Many people who are not connected with mountaineering cannot understand in any way what is so good in the mountains that they have to risk their lives for this. After all, the mountains are constantly collecting their terrible tribute. But climbers believe that “only mountains that no one has been on can be better than mountains” and take a mortal risk to set new records and test their body for strength. So, a post about those who died in the mountains, but went down in history.
George Mallory was a mountaineer who was part of three British expeditions to Everest in 1921, 1922, 1924. It is believed that it was he who first attempted to climb to the top of the mountain.
On June 8, 1924, he went missing with his partner, Andrew Irwin. They were last seen through a gap in the clouds rising towards the summit of Everest, and then they were gone. The height they reached was 8570 meters.
Only 75 years after the ascent, the body of George Mallory was discovered. On May 1, 1999, an American search expedition found him at an altitude of 8155 meters. It was located 300 meters below the northeast ridge, approximately opposite the place where the Irvine ice ax was found in 1933 by the British expedition led by Wyn-Harris, and was tangled with a broken safety rope, which indicated a possible breakdown of the climbers.
Also found next to him were an altimeter, sunglasses tucked into his jacket pocket, an oxygen mask, letters, and most importantly, a photograph of his wife and a British flag, which he wanted to leave on top of the mountain. Andrew Irwin's body has yet to be found.
Maurice Wilson is an Englishman, famous for his flight from England to India, as well as his belief that fasting and prayer should help him climb to the top of Everest.
Wilson described his ascent to the mountain in his diary. He did not know anything about the intricacies of mountaineering, he had no climbing experience. Wilson decided to go his own way, and not the ready-made route of the British expedition. He himself said that he would rather die than return to the UK. On May 29, he climbed alone. In 1935, his body was discovered at an altitude of about 7400 m. The remains of a tent and a backpack with a travel diary were also found.
There is a version that Morris Wilson nevertheless visited the summit, but died already on the descent, since the Tibetan climber Gombu allegedly saw an old tent at an altitude of 8500 m, which no one except Wilson could set up there at that time. But this version is not confirmed.
There is a corpse on the northern slope of Everest, marking a mark of 8500 meters. They call it "Green Shoes". Who it belongs to is not exactly known, but there are suggestions that it is Tsewang Paljor or Dorjie Morup, both members of the Indian expedition who died during the tragic events of 1996 on Chomolungma. During the ascent, a group of six people fell into a snowstorm, after which three of them decided to return, and the rest to continue moving to the top. They later radioed, announcing that they had reached the summit, but then disappeared.
English math teacher and mountaineer, David Sharp, who was trying to conquer Mount Everest alone, died from hypothermia and oxygen starvation.
He sat in a cave just next to the Green Shoes and died when climbers passed by, not paying any attention to him, striving for their goal. Only a few of them, including the Discovery TV crew who filmed him and even tried to interview him, stayed with him for a short while, giving him oxygen.
American climber and guide, the first American to summit Lhotse, the fourth highest peak in the world. Fisher died in the May 1996 Everest tragedy that claimed the lives of seven more people.
Having reached the top, already on the descent, Fischer faced numerous problems. Sherpa Lopsang was with him. At an altitude of approximately 8350 m, Fisher realized that he did not have the strength to descend and he sent Lopsang to descend alone. Lopsang hoped to return for Fischer with an extra tank of oxygen and save him. But the weather conditions did not allow. On May 11, 1996, Fisher's body was discovered.
In 2010, a special expedition was organized on Everest, the purpose of which was to remove debris from the slopes and lower the bodies of dead climbers. The organizers hoped to release the body of Scott Fisher. His widow, Ginny Price, hoped that Scott's body could be lowered and cremated at the foot of Everest.
Soviet-Russian mountaineer, master of sports of the USSR, two-time winner of the highest international mountaineering award "Golden Ice Ax". He climbed 11 of the 14 peaks of the planet, with a height of more than eight thousand meters.
He died on May 15, 2013 due to a broken rope frayed against the rocks, falling from a height of 300 meters. Alexei Bolotov claimed to be the first Russian climber - the owner of the "Crown of the Himalayas".
Wanda is considered one of the most prominent women climbers in history. On October 16, 1978, she became the third woman, the first Polish and the first European to climb Everest, and on June 23, 1986, the first woman to summit the world's second eight-thousander K2.
She was the main contender to conquer all 14 eight-thousanders, but managed to climb 8 peaks.
Wanda Rutkevich went missing in 1992 while trying to climb the northwestern wall to the world's third peak Kanchenjunga. Her body was discovered in 1995 by Italian climbers.
Soviet and Kazakh high-altitude climber, mountain guide, photographer, writer. Winner of the title "Snow Leopard" (1985), Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1989). He conquered eleven eight-thousanders of the planet, and made a total of 18 ascents on them.
He died while climbing the Annapurna summit (8078 m). Upon returning to the base camp for the rest of the climbers Bukreev, Moro and Sobolev, a snow cornice covered, which caused a sudden avalanche. Moro managed to survive and call for help, but by then, Boukreev and Sobolev were already dead. Their bodies were never found.
Honored Master of Sports (2000), International Master of Sports (1999), captain of the Ukrainian mountaineering team in high-altitude class (2000-2004). During his career he made more than 50 ascents of 5-6 category of difficulty. In 2001, he was the first to climb the summit of Manaslu along the southeastern ridge.
Here is an excerpt from his interview: “...Mountaineering is a part of me. It would be boring to live without stepping up, without setting yourself difficult tasks. Any achievement forces you to give up something, to overcome something. Sometimes it can be excruciatingly difficult. But, in the end, this is what gives color to life. If there were no mountains and ascents, it would become gray and dull for me.
Scott Fisher is a mountaineer who, at the age of 20, proved to be a true professional in conquering mountain peaks. But most of him is known for the tragedy on Everest in 1996, when 8 people from three expeditions, including Fisher himself, died within a day.
The beginning of mountaineering
As children, we dream of the most heroic professions. An astronaut, a firefighter, a rescuer, a pilot, a ship captain - they are associated with a certain risk and therefore look so romantic in the eyes of a child. Scott Fisher already knew at the age of 14 that he would be a mountaineer. For two years he took courses in rock climbing. Then he graduated from the school of guides and became one of the best professional mountaineering coaches. During these years, he was actively involved in the conquest of high mountain peaks.
In 1982 he moved to Seattle with his wife Jean. Fisher's children, Andy and Katie Rose, were born here.
Conquest of Lhotse
Scott Fischer, a world-class mountaineer, became the first American high-altitude climber to reach the fourth-highest peak of Lhotse.
"Southern Peak" (as the name of the eight-thousander is translated) is located in the Himalayas, on the border of China and Nepal. It is divided into three peaks. Today, several routes have been laid to them, but the conquest of Lhotse remains incredibly difficult. Walking along the South Wall is considered almost impossible. Only a team of Soviet climbers was able to do this in 1990. Seventeen people worked together so that only two of them were able to climb to the top.
"Mountain Madness"
Energetic and adventurous, Scott Fisher opened his own high-altitude tour company in 1984. At first, this work was of little interest to the climber - climbing remained the main thing in his life. The company helped him do what he loves. For a long time, "Mountain Madness" remained an almost unknown travel company. Everything changed in the 90s, when the conquest of Everest became the cherished dream of ordinary tourists. Experienced high-mountain climbers became guides accompanying those who wanted to climb to the top for money. The process of commercialization of Everest begins. There are companies that promise to organize a rise to the top for a round sum. They took upon themselves the delivery of the expedition members to the base camp, preparation of the participants for the ascent and escort along the route. For the opportunity to become one of the conquerors of Everest, those who wished to lay out huge sums - from 50 to 65 thousand dollars. At the same time, the organizers of the expeditions did not guarantee success - the mountain could not be submitted.
