|
|
Post by Kensterberg on May 26, 2006 21:08:40 GMT -5
Agree 100% with what Strat just said. How can you say "I climbed Mt. Everest" when there's this 900 pound gorilla in the room of "and walked by a man just to watch him die" at the end of the sentence.
Doesn't human life mean more than a trip to a god-forsaken place that hundreds of others have already made it to? I could almost understand if this was Hillary and Norgay having to make a choice between helping someone and making it to the summit, but fer chrissakes, this is absolutely nothing new, nothing of value, to come from any more people making it to the top of this rock. Nothing. And now this guy's family is never going to get to see him again.
I didn't have a real strong opinion about this until I started typing this post. Funny how actually articulating an opinion can really affect its contents and force.
|
|
|
|
Post by maarts on May 26, 2006 21:58:37 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by maarts on May 26, 2006 22:04:55 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by strat-0 on May 26, 2006 23:16:59 GMT -5
Very enlightening articles, Maarts. It's an awfully dangerous sport/obsession. What would really suck would be to be lying there dying, and a jet flies over, and you're thinking about the people up there who are getting testy because they are having to wait to get another glass of wine.
|
|
|
|
Post by strat-0 on May 27, 2006 0:25:04 GMT -5
(Btw, I totally misread and garbled that. Inglis is the double amputee, not Sharp. Sharp's just a dead guy.)
|
|
|
|
Post by phil on May 27, 2006 7:48:59 GMT -5
A few days ago I caught an interview with some guys
who tried three times to reach the summit of Mount Everest ...
They had to abort the first attemp on the last leg of the climb
because one of the sherpas became seriously ill
and they had to get him back down to safety.
The second time, they were only 200 meters from the top
but the weather turned on them and they knew they would all die
if they tried to achieve their goal ...
They were successful the third time !
They all said they would have tried to help the guy
but they seriouisly questionned the fact he tried to do it alone.
|
|
|
|
Post by Kensterberg on May 27, 2006 10:01:42 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by maarts on May 27, 2006 17:57:42 GMT -5
Yeah, that's the story in the second link I posted earlier. The follow-up was in the paper this morning. Just like the two miners trapped in Tasmania (which resulted in an unbelievable media frenze, complete with on the hour-updates on prime time television), this has captured headlines nationwide. Even a serious paper like the Herald couldn't resist headlining like this:
Our Everest miracle man back on his feet
Miracle Australian climber Lincoln Hall, left for dead near the summit of Mount Everest, was able to walk into Advanced Base Camp yesterday and phone his wife.
Mr Hall, 50, spent Friday night receiving treatment for fluid on the brain and frostbite in a tent at North Col camp, about 7000 metres above sea level. Yesterday afternoon he walked, with assistance, into Advanced Base Camp at 6400 metres.
He apologised to his wife, Barbara Scanlan, over the telephone saying: "Sorry to cause you all this trouble."
A Hall family spokesman confirmed the couple had spoken briefly.
Media commentator Richard Neville said: "It's fantastic news. Barbara, for the first time, has just spoken to him live from Everest. He sounded fine. Then she spoke to one of his companions and the news was really good. He said basically: 'Sorry to cause you all this trouble.' The mood [in the house] is elated and relieved. The rescue operation is continuing and they [the Hall family] don't expect to hear anything really firm or detailed for some time."
South Australian mountain guide Duncan Chessell said that he received a call about 3pm from one of his colleagues on the mountain, Jamie McGuinness, telling him that Mr Hall was being treated at the base camp. "He's in reasonably good condition but he doesn't have much memory of things at this stage," Mr Chessell said.
On Friday, a rescue team of sherpas helped the veteran climber descend 1700 metres from where he had collapsed on Thursday after a successful climb to the summit. It had been reported 24 hours earlier that Mr Hall had died on the mountain.
He had to be carried over a series of obstacles and, at times, had to be restrained when he became delirious from the effects of altitude sickness. But word got back from the highest camp on the peak yesterday that he had walked the last few hundred metres into North Col camp before collapsing. There were still grave fears for his life and his condition was described as critical. He was left for dead on the mountain at 8700 metres on Thursday when he broke down while descending from the 8848-metre summit. Those with him could not move him after he became delirious, a sign of oedema, or fluid on the brain. His companions in a Russian-led expedition were forced to leave him on the mountain overnight. On Friday morning another group of climbers found him, still clinging to life, and a rescue party brought him down.
