Climbing Everest With Supplemental Oxygen The use of supplemental oxygen has remained one of the most controversial aspects of climbing Everest for years. Evidence throughout past expeditions and summit attempts show that the clear choice is to use oxygen. While there are several disadvantages to using oxygen, they can’t compete with the risks taken when one does not use oxygen. The benefits outweigh the obstacles. There are substantially more benefits of choosing to use supplemental oxygen when attempting to summit Everest. There is a much higher success rate (1). Whether you’re a professional climber or not, you can’t train yourself not to breathe (2). The body needs oxygen to function. Without it, you can’t survive. Perhaps you may be able to acclimate yourself to the high altitude of Everest, but you can only stay alive for so long. …show more content…
First off, bottles of oxygen can be very expensive. They can be up to one-thousand dollars each (1). There is also a risk that a mistake may have been made when filling up the bottle. If any water vapor (or any other impurities) enter the bottle, the bottles can freeze at high altitudes and are rendered useless (1). Some critics claim that the use of oxygen on Everest is “cheating” (1). They compare the use of oxygen to the use of steroids, and if supplemental oxygen was used on the climb, it’s not a legitimate summit attempt. In their minds, if the climber is unable to acclimatize themself, then they don’t deserve the honor of being recognized as someone who has summited Everest. Oxygen bottles are also very hard to obtain for Everest expeditions and summit attempts. The closest and most reliable place to purchase oxygen bottles for an Everest climb is in Russia (1). Oxygen bottles cannot be flown (1), so they must be transported by ship to southern India. Once they have arrived there, they are carried overland to
Everest in 1996. This became the deadliest expedition to ever climb with 15 people losing their lives. Krakauer explains his intrinsic motivations to accept this challenge and many of the mistakes that helped lead to the disasters of that day. He includes himself, and explicitly blames himself for at least one person's death. The experience affects him profoundly, and in addition to telling the story, the book focuses on how Krakauer is forever changed as a result of what happened. All of the clients have difficulty adjusting to the altitude, tiring easily, losing weight and moving slowly. The climbers' experience in mountain climbing and at high altitudes varies some of them are quite qualified, others very inexperienced and highly reliant on the
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer is an adventurous story about a Mount Everest expedition gone wrong. The journey up the mountain is like previous trips, but once they reach the top of the mountain all hell breaks loose. A massive storm traps climbers stuck on the top of the mountain with little to no oxygen, no shelter, and nowhere to go. Oxygen depletion alone can kill someone and make them vulnerable to novice mistakes. Krakauer notices when he is lacking oxygen as he says, “The world beyond the rubber mask was stupendously vivid but seemed not quite real, as if a movie were being projected in slow motion across the front of my goggles. I felt drugged, disengaged, thoroughly insulated from external stimuli” (179). HACE, a medical condition in which the brain swells, is caused by a lack of oxygen and can kill people within 48 hours if not treated. With a lack of shelter, the climbers are exposed to Artic-like conditions.
