Posted on 05/23/2006 8:42:02 AM PDT by Paddlefish
Mark Inglis, an amputee who conquered Mount Everest on artificial legs last week, yesterday defended his party's decision to carry on to the summit despite coming across a dying climber. As his team climbed through the "death zone," the area above 26,000 feet where the body begins to shut down, they passed David Sharp, 34, a stricken British climber who later died. His body remained on the mountain.
Mr. Inglis, 47, a New Zealander, said: "At 28,000 feet it's hard to stay alive yourself. He was in a very poor condition, near death. We talked about [what to do for him] for quite a lot at the time and it was a very hard decision. "About 40 people passed him that day, and no one else helped him apart from our expedition. Our Sherpas (guides) gave him oxygen. He wasn't a member of our expedition, he was a member of another, far less professional one." Mr. Sharp was among eight persons who have died on Everest this year, including another member of his group, a Brazilian. Dewa Sherpa, a manager at Asian Trekking, the Katmandu company that outfitted Mr. Sharp before his climb, said he had not taken enough oxygen and had no Sherpa guide.
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The company charges $6,000 to provide services as far as base camp -- far less than the $35,000 or more cost of guided trips to the summit. Other mountaineers have criticized the commercialism of climbing the 29,035-foot peak, with guides charging huge sums to climbers with minimal experience.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Everest Ping!
"Unfreakingbelievable."
Disgusting! I didn't realize that being without a soul was a prerequisite for this type of endeavor.
I've seen many of the treks on TV...tough ones, for sure. I still don't care where, when, how...leaving someone like that shows no compassion nor humanity, much like the same radicals we are dealing with on the WOT....
Well I guess my point is they were continuning to the top. I guess I am assuming that the conditions are just as bad if not worse at the top. Perhaps that is a wrong assumption because they do call this are the death zone.
Although, I cannot ill-judge the climbers who left the dying man behind, not if I take as true that he could NOT have been saved (and that the attempt might have endangered more lives),
still,
my goodness, how HEROIC it would have been to have tried to save that man, or at least to have risked all to comfort him in his dying hours. Perhaps foolish, but heroic, IMO.
Just Damn!
If a freakin' diver can share oxygen to bring a drowning man out of the depths, I'm sure that between all of them they could have shared enough oxygen with him to get him down to a safer altitude.
Pathetic.
Perhaps I would give them a break if they were on the way down, but they were going up. They put getting to the summit ahead of a human being who needed help. Even if you think your effort is going to be for naught, you don't leave a dying person, even if you can only return with a body. If it means causing others to die, yes, they have a point. But, clearly they were on the way up. They just were too self-absorbed to care.
Other factors go into the decision.
"Do we have the correct equipment to carry him down?"
"Do we have to remove OUR OWN life-saving equipment to attempt his rescue?"
"Is it even possible to get him down the mountain?"
"Can we do it without risking one of our own lives?"
"How close to death is he?"
Until you know the answers to these questions, you can't judge them.
Your solution is to STAY WITH HIM AND DIE? Should only one person have given his life or should the whole party kill themselves?
Your "solution" would solve nothing.
I am sorry. I am as pro-life as anyone else, but when you climb, you assume the risks. At 25,000 ft. your at rest heart rate=your maximum heart rate. You are dying yourself just by being up there. You can barely carry enough oxygen for yourself. If I were lying on that mountain, incapacitated, I would be the selfish one expecting someone to kill themselves, and they would, to get me down. High on Everest, with few exceptions, you stay were you lay.
25On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
26"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"
27He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'[c]; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'[d]"
28"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."
29But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"
30In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35The next day he took out two silver coins[e] and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'
36"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"
37The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."
Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."
It is a sobering statement on the value, or lack there of, for Human Life.
Funny. Lots of WWII fliers were shot at 28,000 feet. And were cared for.
A hero would have tried to get him down, when every foot down helps him survive, and the burden is downhill - with gravity helping, rather than step over his legs to keep climbing UP. The man was not dead yet, all they knew was he WOULD die if they did nothing. And they did nothing. (Other than keep climbing UP. They had the manpower, the material, and the method to try a rescue. If he were dead, yes, its prudent to leave the body.)
A selfish, self-satisfying jerk continues on his vacation to the top of the world.
see #52
Luke Chapter Ten, Verses 25-37
25On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
26"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"
27He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
28"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."
29But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"
30In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35The next day he took out two silver coins[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'
36"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"
37The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."
Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."
The main consideration here is that mountain climbing is what cost this guy his legs in the first place!!!!
Great, so he climbed Everest with no legs...now he's going to lose his fingers!!!!
The thing that I like most about mountain climbing is that when people die from it, you don't have to feel bad about it. It gives you a get-out-of-grief-free-card.
Ah, you beat me to the obvious parallel.
Sad state of affairs, ain't it?
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