing the Annapurna south face in Nepal after loose rock knocked him from the wall. He fell nearly 1,000 feet, reported the Alpinist. But Steck returned in 2013 and achieved the first solo climb of the Annapurna south face, receiving the “Piolet d’Or” — the Oscar of mountaineering — for his feat, reported the AP.
“Steck’s last attempt at Everest earned him widespread attention four years ago, when he and professional climbers Simone Moro and Jonathan Griffith got in a confrontation with Sherpas at Camp 2. Steck considered it a near-death experience, recounting the brawl in a Q&A with Outside magazine. He explained that the Sherpas were working to repair rope lines on the mountain, but that he and his fellow climbers didn’t intend to use them. They wanted to climb to Camp 3, where they already had tents, and sleep.
The Sherpas became upset that Steck’s group was bypassing their request to keep climbers away while they repaired the ropes. The narrative gets fuzzy after that. The climbers and the Sherpas offer differing accounts, but Steck told Outside that Moro swore at the Sherpas in Nepali during a heated moment, further escalating tensions. Eventually they rappelled back down to Camp 3 to talk things out, Steck said, but were met by a seething crowd of 100 Sherpas with covered faces. “When I saw they had their faces covered, I knew this was going to be really bad,” he said.
Punches and rocks were thrown, Steck said, claiming the Sherpas tried to kill them. “They said we had one hour to pack up and leave, and that we should not come back to the West Face, West Ridge, or Lhotse,” Steck told Outside. “They said that if we weren’t gone in an hour, they were going to kill all three of us. That was the worst thing.” Both sides later signed a peace treaty and left the mountain. “I’m not saying I’m never coming back, but give me time,” Steck told Outside. “I need to figure it out. There are many other mountains I can climb. Everest is Everest, and Everest lost a lot, but it’s still the highest mountain in the world.”
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, Nepal Tourism Board (ntb.gov.np), Nepal Government National Portal (nepal.gov.np), The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Wikipedia and various books, websites and other publications.
Last updated February 2022