Expedition of Scott Fisher to Everest. Reasons for its organization
The success of commercial expeditions by other climbers, including Rob Hall, made Fisher think about the route to the Himalayas. As the manager of the company Karen Dickinson later said, this decision was dictated by time. Many clients wanted to get to the highest point in the world. Scott Fisher, for whom Everest was not the most difficult route, by that time was seriously thinking that it was time to change his life. An expedition to the Himalayas would allow him to make a name for himself and show what his company is capable of. If successful, he could count on new clients to pay large sums for the opportunity to climb to the top of Everest.
Compared to other climbers whose names did not leave the pages of magazines, he was not so famous. Few people knew who Scott Fisher was. Everest gave him a chance to become famous if the Mountain Madness expedition was successful. Another reason that forced the climber to go on this tour was an attempt to correct his image. He had a reputation as a bold and reckless climber. Most wealthy clients would not have liked his risky style. The expedition included Sandy Hill Pittman, a newspaper reporter. Her climbing report would have been great publicity for Scott Fisher and his company.
Events of 1996 on Everest
Much has been said about the tragedy that occurred in the Himalayas. The chronology of events was compiled from the words of the surviving members of the three expeditions and witnesses. 1996 was one of the most tragic years for the conquerors of Everest - 15 of them never returned home. Eight people died in one day: Rob Hall and Scott Fisher, expedition leaders, three members of their groups and three climbers from the Indo-Tibetan Border Guard.
Problems began at the beginning of the ascent. Sherpas (local guides) did not have time to fix all the railings, which greatly slowed down the ascent. Numerous tourists also interfered, on this day they also decided to storm the summit. As a result, the strict climbing schedule was violated. Those who knew how important it was to turn back in time returned to the camp and survived. The rest continued to rise.
Rob Hall and Scott Fisher were way behind the rest of the contestants. The latter was in poor physical condition even before the start of the expedition, but hid this fact from others. His tired appearance was noticed during the ascent, which was completely uncharacteristic for an energetic and active climber.
By four o'clock in the afternoon they reached the summit, although according to the schedule they were supposed to start descending at two o'clock. By this time, the light veil that covered the mountains turned into a snow storm. Scott Fisher descended with Sherpa Lopsang. Apparently, at this time his condition deteriorated sharply. It is assumed that the climber began swelling of the brain and lungs, and there was a strong stage of exhaustion. He persuaded the Sherpa to go down to the camp and bring help.
Anatoly Boukreev, the guide of the "Mountain Madness", saved three tourists that day, delivering them alone to the camp. He twice tried to climb to Fisher, having learned from the returned Sherpa about the condition of the climber, but zero visibility and strong winds did not allow him to reach the leader of the group.
In the morning, the Sherpas reached Fisher, but his condition was already so bad that they made the difficult decision to leave him where he was, making him comfortable. They lowered Makalu Go into the camp, whose condition allowed this to be done. A little later, Bukreev also reached Fischer, but the 40-year-old climber had died of hyperemia by that time.
Causes of the tragedy that happened to Fischer and other climbers
Mountains are one of the treacherous places on the planet. Eight thousand meters is the height at which the human body can no longer recover. Any, the most insignificant reason can lead to a terrible tragedy. On that day on Everest, climbers were disastrously unlucky. They were far behind the strict schedule due to the large number of tourists who were simultaneously on the route. The time to turn back has been lost. Those who climbed to the top later than everyone else got into a strong snowstorm on the way back and did not find the strength to go down to the camp.
Everest open graves
Scott Fisher, whose body was found frozen on May 11, 1996, was left at the scene of his death. It is almost impossible to lower the dead from such a height. A year later, returning to Nepal again, Anatoly Boukreev paid his last respects to his friend, whom he considered the best high-altitude climber in America. He covered Fischer's body with stones and stuck an ice pick over his makeshift grave.
Scott Fisher, whose body, along with the bodies of several dead conquerors of Everest, was buried right at the place of death, could have been lowered to the foot in 2010. Then it was decided, as far as possible, to clean the slopes of the mountain from the garbage accumulated over many years and try to lower the bodies of the dead. Rob Hall's widow abandoned the idea, and Fisher's wife Ginny hoped that her husband's body could be cremated at the foot of the mountain that killed him. But the Sherpas were able to find and lower the remains of two other climbers. Scott Fisher and Rob Hall are still on Everest.
Reflection of the tragedy on Everest in literature and cinema
The participants in the incident, journalist Jon Krakauer, climber Anatoly Boukreev, Beck Withers and Lyn Gammelgaard wrote books in which they expressed their point of view.
Cinema could not stay away from such a promising topic as the 1996 tragedy on Everest. In 1997, John Krakaeur's novel was filmed. He formed the basis of the film "Death on Everest".
In 2015, the picture "Everest" was released. The leader of the Mountain Madness expedition was played by Jake Gyllenhaal. Scott Fisher outwardly looked a little different (he was blond), but the actor fully managed to convey the energy and charm that the climber radiated. Rob Hall played Keira Knightley, Robin Wright and Sam Worthington can also be seen in the film.
(Scott Fischer in the movie "Everest") belongs to the category of actors whose skills are growing in front of the audience. Over the past two years, he managed to please his fans with an excellent game in the films "Stringer" and "Lefty". The Everest tragedy was no exception. The film received high marks from viewers and critics. Alpinists also responded positively to it, noting only a few minor errors in showing the behavior of people under conditions of oxygen starvation.
Is the dream worth a human life?
The desire to be on the highest point in the world is quite understandable. But Scott Fischer and Rob Hall, professionals of the highest level, showed weakness and gave in to the ambitions of their clients. And the mountains do not forgive mistakes.
The tragedy on the Chomolungma in May 1996 refers to the events that occurred on May 11, 1996 and led to the mass death of climbers on the southern slope of the Chomolungma.
For the entire season of 1996, 15 people died while climbing the mountain, which forever entered this year as one of the most tragic in the history of the conquest of Chomolungma. The May tragedy received wide publicity in the press and the mountaineering community, calling into question the expediency and moral aspects of the commercialization of Chomolungma.
The surviving participants in the events each offered their own versions of what happened.
In particular, journalist Jon Krakauer described the tragedy in his book.
John Krakauer - journalist, climber, member of the expedition in the Himalayas, chronicled the tragedy, implicated in frivolity and vanity, fatal arrogance, courage and big money.
One of my feet is in China, the other is in the kingdom of Nepal; I stand on the highest point on the planet. I scrape off the ice from my oxygen mask, turn my shoulder to the wind and absently look down at the expanses of Tibet. I have long dreamed of this moment, expecting an unprecedented sensual delight. But now, when I really stand on the top of Everest, there is no longer enough strength for emotions.
I haven't slept for fifty-seven hours. Over the past three days, I've managed to swallow only a little soup and a handful of chocolate-covered nuts. I have been suffering from a severe cough for several weeks now; during one of the attacks, two ribs even cracked, and now every breath for me is a real torture. In addition, here, at an altitude of more than eight thousand meters, the brain receives so little oxygen that, in terms of mental abilities, I am now unlikely to give odds to a not too developed child. Apart from the insane cold and fantastic fatigue, I feel almost nothing.