US climber Dan Mazur was the first to find him. He gave Mr Hall oxygen and tea and allowed him to radio his team at North Col camp. The rescue team gave him more oxygen and drugs and he was able to stagger to North Col with the help of sherpas.
On the website Everestnews.com, Russian expedition leader Alexander Abramov said: "Lincoln Hall is in a warm spacious tent with electric light, looked after by 10 people." Mr Abramov said Mr Hall was suffering from acute brain oedema, hypoxia and badly frostbitten hands.
Ms Scanlan and sons Dylan, 17, and Dorje, 15, were anxiously waiting for news of his condition yesterday at their Wentworth Falls home. A day earlier, they'd been given reports he had died.
Mr Hall was part of an expedition accompanying 15-year-old Australian Chris Harris, who hoped to become the youngest climber to reach the summit. When Chris turned back after failing to reach the peak, Mr Hall, a "cautious and safe" climber, who failed in a previous attempt on the summit, decided to make another attempt to reach the top. He fulfilled his ambition but on his descent became affected by a lack of oxygen. There were attempts to bring him down but, about 5pm local time, about nine hours after he began his descent, he ceased responding to calls. The sherpas were ordered to leave him and he was declared dead.
A stream of well-wishers, some carrying food, gathered around the Hall family yesterday as news trickled in about the climber's condition. "It's a miracle," one friend said. Two fellow members of the Blue Mountains climbing community said after visiting Mr Hall's family that they had heard he was gravely ill, but one man said: "While there is life, there is hope. He is still very sick. They are still inching their way down."
Mr Hall is expected to make an attempt to reach Everest Base Camp today.
|
|
|
|
Post by Kensterberg on May 27, 2006 22:22:39 GMT -5
Absolutely incredible.
Sorry about the duplicate link, maarts. I didn't have time to check yours out before I posted mine. Great minds think alike, ya know!
|
|
|
|
Post by maarts on May 27, 2006 22:43:17 GMT -5
Sorry Ken, I didn't mean to inadvertently bag you for posting your link- indeed, it's a story that will go around the world.
But it's quite remarkable that you see two different kind of experiences on this particular subject at such short term distance from each other. I'm only a bit nonplussed about the Russians giving up on their team member- I can sort of understand their decision to pull out the two sherpas to not endanger their lives but not to send someone back up again to check was just strange, to put it mildly.
Just goes to show man's will to live can exceed everyone's expectations.
|
|
|
|
Post by limitdeditionlayla on May 29, 2006 0:52:09 GMT -5
I'd actually be interested is someone's rationale in picking to finish the climb versus helping the potentially already dead climber. A lot of the climb teams doing Everest are rich corporate bastards. Like they'd stop to save your life on the streets of the city they live in, let alone up a mountain. I kinda expect shitty behaviour from people - but the climb team leaders/guides should've stopped to help him. And the sherpas! |
|
|
|
Post by kmc on May 29, 2006 7:38:43 GMT -5
It's just SUCH a weak fucking thing to do.
|
|
|
|
Post by limitdeditionlayla on May 30, 2006 18:33:11 GMT -5
As opposed to all the other weak fucking things humans do to one another? Are we that surprised by this really?
NB: not excusing this behaviour, just making an obvious point.
|
|
|
|
Post by strat-0 on May 30, 2006 19:08:51 GMT -5
And a good one it is, too. Hey, I paid my 75K, I want to see the view for five minutes and take some snaps before we have to go back down. Mush, you sherpas! Never mind the dying guy over there.
|
|
|
|
Post by limitdeditionlayla on May 30, 2006 19:11:16 GMT -5
Some people pay less than $75K to tour South East Asia & have sex with 10 year old girls who are sold into sex slavery by their families & pimped out by rich fat men. Its just we don't make as a big a deal about stuff like that.
Its all relative, human stupidity & distastefulness.
|
|
