There were many selfless along with selfish decisions made upon the vicious mountain. Some of them decided who would persevere, and who would perish. And many of them would die. One of these incidents was when Rob Hall undertook the task of pushing Doug Hansen to the summit beyond the turnaround time, a mistake that would cost them both their lives. In the previous year, Doug had been turned around in spitting distance of the summit, because the guide believed that it would be unsafe to be so tired, but Rob Hall, one of the most acclaimed high altitude climbers in the world, was ready to take that risk. Additionally, when Anatoli Boukreev decided to guide the mountain without the use of supplemental oxygen, that was not in the best interests of the clients’ for safety reasons. Everest is definitely one of the most dangerous, courageous, and death defying things you can do on this Earth. The mountain is so immense that it is considered to be like a god, and that nobody was to disrespect or anger Everest, …show more content…
or people who were spiritual believed that there would be great danger ahead. Furthermore, I believe these decisions are some of the deciding factors towards the death of so many people in a single Everest season. The decision Rob had faced was a difficult one, Doug had attempted Everest prior to this expedition, and did not want to be turned around like he was turned around last time. Nevertheless, it was Rob’s job to safely guide his clients and follow a series of rules, like the turnaround time. As there was a fixed turnaround time where if you were not in spitting distance of the summit by 1pm, you were to turn in the opposite direction, and proceed down the mountain back to camp. At that time, Rob Hall was one of the most acclaimed high altitude climbers in history. He had summited Everest five times, was a very kind and thoughtful person, and for some reason always had extremely good luck on summit day. Correspondingly, Rob and Doug both ended up dying high up on the mountain. Rob was found dead a few days after being stuck on the south summit subsequent to his summit. The decision made by Anatoli is a tricky one.
He decided to guide the mountain without the use of supplemental oxygen. As a result, he was not at his best regarding his mental state. At the summit of Everest, you would be in the so called “death zone”, it is a place where there is so little oxygen, you suffer greatly from the lack of oxygen because there is not enough oxygen reaching your brain for you to think clearly. The only way to summit while thinking clearly is to use supplemental oxygen, which is brought up the mountain by the sherpas. On the flip side, he would be able to carry two extra oxygen tanks just in case somebody else were to make a mistake with their oxygen, and require a spare. Nevertheless, it would have been better for him to use oxygen and then made sure everything was in order and there would be little to no mistakes. Additionally, it would’ve benefitted the team for Anatoli to have carried first aid kits and other necessary medical
supplies. Ultimately, the Everest expedition of 1996 was a deadly one, and the lives lost on the colossal mountain due to the extreme conditions, unfortunate timing, and human error, will not be forgotten. Pride is also a factor on Everest, there is a certain achievement you can get for climbing the mountain with supplemental oxygen, but the real challenge is to climb the mountain without the use of oxygen. Anatoli must have had some inner desire to be able to say he guided Everest without oxygen, or else he would have taken the easier route and used oxygen. Notably, some of the most experienced, mentally, and physically strong guides in the entire world were guiding that mountain in 1996. Take for example Rob Hall, he had summited Everest a whopping five times, at that time that was more than any person ever that wasn’t a Nepalese Sherpa. Which goes to show really how lethal the mountain can be. Even if you are an intelligent, experienced, strong climber, you will likely quiver in the thin dangerous atmosphere that you will experience on the tallest peak, in the entire world. Henceforth why people tend to prevaricate about their experience up on the mountain. Everest really brings out the real you because there is no media, the only people who are watching are the people you climb with. Some people can’t handle the pressure of being on Everest, and it can cause people to be next to useless up there. If you are a guide, you can’t have people knowing that you won’t do well under pressure, that would ruin your business. In the end, climbing Everest is probably one of the most amazing things you can do on this planet, and you only live once, so why not.
Throughout the novel, the protagonist encounters many difficulties when trying to reach his goal of climbing Mount Everest. He encounters problems, from illnesses to deaths but most affectively the catastrophic weather. When Krakauer’s 5 friends die, including Rob Hall, Krakauer takes responsibility of the other climbers and helps them get through the tough weather safely. When they arrived to the base camps, many of the climbers gave up but Krakauer kept trying, he was motivated by Halls death to reach the top of Mount Everest. Krakauer finds ways to get around
In the article, “Finding Your Everest” by Robert Medina, the Romeros reveal that they believe that parents cannot go too far to support their children’s dreams. For example, Mr. Romero claims that he is fully aware of the risks Jordan might face while climbing/mountaineering, yet he believes that Jordan isn’t being forced to keep going, wants to keep going, and is nowhere near the point where he’s mentally and physically exhausted. This shows that Mr. Romero believes that parents cannot go too far because he mentions that it’s Jordan’s call on whatever expedition they go on. Also, he believes that they’re not doing anything super crazy because he feels that his son is perfectly wired for the conditions of mountain climbing. The biggest hint
In the memoir Within Reach: My Everest Story by Mark Pfetzer and Jack Galvin, the author Mark Pfetzer is faced with an extremely amazing yet scary challenge of climbing Mount Everest. Each event is the story has something to do with the nature that is around them at that moment but Pfetzer shows the readers that nature can be a way of life.