Next to me are instructors Anatoly Boukreev from Russia and New Zealander Andy Harris. I snap four frames. Then I turn around and begin my descent. On the greatest of the peaks of the planet, I spent less than five minutes. I soon notice that in the south, where quite recently the sky was completely clear, a few lower peaks have disappeared in the clouds that have advanced.
After fifteen minutes of careful descent along the edge of a two-kilometer abyss, I run into a twelve-meter ledge on the crest of the main ridge. This is a difficult place. As I buckle up to the railing, I notice - and this is very disturbing - that ten meters below, at the foot of the cliff, there are about a dozen climbers who are still going to the top. It remains for me to unhook from the rope and give way to them.
Down there, members of three expeditions: the New Zealand team led by the legendary Rob Hall (I also belong to her), the team of the American Scott Fisher and a group of climbers from Taiwan. As they slowly climb the rock, I look forward to my turn to descend.
Andy Harris stuck with me. I ask him to climb into my backpack and turn off the valve of the oxygen tank - this way I want to save the remaining oxygen. For the next ten minutes, I feel surprisingly good, my head clears up. Suddenly, out of the blue, it becomes difficult to breathe. Everything floats before my eyes, I feel that I can lose consciousness. Instead of turning off the oxygen supply, Harris mistakenly turned the faucet all the way, and now my tank is empty. There are still seventy most difficult meters down to the spare oxygen cylinders. But first you have to wait until the line below resolves. I take off my now useless oxygen mask, drop my helmet on the ice and squat down. Every now and then we have to exchange smiles and polite greetings with climbers passing upstairs. Actually, I'm desperate.
Finally crawling upstairs is Doug Hansen, one of my teammates. "We did it!" - I shout to him the usual greeting in such cases, trying to make my voice sound more cheerful. Exhausted, Doug mumbles something unintelligible from under his oxygen mask, shakes my hand, and trudges on upstairs.
Scott Fisher appears at the very end of the group. The obsession and endurance of this American climber has long been a legend, and now I am surprised by his completely exhausted appearance. But the descent is finally free. I fasten myself to a bright orange rope, with a sharp movement I go around Fischer, who, with his head down, leans on his ice ax, and, having rolled over the edge of the rock, I slide down.
I get to the southern peak (one of the two peaks of Everest) at four o'clock. I grab a full oxygen tank and hurry further down, to where the clouds are thicker and denser. After a few moments, it begins to snow and nothing is visible. And four hundred meters above, where the summit of Everest still shines against the azure sky, my teammates continue to cheer loudly. They celebrate the conquest of the highest point on the planet: waving flags, hugging, taking pictures - and losing precious time. It never occurs to any of them that by the evening of this long day, every minute will count. Later, after six bodies were found, and the search for those two whose bodies could not be found was abandoned, I was asked many times how my comrades could overlook such a sharp deterioration in the weather. Why did experienced instructors keep climbing, ignoring the signs of a coming storm, and leading their not-too-well-prepared clients to certain death? I am forced to answer that I myself did not notice anything in those afternoon hours of May 10 that could indicate the approach of a hurricane. The veil of clouds that appeared below seemed to my oxygen-deprived brain thin, completely harmless and hardly worthy of attention.
A place on the suicide squad cost clients sixty-five thousand dollars.
At the foot of Everest, four weeks earlier.
Thirty teams - more than four hundred people - were at that time on the Nepalese and Tibetan slopes of Everest. They were climbers from two dozen countries, high-altitude Sherpa porters from local residents, quite a few doctors and assistants. Many of the groups were purely commercial, with two or three instructors leading to the top of several clients who generously paid for their professional services. New Zealander Rob Hall is especially lucky in this sense. In five years he has taken 39 people to the peak, and now his firm is touted as the "leading organizer of Everest tours." Hall's height is about ninety meters, while he is thin as a pole. There is something childish about his face, but he looks older than his thirty-five, either because of the wrinkles around his eyes, or because of his great authority among fellow climbers. Unruly strands of brown hair fall over his forehead.
For the organization of the ascent, he requires 65 thousand dollars from each client - and this amount does not include either the cost of the flight to Nepal or the price of mountain equipment. Some of Hall's competitors take only a third of that amount. But thanks to a phenomenally high "percentage of reaching the top" this spring, Rob Hall has no problem with rich clients: he now has eight of them.
One of his clients is me, however, the money is not from my pocket. An American magazine sent me on an expedition to get a report on the ascent. For Hall, this is a way to express himself once again. Because of me, his desire to get to the top is noticeably increased, although it is clear that the report will appear in the magazine even if the goal is not achieved.
At the same time as us, Scott Fisher's team is climbing Everest. Fischer, 40 years old, quite a sociable stocky athlete with a tail of blond hair at the back of his head, he is driven forward by inexhaustible internal energy. If the name of Hall's company Adventure Consultants fully reflects the New Zealander's methodical, pedantic approach to climbing, then Mountain Madness - "Mountain Madness", the name of Scott Fisher's enterprise, defines the style of the latter even more precisely. In his early twenties, he was already famous in professional circles for his more than risky technique.
Team "Adventure Consultants Everest". 1996
Many people are attracted by Fischer's inexhaustible energy, the breadth of his nature and the ability for childish admiration. He is charming, has the musculature of a bodybuilder and the physiognomy of a movie star. Fisher smokes marijuana (although not while working) and drinks a little more than his health allows. This is the first commercial expedition he organized to Everest.
Hall and Fisher lead eight clients each, a motley group of mountain-obsessed people who are united only by their willingness to spend a significant amount and even risk their own lives to stand on the world's highest peak for once. But if we remember that even in the center of Europe, on Mont Blanc, which is half as low, dozens of amateur climbers happen to die, then the commercial groups of Hall and Fischer, consisting mainly of wealthy, but not very experienced climbers, even with favorable conditions resemble suicide squads.
For example, one of the clients, Doug Hansen, a 46-year-old father of two adult children, is a postal worker from Renton, near Seattle.
To realize the dream of his life, he worked day and night, accumulating the necessary amount. Or Dr. Seaborn Beck Weathers from Dallas. He gave himself a ticket to this by no means cheap expedition for his fiftieth birthday. Yasuko Namba, a frail Japanese woman from Tokyo with very limited climbing abilities, at forty-seven years old, dreams of becoming the oldest woman who has managed to conquer Mount Everest.
Many of these future conquerors send daily messages to almost every country in the world via satellite or the Internet. And yet the main correspondent is in Fischer's group. This is Sandy Hall Pittman, she is forty-one years old, she is a member of the prestigious New Yorker Society and is married to one of the founders of the music channel MTV. A 180-meter-tall athletic woman even brought the spirit of New York to the Himalayas: she drinks aromatic coffee bought in her favorite store, and the latest issues of fashion magazines are sent to the base camp especially for her. With her inherent egocentricity, Pittman managed to interest all the major New York newspapers with her Everest expedition. This is her third attempt and this time she is determined to reach the top. In this way, Scott Fischer is exposed to the strongest temptation: if this VIP client conquers the top with his help, he will receive the most stunning advertising that he could ever dream of.
Our expedition started at the end of March in Northern India, from where we went to Nepal. On the ninth of April we reached the base camp, located at an altitude of 5364 meters on the western side of Everest. In the following days, while the Sherpas slowly made their way up, we gradually got used to the cold and rarefied high mountain air. Some even then did not feel well: there was not enough oxygen, legs worn out in the blood ached, they suffered from headaches or, as in my case, a constant cough. One of the Sherpas accompanying us was seriously injured, falling into a crack.