Climbing Mount Everest is a horrific and thrilling experience that 290 people have died attempting to complete. In the novel “Into Thin Air” written by Jon Krakauer, Krakauer goes through his own journey of climbing Mount Everest and how commercialized the climbing of Everest had really become. In his journey he explains how climbers have paid as much as $65,000 to join a guided group that would lead them to the summit. The author bluntly states that some of the novices were not qualified to climb Mount Everest. With this amateurity it only made the journey twice as much difficult and dangerous. Unfortunately, a terrible blizzard struck Mount Everest within minutes of them reaching the top. For all of the climbers on the mountain, the blizzard turned what was to be a successful climb for all concerned into a nightmare. Because of poor planning, several of the climbers found themselves in a desperate situation that they had no
In the article “Responds to Krakauer”, by Anatoli Boukreev he argues against the topic of Krakauer's accusations, Krakauer argues that Boukreev wasn’t well prepared to climb Mt. Everest. He mentions that boukreev wasn’t making his best decisions on May 10, 1996. Boukreev argues that his experience has been for over twenty years and that climbing in a high altitude. Boukreev explains how he’s been on top of Mt. Everest and most of his time up there he requires no oxygen. He mentions how it’s not as necessary to him when climbing. Krakauer not only only mentions the oxygen but he also mentions how he wasn’t well dressed for climbing the top of Everest. That if he would’ve been well prepared the tragedy wouldn’t of had happened. Boukreev also
The cost for a guide to bring someone up the mountain can be upwards to $70,000. People wanted to go regardless of their health and condition and guides would just do their job and just lead people up without knowing if they are weak or not ready for the climb.”Why did veteran Himalayan guides keep moving upward, ushering a gaggle of relatively inexperienced amateurs […] into an apparent death trap?”(Krakauer 8). This quote is an example of how the guides treat the people climbing up the mountain with the. They disregard the condition and state the people are and just keeping leading them up asking or knowing if they are weak and not ready for the climb up. Not only is this part of guide’s fault for people becoming injured or dead it is also the person’s fault for not thinking about themselves and the state and condition they are in to try to climb up the mountain.”It can't be stressed enough, moreover, that Hall, Fischer, and the rest of us were forced to make such critical decisions while severely impaired with hypoxia”(Krakauer 285). Jon Krakauer is responsible for some of the deaths of people mentioned in the book because of the decisions he made. Krakauer himself said he had guilt for not fully helping the people with hypoxia. The timing and decisions he made for descending back down also did play a role in how he caused some people to die instead of helping
Have you ever wanted to prove to everyone that you are a hard worker that is willing to give up everything to go on an adventure? If this is you than Everest is the perfect place for you. A great deal of Everest’s dangers are expressed in his book which should either inspire you to try this journey or sway you away from the treacherous mountain. In the story, “ Into Thin Air,” by Jon Krakauer a true story is told of a dangerous voyage up and down Everest. The climb up was arduous and long according to Jon, but the climbers sacrificed everything to get to the top, which most of the climbers achieved. However, emotions shifted when a storm swooped in and killed many of the climbers that were stuck on the summit, around 12-19 in total. The devices
The sight of a full oxygen canister is enough to cause joy, particularly when a climber fears he or she is running out. On the other hand, however, oxygen represents the fact that for the most part, people are not meant to exist in high altitudes. Some mountain climbing purists ascend without supplemental oxygen, but the vast majority of climbers and all of the clients on the 1996 expedition need the oxygen. In a situation where there are many elements against them, having a canister of air provides security and puts a climber on a more level playing field. The oxygen also gives the climbers an additional sense of confidence—as long as they can breathe, they are still alive.Jon Krakauer has an objective tone after saying, “A perceptive young man, Lopsang was extremely devoted to Fischer; the Sherpa understood how important it was to his friend and employer to get Pittman to the summit. This also adds on what one of Krakauer’s main themes are which is loyalty among teammate. Loyalty is so important that it must be stressed separately. On Everest, loyalty basically means that a climber will risk his or her own life to help
Climbing Mt. Everest is an accomplishment that only a limited number of people can say they have accomplished. Despite statistics that illustrate most fail or die trying, numerous people are drawn to the mountain each year and truly believe they can be among that elite group. In the spring of 1996, Jon Krakauer, a journalist for the adventure magazine Outside and a passionate climber himself, was offered the opportunity to climb Mt. Everest. The original offer was to join an Adventure Consultants team led by Rob Hall, a respected and well known guide, climb to base camp and then write a story on the commercialism that had penetrated this incredibly risky but addicting sport. Without much hesitation Krakauer accepted the offer but not to just go to base camp; he wanted the top. The expedition started out as predicted but an unexpected storm the day of the summit push turned this expedition into the most devastating expedition of all time. Krakauer was changed for life; an article on the commercialism surrounding the mountain would no longer suffice. Into Th...
