Scaling the Eighth and Ninth Summits: Structure and Decision Making The commercialization of Mount Everest expeditions in the late 20th century marked both great civilian conquest of a once superhuman feat and tremendous loss of life for visiting climbers. Robert Hall and Scott Fischer’s May 1996 trek in particular is memorialized as the “deadliest day” in the Mountain’s history, with five individuals dying during the descent from the summit. Though the tragedy was partially attributable to poor environmental conditions, inflexible division of labor, lack of formalized rules and procedures, and the subsequent group think that arose from communication and agency vacuums were also at fault. Hall and Fischer’s teams were rigidly structured with …show more content…
Because of health risks and low oxygen levels that come with high altitudes, defining rules and charting courses of action for different possible situations while the group is under lower physical and mental pressure is highly valuable. Unfortunately, Fischer lost planning time to logistical complications and would also disrupt the group’s progress by escorting a personal friend back to base camp in lieu of sending a supporting guide or Sherpa (Roberto and Carriogia 5,9). The team forewent the most important rule of descending the summit before early afternoon, with Hall waiting for Hanset till 4:00PM and a specific return time never even specified (Roberto and Carriogia 10). Groups with differentiated elements operating in dynamic environments, such as a dangerous expedition, call for a higher level of formalization to reduce error and maximize efficiency of routine tasks. Where reliance on rules and procedures could reduce flexibility, the task of scaling Everest has few innate structural challenges and derives most of its complexity from idiosyncratic environmental factors. Complications like members needing to descend or weather conditions deteriorating are largely predictable, so standardizing best practices under different scenarios would be both feasible and effective. The party neglected to define absolute rules and acted …show more content…
Lack of intra-team rapport building activities and the expedition leaders’ concentration of both decision making power and communication channels left clients feeling “disconnected” from each other, with Krakauer recalling being “worried a great deal about what the others thought about [him]” and “fretting the possibility of not being accepted by teammates” (Roberto and Carriogia 5,8). Coupled with almost unilateral use of the plural “we” when recounting events, these narratives signal not only limited interpersonal familiarity between the mountaineers that discouraged voicing dissent but also strong group identification and desire to conform. Group think, a tendency for group members to defer to the consensus viewpoint in decision making, subsequently manifests as expedition members fail to voice anxieties about weather conditions, lack of defined turn-around time, and the health of Fischer and Hansen, instead “downplay[ing] intuitions” and “try[ing] not to be too pushy” (Roberto and Carriogia 9,12). Without any insight or feedback from the group, the structural ails of poor role definitions and weak playbooks snowballed where they could have been
Chapter 7: In chapter 7 Krakauer talks about how Everest has changed from a professionals trek to anyone's trek. He explains that many inexperienced people have climbed Mount Everest with the help of sherpas and guides. He also mentions about the determination of Everest and how in some instances in history people who weren't allowed into Tibet or Nepal but they snuck in and managed to climb and summit Everest
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.
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 guides. The actual summit push is when everything begins to fall apart.
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.
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.
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
Given the recent Everest tragedy over the weekend with the biggest loss of lives to date, this case study rings particularly poignant. It’s hard to think of a higher-staked situation than making a summit bid for Mount Everest. The responsibility in such a trek weighs heavy on the leader, but does not need to fall on his shoulders alone. Had Fischer been more willing to share credit, fostering a team-oriented environment, he might still be around today to bask in the glory of his ambitious undertaking.
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
The Everest group simulation was an exercise that required five students to immerse themselves into a team of hikers. Each role is unique and vital to the survival of the team in the attempt to reach the summit of Mount Everest. The simulation effectively encapsulated the concepts and theories learnt in the course.
A. Preventing "Groupthink" Psychology Today. 20 Apr. 2011. The. Psychology Today.
The dynamics of the groups climbing Everest together are very complex. Trust and loyalty within the group is essential in this journey. When the trip to the top of Mount Everest was over, Krakauer suffered from survivor’s guilt. When embarking on a journey as physically and emotionally strenuous as climbing Mount Everest, there is a bond that connects those who traveled together. At the end of the voyage, the feeling of guilt and helplessness towards the inability those who did not survive is inevitable.
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.
External conditions combined with unfamiliarity of the task resulted in confusion and groupthink. Time constraints and technological communication channels also combined to characterize the first Everest Climb attempt. The inability to effectively transmit and receive information, misalignment of goals combined with inexperience and misunderstanding of the simulation itself resulted in uncertainties in our decision making processes, unable to discuss constructively and predict outcomes. These issues paired with jargon such as the functions of the medical kit and the failure to share information signaled the creation of a dysfunctional team. The experience highlighted the effectiveness of acting as information sharing hub and operating under an all-channel lateral communication system to inform group decisions, (Hoover et al, 2010). This demonstrates the value of simulations as they strengthen and teach individuals to act in accordance with changing rules and conditions whilst building team