At an altitude of 6400 meters, for the first time, we had a chance to face death face to face - it was the corpse of an unfortunate climber, wrapped in a blue plastic bag. Then one of the best and most experienced porters of the Fisher team developed pulmonary edema. He had to be evacuated by helicopter to the hospital, but a few weeks later the Sherpa died. Fischer's client, with the same symptoms, was fortunately brought to a safe height in time, and his life was thus saved.
Scott Fisher quarrels with his deputy, instructor from Russia Anatoly Bukreev: he does not want to help clients climb up the rocks, and Fisher has to do the grueling work of a guide alone.
In camp III, our penultimate mountain shelter before the summit, we are preparing for the final stage of the ascent. Climbers from Taiwan are located nearby with their leader, photographer Min Ho Gau. Ever since the unfortunate Taiwanese needed the help of rescuers when conquering Mount McKinley in Alaska in 1995, this team has become famous for its lack of proper experience. Alpinists from the Republic of South Africa are just as little competent: their group is followed by a whole train of scandalous rumors, and in the base camp several experienced athletes separated from them.
We begin the attack on the summit on May 6th. And although there is an agreement between the groups not to storm Everest all at the same time - otherwise there will be queues and crushes on the way to the very top - unfortunately, this does not stop either the South Africans or the team from Taiwan.
The first victims of unpreparedness appeared on the way to the top of Everest ...
On the morning of May 9 one of the Taiwanese climbs out of the tent to recover and wash. On his feet he only has soft chuni. Squatting down, he slips, flies, somersaulting, down the slope and after about twenty meters falls into a deep crack. The Sherpas pull him out and help him get to the tent. He is in a state of shock, although there seems to be no serious physical damage at first glance.
Soon after, Ming Ho Gau leads the remnants of the Taiwanese group towards Camp IV, which is located on the southern saddle, leaving his unlucky comrade to rest in a tent all alone. A few hours later, the poor man's condition deteriorates sharply, he loses consciousness and soon dies. American climbers radioed about this tragedy to the leader of the group, Min Ho Gau.
“OK,” he replies, “thank you very much.” And, as if nothing had happened, he informs the partners in the bunch that the death of a comrade will in no way affect the schedule of their ascent.
On the southern saddle (altitude 7925 meters) there is a camp, which becomes our base for the duration of the summit assault. The South Col is a vast ice plateau between the wind-whipped rocks of the upper part of Mount Lhotse and Everest. On the eastern side, it hangs over an abyss two kilometers deep, at the edge of which our tents are located. There are more than a thousand empty oxygen cylinders lying around, left by previous expeditions. If there is a more bleak and filthy place anywhere else on earth, I hope I don't have to see it.
On the evening of May 9, the teams of Hall, Fisher, Taiwanese and South Africans reach the South Col. We made this long crossing in the most difficult conditions - a strong wind was beating and it was very slippery; some arrived at the place already in the dark, completely exhausted.
Here comes Lopsang Yangbu, senior Sherpa from Scott Fisher's team. He has a 35 kg backpack on his back. Among other things, there are satellite communication devices - Sandy Pittman wants to send electronic messages around the world from a height of 7900 meters (later it turned out that this is technically impossible). It does not occur to Fisher to stop such dangerous whims of clients. On the contrary, he promised to drag Pittman's electronic toys upstairs with his own hands if the porter refused to carry them. By nightfall, more than fifty people had gathered here, small tents were almost close together. At the same time, a strange atmosphere of isolation hovers over the camp. The gusty wind on the plateau howls so loudly that, even being in neighboring tents, it is impossible to talk. As a team, we exist only on paper. In a few hours the group will leave the camp, but each will move forward on his own, not connected to the rest by any rope or special sympathy.
In the evening, at half past seven, everything calms down. It is still terribly cold, but there is almost no wind; the weather favors the summit. Rob Hall shouts loudly to us from his tent: “Guys, it looks like today is the day. At half past twelve we begin the assault!
Twenty-five minutes before midnight, I put on my oxygen mask, turn on the lamp, and walk out into the darkness. Hall's group consists of fifteen people: three instructors, four Sherpas and eight clients. Fisher and his team - three instructors, six Sherpas and clients - follow us at intervals of half an hour. Following are the Taiwanese with two Sherpas. But the team of South Africa, which was too hard given the grueling rise, remained in the tents. That night, thirty-three people left the camp in the direction of the summit.
At three forty-five in the morning, twenty meters below me, I notice a large figure in a poisonous yellow puff. In conjunction with her is a Sherpa, who is much shorter. Breathing noisily (he is without an oxygen mask), the Sherpa literally drags his partner up the slope, like a horse - a plow. This is Lopsang Yangbu and Sandy Pittman.
We stop every now and then. The night before, the guides from the Fisher and Hall teams were supposed to hang the ropes. But it turned out that the two main Sherpas can't stand each other. And neither Scott Fisher nor Rob Hall - the most authoritative people on the plateau - could or would not force the Sherpas to do the necessary work. Because of this, we are now wasting precious time and energy. Hall's four clients are feeling worse and worse.
But Fisher's clients are in good shape, and this, of course, puts pressure on the New Zealander. Doug Hansen wants to turn down, but Hall persuades him to keep going. Beck Weathers almost completely lost his sight - due to low blood pressure, the consequences of his eye surgery appeared. Soon after sunrise, helpless, he had to be left on the ridge. Hall promises to pick up Withers on the way back.
According to the rules, the leader is obliged to set a time when all members of the group, regardless of where they are, must turn back in order to have time to safely return to the camp. However, none of us knew this hour.
After a while I see Lopsang in the snow: he is on his knees, he is sick. Sherpa is the strongest climber in the group, but yesterday he dragged Sandy Pittman's satellite phone that no one needed, and today he pulled her up for five or even six hours in a row. The right of the guide to go first in the group and determine the route is for Lopsang now additional load. Due to the poor preparation of the route by the warring Sherpas, the poor physical condition of Lopsang and Fischer himself, and mainly due to the endless delays caused by the limited abilities of participants such as Sandy Pittman, Yasuko Namba and Doug Hansen, we moved forward slowly and even optimally. for Everest the weather conditions could not help us. Between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m., when it was time to turn back, three-quarters of the climbers hadn't even reached the summit yet. Scott Fisher and Rob Hall were supposed to signal their groups to return, but they weren't even in sight.
Anatoly Boukreev, Mike Groom, Jon Krakauer, Andy Harris, and a long line of climbers on Everest on the South East Ridge, with Makalu behind, May 10, 1996. Photo from the book "Into Thin Air"
At the top of Everest, 13 hours 25 minutes.
Scott Fisher team instructor Neil Beidleman, in conjunction with one of the clients, finally reaches the top. Two other instructors are already there: Andy Harris and Anatoly Boukreev. Beidleman concludes that the rest of his group will show up soon. He takes a few victorious shots and then starts a playful fuss with Bukreev.
Team Scott Fisher on the summit ridge of Everest at 13:00 on May 10, 1996. Photo from Jon Krakauer's book "Into Thin Air"
At 14 o'clock still no word from Fisher, Beidleman's boss. Right now - and not later! - everyone should have started to descend, but this is not happening. Beidleman is unable to contact other members of the team. Porters dragged up a computer and a satellite communication device, but neither Beidleman nor Boukreev have with them the simplest intercom, which weighs practically nothing. This blunder later cost clients and instructors dearly.
At the top of Everest, 14 hours 10 minutes.