Climbing makes for a difficult expedition, you need to give up the wrappers when you was ascending. You need to give up the heavy things, you need to give up your wrappers, and you need to give yourselves. Sometimes we need to give up our lives to climb the mount Everest. According to snow storm, the energy, the oxygen and the people who desired prove themselves the spring’s 96s expedition to mountain Everest was destined to be the most tragic.
Ever since people knew it was possible to reach the summits of Mount Everest, about 4,000 people have attempted to climb it and one in four people have died from doing so. “Once Everest was determined to be the highest summit on earth, it was only a matter of time before people decided that Everest needed to be climbed” (Krakauer 13). The very first person to reach the summit of Mount Everest was in 1953, and ever since then about seven percent out of every 4,000 people that attempted have died. In the novel, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, he documents his journey to the summit of Mount Everest.
The first reason why Mt. Everest should be closed down is due to the nature being mistreated by the sport and it not being properly protected. For such an amazing landmark it should be prohibited to climb for conservation of the mountain. In “Time for a break on Everest” the author gave the example of mountains being prohibited to climb in Australia when they wrote, “In Australia, for example, tourists are urged not to climb the thousand-foot-high sandstone formation known as Uluru, or Ayers Rock, since it is spiritually significant to the Aboriginal Agangu,”(Source 2). This shows how important it is to preserve the natural aspect of Mt. Everest and not let something as silly as mountaineering get in the way of people in the future not being able to visit this landmark.
Everest is an unbelievable mountain that has taken the lives of a number of the greatest climbers in history. It was my job to ensure that clients make it up that treacherous mountain safely. My name is Rob Hall. I was the main guide and cofounder of a climbing company called Adventure Consultants. My friend, Gary Ball, and I used to be professional climbers. Together we succeeded in climbing to the highest summit on each of the seven continents in seven months. This was our greatest achievement. After this, we decided to start our own company guiding clients up large mountains. In May 1992, we successfully led six clients to the summit of Everest. Unfortunately, Gary died of cerebral edema in October 1993 during an attempt on the world’s sixth-tallest mountain. He died in my arms and the next day I buried him in a crevasse. Despite the pain that his death had caused me, I continued guiding for our company and eventually led thirty-nine climbers to the summit of Everest.
In an informational article, by Guy Moreau, titled Why Everest?, Moreau writes, “In recent years, this problem has been made worse by the large number of climbers who want to conquer Everest.” The article also says that, “The climbing season only lasts for about two months…Climbers need to leave the final camp by late morning. Then, there can be so many of them in the death zone that there are traffic jams. Some days, up to 200 people set off.” Since there are delays, people have to stay longer, and they “…can suffer exposure and use their precious supplies of oxygen.” Many people end up dying since they all thought they could climb the
Rob Hall was a veteran climber who was determined, passionate, and respectable. Hall proves his determination by climbing the Himalaya at age nineteen (32) and deciding to tackle Everest after digressing to Base Camp during his first trip to the Himalaya, although it took him ten years and three attempts (32) before he wa... ... middle of paper ... ... to the rescue” during most of the desperate situations occurring during the crew’s time on the mountain. The supporting and assisting qualities of oxygen are displayed during times when a climber is low on oxygen, on the brink of hypoxia, but is able to secure a fresh canister of the life-saving gas.
Mount Everest, the world’s highest point at 29,035 feet, is a special trophy among high altitude mountaineers. Standing atop the world’s highest point a hypoxic climber clad in a fluorescent down suit is above everything else on the planet, for a moment that individual can reach farther into the sky than any other. Arms raised in a victorious salute, a climber feels like they have conquered something that few others ever have, and justifiably so. The summit is usually the final fruition of months, sometimes years of planning, weeks of travel and acclimatization, and days of endless plodding at a feeble, learning-to-walk pace.