26 May 2006 Mountain ethics and Everest

Opinion editorial by Keith Woodford

In the last few days the Everest focus has changed from Mark Inglis’s achievement in climbing Everest as a double amputee, to controversy over the tragedy of British climber David Sharp, supposedly left to die high on the North Ridge. Some have been quick to criticise, but one of the lessons of Everest is that the full story usually takes some time to emerge. Garbled accounts rapidly become facts. Sound bites out of a larger interview can easily create false impressions.

The news media has given considerable prominence to those who are critical of Inglis, but it is clear that this is an issue on which the mountaineering community is divided. It is notable that some of the most experienced Himalayan climbers, who have at times themselves undertaken dangerous mountain rescues, have been very cautious to make judgements.

Timaru doctor Dick Price’s pithy comment to those who criticise Inglis’s actions was to “think again”. Price has himself summited Everest, from the North side on his sixth attempt, and knows both the north and south sides of the mountain. He may well have summited on earlier attempts if it were not for his involvement in Everest rescues. Price was also involved in the Mt Cook rescue of Mark Inglis more than 20 years ago, and with fellow rescuers could easily have been killed when a rescue helicopter crashed on the Hooker Glacier.

Similarly, Geoff Wyatt, who is one of New Zealand’s most respected mountain guides, has been quick to point out that making the right decisions is not always clear cut. Wyatt would have taken part in many mountain rescues himself, and he too is a Himalayan veteran.

Let us picture the situation as it apparently unfolded. David Sharp had attempted Everest at least twice before. When he was found last week at 8500 metres he was apparently comatose. The only reaction Inglis’s party could get was an eye flicker. No speech, no movement. According to at least one report, Sherpas from Inglis’s team did administer oxygen but could get no response. What were their options?

It seems clear the key decision to abandon Sharp was made by Expedition Leader Russell Brice, himself very much an Everest old hand, back at Base Camp. Brice has summited himself at least twice and led many successful expeditions from the north side. Brice’s first responsibilities were to his own team and his own clients. What would a rescue have involved?

The first point is that no matter how strong you are, there is no-one who can carry another person at 8500 metres. So it would have to be a stretcher job. To date that has never been managed at this altitude. Much of the North Ridge is not particularly steep, but the route traverses for a long way on outward sloping rock slabs. Imagine a frosty morning back in New Zealand, and trying to manoeuvre a stretcher patient along an iced up roof, pitched at 20-30 degrees, that went on and on for kilometres, with a drop below of thousands of metres. Not an easy task. The chances of the stretcher party making it to safety without killing themselves would not be high. To even attempt such a rescue would have meant first getting the clients back to safety, then putting together a big team of guides and Sherpas, and then setting forth again to reach Sharp. He would have long been dead.

So the only other thing they could have done would have been to wait with the comatose Sharp until he was clearly dead. Even that would have had its risks as the climbers would themselves be likely to be stricken with hypothermia once they stopped moving. Everyone’s life hangs by a thread at these altitudes.

Some of the guides with Mark Inglis would themselves have had previous experience of similar situations. One of them was Mark Whetu. This was Whetu’s fourth ascent to the summit of Everest. On a previous climb Whetu stayed with a fellow climber who collapsed up at about 8500 metres and refused to leave the unconscious man. His team members from base camp finally cajoled him into leaving by saying over the radio they needed him to come back down to the next camp to help organise the rescue. It was a lie. But it saved his life although he did lose his toes and part of his feet.

And then some years later Mark Whetu won an award for yet another incident on Everest when he helped rescue another climber from high on the mountain.

There have been many heroic rescues both in New Zealand and the Himalayas. Some rescuers have lost their lives. Back here in New Zealand there was the Rolleston tragedy in the late 1960s when not only did the four missing climbers die but so did one of the rescuers, John Harrison, when his tent was engulfed in an avalanche.

And then in the 1980s Bruce Clark from Otago was killed in a training exercise.

More recently, it seems that Andy Harris lost his life on Everest in a solo attempt to rescue Rob Hall from the South Summit. Several years earlier, Rob Hall and Gary Ball took part in an audacious rescue of a Polish climber who was marooned on the Lho La (part of Everest) for six days after an avalanche. But that was at only 6000 metres, which is totally different to 8500 metres.

Here in New Zealand, climbers would never think twice about going to the aid of another person if it were in their physical capability. Both climbers and helicopter pilots regularly go well beyond their normal safety limits to rescue others. But Everest is different.

This year on Everest is turning out to be a tragedy year to match 1996, when Everest claimed 15 lives. In the last 10 days there have been at least 10 deaths on Everest in about 7 different accidents. David Sharp’s mate, Vitor Negrete from Brazil was killed just three days after Sharp. He summited by himself without oxygen, (last year he climbed to the summit with oxygen) and then with assistance from others climbed down to Camp 3 where he died despite being put on oxygen. Indeed there have been several deaths this year from exhaustion on the descent.

There has also been the death of extreme skier Tomas Olsson on the North Face. And on the Nepalese side of the mountain three Sherpas were killed by a falling serac in the Khumbu Icefall.

The events of this season will once again bring to the fore some very difficult questions about climbing on Everest. It certainly is a very different experience from when Sir Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norgay reached the summit in 1953. It is also a totally different experience from an attempt that I and seven friends made in 1977. We were the only party with a permit to climb the mountain. There was no route to follow. It was close to a wilderness experience. In contrast, Graeme Dingle has described the modern Everest as a ‘circus’ and he is not the only one to use that term. But in a free world people make their own decisions, and then have to bear the consequences.

In Mark Inglis’s case we need to be sure that we know all the facts before we jump to conclusions. It is a totally different world up there on Everest where everyone’s grip on life is insecure.

Keith Woodford was Leader of the 1977 New Zealand Mt Everest Expedition. He still climbs mountains in New Zealand.