Sandy Pittman gets out on the ridge, slightly ahead of Lopsang Yangbu and three other members of the group. She barely drags herself - after all, forty-one years - and falls in front of the top like a mowed down one. Lopsang sees that her oxygen tank is empty. Fortunately, he has a spare in his backpack. They slowly pass the last meters and join the general rejoicing.
By this time, Rob Hall and Yasuko Namba had already reached the top. Hall talks to the base camp on the radio. Then one of the employees recalled that Rob was in a great mood. He said: “We already see Doug Hansen. As soon as it reaches us, we will move down."
The employee relayed a message to Hall's New Zealand office, and a whole bunch of faxes scattered from there to friends and families of the expedition members, announcing their complete triumph. In reality, Hansen, like Fischer, had not a few minutes to go to the summit, as Hall thought, but almost two hours.
Probably, even in the camp, Fisher's strength was running out - he was seriously ill. In 1984, in Nepal, he contracted some mysterious local infection that developed into a chronic illness with frequent malaria-like fevers. It happened that the climber was shaking all day from a strong chill.
Rob Hall, Scott Fisher, Anatoly Boukreev, and Jon Krakauer - photo from John Krarauer's book "Into Thin Air"
A full oxygen tank is the price of human life in the "death zone".
At the top of Everest, 15 hours 10 minutes.
Neil Beidleman has been lounging on the highest point on the planet for almost two hours by this point and finally decides it's time to leave, although the team leader Fisher is still not visible. At this time, I had already reached the southern summit. I will have to continue my descent in the conditions of a snowstorm, and only by 19.40 will I be able to reach Camp IV, where, having climbed into the tent, I will fall into a semi-conscious state due to severe hypothermia, lack of oxygen and complete exhaustion of strength.
The only one who returned to the base camp that day without any problems was the Russian Anatoly Bukreev. At 5 pm he was already sitting in his tent and warming himself with hot tea. Later, experienced climbers will doubt the correctness of his decision to leave clients so far behind - more than a strange act for an instructor. One of the clients later said with contempt about him: “When the situation became threatening, the Russian ran from there with all his might.
Neil Beidleman, 36, a former aeronautical engineer, by contrast, has a reputation for being a calm, conscientious instructor and everyone loves him. In addition, he is one of the strongest climbers. At the top, he gathers Sandy Pittman and three other clients together and begins the descent with them, heading to Camp IV.
Twenty minutes later they run into Scott Fisher. He, completely exhausted, silently greets them with a gesture. But the strength and abilities of the American climber have long been legendary, and Beidleman does not think that the commander may have problems. Sandy Pittman, who is barely moving, worries Beidleman much more. She is shaking, her mind has darkened so much that the client has to be insured so that she does not fall into the abyss.
Just below the southern peak, the American becomes so weak that she asks for cortisone, which for some time should neutralize the effects of rarefied air. In Fischer's team, each climber has this drug with him in case of emergency, in a case under a down jacket, so as not to freeze.
Sandy Pittman is becoming more and more like an inanimate object. Beidleman orders another climber on his team to replace the journalist's nearly empty oxygen tank with a full one. He ties Sandy with ropes and drags her down a hard, snow-covered ridge. To everyone's relief, the injection and the additional dose of oxygen quickly have a life-giving effect, and Pittman recovers enough that he is able to continue his descent without assistance.
At the top of Everest, 15 hours 40 minutes
When Fischer eventually reaches the top, Lopsang Yangbu is already there waiting for him. He gives Fisher the radio transmitter. "We were all at the top," Fisher relays to base camp, "God, I'm tired." A couple of minutes later they are joined by Min Ho Gau and two of his Sherpas. Rob Hall is also still upstairs looking forward to Doug Hansen. A veil of clouds slowly closes around the summit. Fischer again complains that he does not feel well - for a well-known stoic, such behavior is more than unusual. At about 3:55 p.m., he begins his return trip. And although Scott Fisher did the entire route up in an oxygen mask, and in his backpack there is a third, still almost full cylinder, the American suddenly, for no apparent reason, takes off his oxygen mask.
Soon, Taiwanese Min Ho Gau and his Sherpas, as well as Lopsang Yangbu, leave the summit. Rob Hall is left all alone, he still wants to wait for Doug Hansen, who finally shows up around 4pm. Very pale, Doug with great effort overcomes the last dome before the summit. Delighted, Hall hurries to meet him.
The deadline for everyone to turn back had expired at least two hours ago. Later, Hall's colleagues, who were well aware of the New Zealand climber's caution and method, were genuinely surprised by the strange clouding of his mind. Why didn't he order Hansen to turn short of the summit? After all, it was quite clear that the American did not fit into any reasonable time frame that would ensure a safe return.
However, there is one explanation. A year ago, in the Himalayas at about the same time, Hall had already told him to turn back: Hansen had then returned from the southern peak, and for him this was a terrible disappointment. Judging by his stories, he again went to Everest, largely because Rob Hall himself persistently persuaded him to try his luck one more time. This time, Doug Hansen is determined to get to the top by all means. And since Hall himself had persuaded Hansen to return to Everest, it must now have been especially difficult for him to forbid the slow client to continue climbing. But time has been lost. Rob Hall supports the exhausted Hansen and helps him through the last fifteen meters up. For one or two minutes they stand on the summit, which Doug Hansen finally conquered, and slowly begin their descent. Noticing that Hansen is barely on his feet, Lopsang stops to watch the two climb the dangerous cornice just below the summit. After making sure that everything is fine, the Sherpa quickly continues his descent to join Fisher. Hall and his client were left alone far behind.
Shortly after Lopsang is out of sight, Hansen runs out of oxygen in his tank and is completely exhausted. Rob Hall tries to deflate him, almost immobile, without supplemental oxygen. But the twelve-meter cornice stood before them as an insurmountable barrier. The conquest of the summit required the exertion of all forces, and there are no more reserves left for the descent. At an altitude of 8780 meters, Hall and Hansen get stuck and contact Harris by radio.
Andy Harris, the second New Zealand instructor, who is on the southern summit, decides to take the full oxygen cylinders left there on the way back to Hall and Hansen. He asks for help from the descending Lopsang, but the Sherpa prefers to take care of his boss Fisher. Then Harris slowly rises and goes to the rescue alone. This decision cost him his life.
Already late at night, Hall and Hansen, perhaps already together with Harris who had risen to them, under an ice hurricane, everyone was trying to break down to the southern peak. The section of the path that, under normal conditions, climbers overcome in half an hour, they go for more than ten hours.
Southeast ridge, height 8650 meters, 17 hours 20 minutes
A couple of hundred meters from Lopsang, which has already reached the southern summit, Scott Fisher is slowly descending the southeast ridge. His strength is decreasing with every meter. Too exhausted to perform the tedious manipulation of the railing ropes in front of a series of ledges over the abyss, he simply descends another - sheer. It's easier than walking along the hanging rails, but then, in order to return to the route, you have to walk a hundred meters knee-deep in snow, losing precious strength.
Around 18:00 Lopsang catches up with Fischer. He complains: “I feel very bad, too bad to go down the rope. I will jump." Sherpa insures the American and persuades him to slowly move along. But Fischer is already so weak that he is simply not able to overcome this segment of the path. Sherpa, also very exhausted, lacks the strength to help the commander overcome the dangerous area. They got stuck. As the weather gets worse and worse, they squat down on a snow-covered rock.
