I’ve only been on this site for a couple days but I feel like I’ve mentioned that I’m from New Zealand about one million times. So I’m sorry to keep banging on about it but this time it actually matters. Kiwis have two main sources of great national pride. The first is our national rugby team, the All Blacks. The second is Edmund Hillary. Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first men to conquer the world’s tallest mountain in 1953 and since then every Kiwi dreams about summiting Everest as a kid. It’s certainly something that I spent time dreaming about and something that until recently I actually thought I would do at some point. So I totally understand that feeling of “summit fever” and I can sympathize with people who risk their lives to stand for 30 minutes at the top of the world. Just this week however four climbers died in a jarring reminder that Everest is still as dangerous as it was in 1953. Rest in peace to all those climbers who tragically lost their lives.
A week ago was the anniversary of the death of David Sharp on Everest. He died making a summit bid on May 15, 2006. Sharp was an experienced climber and attempted to summit Everest twice before. Both times he had failed and suffered from frostbite on his fingers and toes. On his third attempt he started his final summit push in the evening contrary to the common practice of starting early in the morning. It is not known if he ever made it to the summit but what we do know if that he was found huddled in Green Boots Cave just below the summit the following morning.
Every death on Everest is a tragedy and Sharp’s is no exception. However his case is even more controversial as when he was found early the following morning he was found to be still alive. The team that found him attempted to communicate with him but he was unconscious and they determined that there was nothing they could do.
This team found Sharp still shivering in the cave when they descended and again attempted to help. They gave him oxygen and attempted to give him water as well. At one point Sharp was able to mumble at least two sentences. The team attempted to get him on his feet but Sharp could not walk. All they could do was move Sharp into the sunlight and carry on with their descent.
It turned out that around 40 people passed David Sharp that day and when the media found out about this there was a frenzied condemnation of those passing climbers. Among those condemned was double amputee Mark Inglis who was part of the initial team that saw him on their ascent. The media believed that they could have done more to help and that the team was too taken with “summit fever” to care about Sharp. Even the great Sir Edmund Hillary severely criticised Inglis and his team.
Adding to the media frenzy was the fact that another climber was rescued that season in similar conditions to Sharp. However the climber was crucially able to walk in contrast to Sharp’s immobility.
Obviously this is an abbreviated description of an even more complicated moral dilemma. Regardless of your opinion on this tragic story let’s all take a moment and remember the heroic and dauntless David Sharp.
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I have to say that Sir Edmund Hillary is a personal hero of mine
I will add that its also highly likely that another personal Hero of mine George Mallory was actually the first and died on his way back down
Lovely mytake. I personally love to go see Everest and mount kailash. The pictures of them are stunning