Imagine feeling guilty for making it out alive on a journey. In the nonfiction novel, Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer, he documents his journey to the summits of Mount Everest and ultimately accuses himself of holding responsible for the disaster on the mountain. After realizing only one-fourth of the people that climbed to the summits on May 10, 1996, made it back down to base camp alive, Krakauer theorizes why that was so. He attributes most of the reason for the disaster to the erratic weather, along with hubris, who wanted the thought of leading a group to the mountain. Despite those reasons, there is no ultimate reason for the deaths documented in the book, but bottom line the climbers that died didn’t thoroughly comprehend the danger they were going to encounter as a consequence that contributed to the disaster.
If Krakauer, Hall, Hansen, and the other climbers were not loyal to each other, death would have been inevitable for everyone. While the team is climbing, one of the more experienced climbers and sherpa, Lopsang, decides to clip himself to Sandy. When asked why he did so, he responded, “because Scott wants all members to go to summit, and I am thinking Sandy will be weakest member, I am thinking she will be slow, so I will take her first.” (Page 222). Lopsang knew that the climb was beyond difficult, and he showed loyalty to Sandy by assisting her when she was weak. Another example of loyalty from the novel was shown by Hutchison. Even though the men were suffering from exhaustion, frostbite, and fear, “Hutchison organized a team of four Sherpas to locate the bodies of Weathers and Namba, who had been left on the far side of the Col when Anatoli Boukreev brought in Charlotte Fox, Sandy Pittman, and Tim Madsen.” (Page 322). This shows extreme loyalty because these men were dying, but showed respect to the dead by finding their bodies in attempt to bring closure to their families. Hutchison created a strong bond between himself and others, and he showed loyalty to people even after they died. In addition to the teammates showing loyalty to each other, the Sherpas created bonds with the climbers. Hall recognizes the immense impact the Sherpas have on the team and says, “I want you all to remember we would have absolutely no chance of getting to the summit of Everest without their help.” (Page 68). Hall showed loyalty to the Sherpas by respecting them, and only allowing them to climb to certain heights if they were not properly trained. Overall, loyalty was shown throughout the novel, and Krakauer could not have survived without the bonds he created with the other men and
If you ask any Canadian what they were doing on september 28 1972, there it a good chance they will say watching the Canadians and soviets battling it out for the title of the summit series. It was one of the largest rivalry games in Canadian history. Kids in school watched the games during class, People across the nation sat on the edge of their seats for the month of september and were thrilled when Canada pulled off the victory. All of the hype leading up to the event made people wonder if the summit series was the biggest event in Canadian sports history or even Canadian history in general.There is no doubt that the summit series was a huge milestone for Canada and brought the nation together for an exciting ride, even to this day we still see the effects of this great event, it sculpted the game of hockey that we know and love today.
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
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.
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.
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...
Hall’s success rate was not only due to his attention to detail but his attention to safety and the knowledge that without the Sherpas, any attempt at guiding on Everest would be disastrous. Hall’s ability to plan and coordinate ensured that his clients had plenty of food and supplies and that they became acclimatized to the higher altitudes. Each base camp ...
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
What Shakespeare might call the fatal flaw of Fischer’s expedition seemed to be a collective lack of humility amongst his team, stemming of course from the top with Fischer himself, the “face” of the organization. Fischer was an ambitious man who was desperate to earn the respect of his peers, and came across as nothing short of overconfident when he was quoted in Krakauer's Into Thin Air as saying, "Experience is overrated. […] We've got the big E figured out, we've got it totally wired. […] (W)e've built a yellow brick road to the summit." (pp. 85-86) Even Fischer's experienced guide, Anatoli Boukreev, was not immune from pride, opting to make the climb without the use of supplemental oxygen, a decision that was not only completely unnecessary, but arguably ended up costing the lives of members of his team at the summit. Indeed, as Krakauer noted, there was a palpable lack of a team dynamic, a result of the Attraction-Selection-Attrition Theory; the team felt more like a bunch of individuals, all "in it for himself or herself." (Krakauer, p. 213) In a life or death situation, having a strong team dynamic is more important than ever. But Fischer was more interested in the parts, than the whole. As part of Fischer's ambition, he had made an effort to recruit high-profile clients, including a New York socialite who wrote for Allure magazine, and Krakauer himself, who could lend the expedition some heavy publicity, but brought very little by way of experience when it came to summiting a mountain as extreme as Everest.
...to wherever they were and make sure they were treated. He also ignores his own disease and ill condition to insure the clients have a shot at the summit. This may be viewed as foolishness but this type of self-sacrifice is something rare and admirable. In conclusion, both men have a usual connection to climbing.
A major problem with the amateurs on Everest is the inherent need for a guide to the summit. In a high altitude alpine setting one person’s skills or experience should not be used as coverage for a lack in another’s. Being literally led by hand along a lofty snow-ridge, towards the summit, and then back down again, is no way to climb, descend or spend any amount of time on a mountain. Guiding, although a monetarily lucrative business, and possibly fine at lower altitudes, is not responsible in a high altitude mountaineering setting.