At about 20:00, Min Ho Gau and two Sherpas emerge from the blizzard. The Sherpas leave the completely exhausted Taiwanese next to Lopsang and Fisher, while they continue their descent lightly. An hour later, Lopsang decides to leave Scott Fisher and Gau on a rocky ridge and fights his way down through a snowstorm. Around midnight, he staggers to camp IV: “Please go upstairs,” he begs Anatoly Bukreev. “Scott is really sick, he can’t walk.” Forces leave the Sherpa and he falls into oblivion.
The blind client waited twelve hours for help.
And didn't wait...
Southeast Ridge, 70 meters above Camp IV, 18 hours 45 minutes
But not only Rob Hall, Scott Fisher and those who went with them are fighting for their lives tonight. Seventy meters above the rescue camp IV, during a sudden strong snow storm, no less dramatic events unfold. Neil Beidleman, the second instructor of the Fisher team, who has been waiting on top of his boss for almost two hours in vain, moves very slowly with his group. The instructor from Hall's team is, too: he is exhausted with two completely helpless clients. This is Japanese Yasuko Namba and Texan Beck Weathers. The Japanese woman has long run out of oxygen, she cannot walk on her own. The situation is even worse with Withers. During the ascent, Hall left him at an altitude of 8400 meters due to almost complete loss of vision. And in the icy wind, the blind climber had to wait in vain for help for almost twelve hours.
Both instructors, their wards, and two Sherpas from Fisher's team, who emerge from the darkness a little later, now form a group of eleven people. Meanwhile, a strong wind turns into a real hurricane, visibility is reduced to six to seven meters.
To get around the dangerous ice dome, Beidleman and his group make a detour, deviating to the east - there the descent is less steep. At half-past seven in the evening they reach the gently sloping southern cols, a very wide plateau on which the tents of Camp IV stand only a few hundred meters away. Meanwhile, only three or four of them have much-needed flashlight batteries. In addition, they all literally fall down from exhaustion.
Beidleman knows that they are somewhere on the east side of the saddle and the tents are located to the west of them. Exhausted climbers need to walk towards the icy wind, which with terrible force throws large crystals of ice and snow into their faces, scratching their faces. A gradually growing hurricane causes the group to deviate to the side: instead of going straight into the wind, the exhausted people move at an angle to it.
For the next two hours, both instructors, two Sherpas and seven clients wander blindly across the plateau in the hope of accidentally reaching the rescue camp. Once they came across a couple of discarded empty oxygen tanks, which means that the tents are somewhere nearby. They have lost their bearings and cannot determine where the camp is. Beidleman, who is also staggering, suddenly feels a slight rise under his feet at about ten in the evening, and suddenly it seems to him that he is standing at the end of the world. He sees nothing, but feels the abyss beneath him. His intuition saves the group from certain death: they have reached the eastern edge of the saddle and are standing on the very edge of a steep two-kilometer cliff. The poor fellows have long been at the same height as the camp - only three hundred meters separate them from relative safety. Beidleman and one of the clients are looking for at least some shelter where they could escape the wind, but in vain.
Oxygen supplies have long run out, and now people are even more vulnerable to frost, the temperature drops to minus 45 degrees Celsius. Finally, eleven climbers squat down on the hurricane-polished ice under the dubious protection of a rock ledge, hardly bigger than a washing machine. Some curl up and close their eyes, waiting for death. Others beat their comrades in misfortune with their senseless hands in order to warm themselves and stir them up. No one has the strength to speak. Only Sandy Pittman repeats non-stop: "I don't want to die!". Beidleman gathers all his strength to stay awake; he is looking for some sign that would herald the imminent end of the hurricane, and shortly before midnight notices several stars. The snow storm continues below, but the sky gradually clears up. Beidleman tries to get everyone up, but Pittman, Weathers, Namba and another climber are too weak. The instructor understands that if in the very near future he fails to find tents and bring help, they will all die.
Gathering together those few who are still able to walk on their own, he goes out with them into the wind. He leaves four exhausted comrades under the supervision of the fifth, who can still move by himself. In about twenty minutes, Beidleman and his companions hobbled to Camp IV. There they were met by Anatoly Bukreev. The unfortunate people explained to him as best they could where five of their freezing comrades were waiting for help, and, having climbed into the tents, they switched off.
Boukreev, who returned to the camp almost seven hours ago, became worried after dark and went in search of the missing, but to no avail. Eventually he returned to the camp and waited there for Neil Beidleman.
Now the Russian goes out in search of the unfortunate. Indeed, after a little over an hour, he sees the faint light of a lantern in the snowstorm. The strongest of the five is still conscious and apparently able to walk to the camp on his own. The rest lie motionless on the ice - they do not even have the strength to speak. Yasuko Namba seems to be dead - the snow is crammed into her hood, her right shoe is missing, her hand is cold as ice. Realizing that he can drag only one of these poor fellows to the camp, Boukreev connects the oxygen cylinder he brought to Sandy Pittman's mask and makes it clear to the elder that he will try to return as soon as possible. Then he wanders to the tents with one of the climbers.
Behind him, a terrible scene plays out. Yasuko Namba's right arm is outstretched and completely iced over. Half-dead Sandy Pittman writhing on the ice. Beck Weathers, still lying in the fetal position, suddenly whispers: “Hey, I got it!”, rolls to the side, sits on a ledge of a rock and, arms outstretched, exposes his body to the mad wind. A few seconds later, a strong gust blows him into the darkness.
Boukreev is back. This time he is dragging Sandy Pittman to the camp, a fifth is walking behind him. A small Japanese woman and a blind, delirium-ridden Weathers are declared hopeless - they were left to die. 4:30 a.m., soon dawn. Upon learning that Yasuko Namba was doomed, Neil Beidleman burst into tears in his tent.
Before his death, Rob Hall said goodbye to his pregnant wife via satellite phone.
Base camp, height 5364 meters, 4 hours 43 minutes
The tragedy of eleven lost ones is not the only one on this frosty hurricane night. At 5:57 pm, when Rob Hall last contacted, he and Hansen were right under the summit. Eleven hours later, the New Zealander contacts the camp again, this time from the south summit. There is no one with him anymore: neither Doug Hansen, nor Andy Harris. Hall's lines sound so muddled that it's unsettling.
At 4.43 he informs one of the doctors that he does not feel his legs and every movement is given to him with such tremendous difficulty that he is not able to move. In a barely audible, hoarse voice, Hall wheezes, “Last night, Harris was with me, but now it’s like he’s not here. He was very weak." And then, apparently unconscious: “Is it true that Harris was with me? Can you tell me?" As it turned out, Hall had two oxygen tanks at his disposal, but the oxygen mask valve was iced over and he could not connect them.
At 5 am, the base camp establishes a telephone connection via satellite between Hall and his wife Jan Arnold, who is in New Zealand. She is seven months pregnant. In 1993 Jan Arnold climbed Everest with Hall. Hearing the voice of her husband, she immediately understands the seriousness of the situation. “Rob seemed to be hovering somewhere,” she later recalled. - Once we discussed with him that it is almost impossible to save a person stuck on a ridge under the very top. He then said that it's better to get stuck on the moon - more chances.
At 5:31 a.m., Hall injects himself with four milligrams of cortisone and reports that he is still trying to clear the ice from his oxygen mask. Each time he contacts the camp, he asks about Fisher, Gau, Withers, Yasuko Namba, and the other climbers. But most of all he is worried about the fate of Andy Harris. Again and again Hall asks where his assistant is. A little later, the base camp doctor asks what's wrong with Dut Hansen. "Arc is gone," Hall replies. This was his last mention of Hansen.
12 days later, on May 23, two American climbers went to the summit by the same route. But they didn't find Andy Harris' body. True, about fifteen meters above the southern peak, where the hanging railings end, the Americans picked up an ice ax. Perhaps Hall, with the help of Harris, managed to lower Doug Hansen to this point, where he lost his balance and, flying two kilometers down the vertical wall of the southwest slope, crashed.
What fate befell Andy Harris is also unknown. The ice ax found on the southern summit, which belonged to Harris, indirectly indicates that, most likely, he stayed at night with Hall on the southern summit. The circumstances of Harris's death remained a mystery.
At six o'clock in the morning, the base camp asks Hall if the first rays of the sun have touched him. "Almost," he replies, and this awakens hope; some time ago he reported that because of the terrible cold he was constantly shivering. And this time, Rob Hall inquires about Andy Harris: “Did anyone but me see him last night? I think he went down at night. Here is his ice ax, jacket and something else. After four hours of effort, Hall finally manages to clear the ice from his oxygen mask and has been able to inhale oxygen from a cylinder since nine in the morning. True, he had already spent more than sixteen hours without oxygen. Two thousand meters below, the New Zealander's friends are making desperate attempts to force him to continue his descent. The voice of the head of the base camp is trembling. “Think about your baby,” she says over the radio. - In two months you will see his face. Now go down." Several times Rob reports that he is preparing to continue his descent, but remains in the same place.
Around 9:30 a.m., two Sherpas, one of those who returned exhausted from the summit last night, carrying a thermos of hot tea and two oxygen tanks, climb up to help Hall. Even under optimal conditions, they would face many hours of grueling climb. And the conditions are by no means favorable. The wind blows at a speed of over 80 kilometers per hour. The day before, both porters were very cold. At best, they will reach the commander in the late afternoon and only an hour or two of daylight will remain for the most difficult descent, along with the inactive Hall.
Soon, three more Sherpas go up to remove Fisher and Gau from the mountain. Rescuers find them four hundred meters above the southern saddle. Both are still alive, but almost without strength. Sherpas connect oxygen to Fisher's mask, but the American does not react: he is barely breathing, his eyes roll back, his teeth are tightly clenched.
Deciding that Fischer's position is hopeless, the Sherpas leave him on the ridge and descend with Gau, who is somewhat affected by hot tea and oxygen. Tied to the Sherpas with a short rope, he is still able to walk on his own. Lonely death on a rocky ridge is the lot of Scott Fisher. In the evening Boukreev finds his icy corpse.
Meanwhile, the two Sherpas continue to climb towards the Hall. The wind is getting stronger. At 15:00, rescuers are still two hundred meters below the southern peak. Due to frost and wind, it is impossible to continue the journey. They give up.
Hall's friends and teammates have been begging the New Zealander all day to go down on his own. At 6:20 p.m., his friend Guy Cotter contacts Hall: Jan Arnold in New Zealand wants to speak to her husband via satellite phone. “Wait a minute,” Hall replies. - My mouth is dry. I’ll eat some snow now and answer her.”
Soon he is again at the apparatus and wheezes in a weak, distorted voice beyond recognition: "Hello my treasure. I hope you're in a warm bed now. How are you doing?".
“I can’t express how worried I am for you,” the wife replies. Your voice is much stronger than I expected. Are you not very cold, my love?
“Given the height and everything else, I feel relatively good,” Hall replies, trying to reassure his wife as much as possible.
"How are your legs?"
“I haven’t taken off my shoes yet, I don’t know for sure, but I think I earned myself a couple of frostbites.”
“Yes, I don’t expect you to get out of there completely without loss,” Jan Arnold shouts. - I only know that you will be rescued. Please don't think about how lonely and abandoned you are. Mentally, I send you all my strength! At the end of the conversation, Hall told his wife, “I love you. Good night my precious. Don't worry too much about me." Those were his last words. Twelve days later, two Americans, whose path passed through the southern peak, found a frozen body on a glacier. The hall lay on its right side, half covered with snow.
The bodies of the living and dead climbers were covered with a crust of ice.
On the morning of May 11, when several groups were making desperate attempts to save Hall and Fisher, at the eastern edge of the South Col, one of the climbers found two bodies covered with a centimeter layer of ice: they were Yasuko Namba and Beck Weathers, who had been thrown into darkness by a strong gust of wind the previous night. Both were barely breathing.
The rescuers considered them hopeless and left them to die. But a few hours later, Weathers woke up, shook off the ice and wandered back to the camp. He was put into a tent, which was blown off the next night by a strong hurricane.
Weathers again spent the night in the cold - and no one bothered about the unfortunate: his situation was again considered hopeless. Only the next morning the client was noticed. Finally, the climbers helped their comrade, who had already been sentenced to death three times. To quickly evacuate him, the Nepalese Air Force helicopter climbed to a dangerous height. Due to severe frostbite, Beck Weathers had his right hand and fingers on his left amputated. The nose also had to be removed - its likeness was formed from the skin folds of the face.
Epilogue
During the two days of May, the following members of our teams died: instructors Rob Hall, Andy Harris and Scott Fisher, clients Doug Hansen and Japanese Yasuko Namba. Min Ho Gau and Beck Weathers suffered severe frostbite. Sandy Pittman suffered no serious damage in the Himalayas. She returned to New York and was terribly surprised and confused when her report on the expedition generated a flurry of indignant and contemptuous responses.
0b author:
Jon Krakauer lives in Seattle (USA) and works for Outside magazine. His diary of the fateful expedition to Everest in May 1996, Into Thin Air, sold 700,000 copies in the United States and became a bestseller.
Rob Hall - This 35-year-old New Zealander was considered a star among the organizers of paid ascents. A calm, methodical climber and a brilliant administrator, he has stood on the planet's highest peak four times already. At the same time, he managed to safely bring 39 people to the top. After his ascent in May 1996, he became the only Westerner to climb Everest five times.
Three versions of one terrible tragedy, told by its participants and researchers
Everest 1996
Three versions of one terrible tragedy,
told by its participants
and researchers
In the cinemas of the world, the film "Everest" is in full swing, dedicated to the terrible events of 1996 that unfolded on the "roof of the world" due to massive commercial expeditions, inconsistency in the actions of guides and unpredictable weather. The dry summary of the tragedy is as follows - on May 10-11, 1996, after a series of ascents, 8 climbers forever remained on the mountain: a storm that suddenly caught them on a late descent disoriented the travelers, forcing them to wander in complete darkness and blizzard in the death zone without oxygen. Thanks to several night outs of one of the guides, three climbers were saved; another, presumed dead, later came to the camp on his own, half-dead and frostbitten. About the tragedy on Everest in 1996, at least 4 books were written, dozens of articles and several films were shot, 2 of them were feature films. But for almost 20 years, no one has managed to put an end to the discussion - except, perhaps, the new film by Balthazar Kormakur mentioned above. Today we will turn again to this terrible drama and present three main points of view on the events of May 1996.
The main controversy unfolded between Jon Krakauer (now living), a member of the Adventure Consultants expedition, who went to Everest as a guest journalist from Outside, and the Mountain Madness expedition guide, Anatoly Bukreev, one of the most prominent climbers of the Soviet school, who conquered 11 eight-thousanders of 14 and those killed on Annapurna in 1997. Today we will try to understand this avalanche of mutual accusations and understand why, despite the total popularity of the views of the Outside journalist, it was Bukreev who was given the award for courage in the United States, and in the film Everest the role of the Russian is one of the leading ones. So, meet: theses from the books "In rarefied air" (Jon Krakauer, USA, 1997) and "Climbing: tragic ambitions on Everest" (Anatoly Boukreev, Weston de Walt, USA, 1997), as well as
- Statistics on the dead on May 10, 1996:
- "Adventure Consultants": 4 dead (2 guides, 2 clients)
- "Mountain Madness": 1 dead (guide)
- Indian expedition: 3 dead (military)
reconciling disputant version from the movie "Everest" (Balthazar Kormakur, USA, 2015). And although the outcome of the tragedy and the lists of the dead are described in detail on Wikipedia and various portals, we still warn you: be careful, spoilers!
Version number 1: the accusation
Jon Krakauer is one of the most notable US outdoor journalists of the last 20 years. It was he who wrote the book-investigation about Alex Supertramp - a traveler who traveled alone across America to Alaska and met his death there. Based on this book, the cult film "Into the wild" was shot, which fans of free travel consider the most important movie of the 2000s. But long before that, an important literary achievement of Krakauer was an attempt to understand the tragedy on Everest in 1996, in which he was a direct participant. He belonged to Rob Hall's unfortunate Adventure Consultants expedition, which buried most of its members on that ill-fated day. It was he who first spoke publicly and announced his version of what happened - first with an article in Outside magazine, then with the documentary novel Into Thin Air.
Krakauer focuses on the mistakes of guides: unhealthy competition, lack of proper organization, inattention to client illnesses and lack of a plan in case of a disaster.
Krakauer focuses on the mistakes of guides: their desire to compete with each other in the quality of the service provided in order to attract new participants for the next year, the lack of a proper level of organization, inattention to the needs and illnesses of clients, and, finally, the lack of a plan in case of a disaster. In the bottom line, all his claims are true: Rob Hall, the head of the "Consultants", at that time really was a monopolist of commercial ascents on Everest, but the experienced and adventurous Scott Fisher ("Mountain Madness"), who was preparing for the expedition, suddenly began to step on his heels almost at the last moment, he recruited the strongest climber of the Soviet school, Anatoly Bukreev, as a guide. Hall got Outside's best-selling correspondent Jon Krakauer on his team, giving him a good discount and literally snatching him out of Fischer's hands. Fisher, in turn, took Manhattan star, socialite Sandy Pittman, to the mountain, promising NBC to go live from the mountain. Naturally, behind all this debate and attempts to please elite clients, real organizational issues have been left far aside.
Frame from the movie "Everest". Photo: independent.co.uk
Hall, Fisher and other guides who were on the mountain, in the general pursuit of fame, did not keep track of a huge number of things: safety ropes (handrails) were not hung along the entire route, which greatly slowed down the ascent; many clients were frankly unprepared for the ascent (poorly prepared physically or insufficiently acclimatized), and the control time for returning from the mountain was never exactly named, which is why many climbers stood unforgivably long at the top, losing precious minutes. Finally, Fisher's team didn't even have proper walkie-talkies, which prevented the team from coordinating when disaster struck. But for some reason Anatoly Bukreev got the most from Krakauer - the only one who was able to orient himself and go out at night to help his clients. It was Bukreev, during the night out in a terrible snowstorm, who discovered a group of 5 people lost 400 meters from the camp and saved those three who could still walk. Nevertheless, Krakauer writes in his book that the Russian climber was taciturn and did not help clients, followed his own climbing and acclimatization schedule, which he alone understood, did not use oxygen on the ascent, and in a difficult situation left all those who died higher on the mountain . Oddly enough, the fact that Krakauer blames Boukreeva saved the lives of three people: the cylinders he saved were useful to those who were dying of frostbite in the disaster zone, and an early return to the camp from the mountain allowed the climber to make two night searches in absolute solitude. lost. Perhaps it was the closed, non-contact nature of Bukreev and his poor English that prevented Krakauer from understanding the situation, but he did not refuse the written words even after the death of Anatoly in 1997 on Annapurna, although he agreed to review other points in his book.
Scott Fisher (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Rob Hall (Jason Clarke) in Everest. Photo: wordandfilm.com
For some reason, Anatoly Bukreev got the most from Krakauer - the only one who was able to navigate and go out at night to help his clients
The fact that the world has completely trusted Krakauer and his point of view seems very strange, if not suspicious. A journalist who at the last moment switched from one team to another because of the price; an unprofessional (albeit strong) climber who not only managed to get to the tents on his own, but also to go to the aid of a group of 5 people in distress, who made a number of serious factual errors (he confused Martin Adams' client with the guide of the "Consultants" Andy Harris, who died higher up on the mountain, thereby giving vain hope to his relatives) - how could Krakauer give an objective assessment of what happened on the mountain, just a few weeks after what happened? As in the case of the later book “Into the Wild”, all the relatives of the victims, without exception, were offended by Krakauer: Rob Hall’s wife for the publicized last conversation with her husband via satellite phone, Fisher’s friends for accusations of unprofessionalism, the husband of the deceased Japanese climber Yasuko Namba - for the fact that, like the others, he considered the still breathing woman unworthy of salvation. Be that as it may, many of his arguments are valid, and the book "In rarefied air" was and remains an absolute bestseller among all literature about the tragedy on Everest in 1996.
Rob Hall speaks to his wife on a satellite phone. Frame from the movie "Everest", kinopoisk.ru
Version number 2: feat
Dumbfounded by Krakauer's accusations, Bukreev responded to the journalist with the book "Ascent", the main work on which was done by the interviewer Weston de Walt. Oddly enough, in many ways his explanations do not contradict Krakauer's theses, but confirm them: Boukreev tells in detail about the devastation that reigned during the preparation of the Fischer expedition and how desperately they tried to hide from the clients the fact that oxygen was barely enough to rise and the descent of all participants, and the money remaining with Fisher will not be enough for rescue operations in case of emergencies. Bukreev was also surprised by the fact that the most experienced climber Fisher did not follow the acclimatization schedule, ran up and down the mountain to meet the needs of clients, not sparing himself, and signed his own death warrant. In addition, Boukreev was much more sober in assessing the abilities of his team members: several times he asked Fisher to “deploy” several participants, but he was adamant and wanted to bring as many clients to the top as possible. These actions put the lives of other climbers at risk: for example, the senior Sherpa Lobsang Jambu, instead of hanging ropes on a dangerous section of the route, actually dragged the overworked Sandy Pittman upstairs.
The partial apologies that Krakauer included in the 1999 reprint of his book were no longer seen by Boukreev: in December 1997, he died on Annapurna
Bukreev also made two important mistakes: during the night exits, he decided that it was no longer possible to save Yasuko Nambu and Beck Withers, who were frostbitten and did not show signs of life, and returned to the camp with climbers who could walk. The next day, the expedition members again returned to the frozen comrades and considered their condition hopeless, although they were still breathing. Beck Withers returned to the camp against all laws of life and physics. Yasuko Namba died alone among the ice and stones. Subsequently, during an Indonesian expedition in April 1997, Boukreev found her body and built an arch of stones over it to prevent high mountain birds from eating. He repeatedly apologized to Namba's widower for failing to save her. Bukreev failed to help his boss: in the book, he says that, unlike the Sherpas, he perfectly understood that Fischer had no chance of surviving after a night in a snowstorm at a great height. However, on May 11, around 7:00 pm, he went upstairs to certify the death of a comrade.
Ingvar Eggert Sigurdsson as Boukreev. Frame from the movie "Everest". Photo: lenta.ru
Weston de Walt devotes several chapters of the book to what preceded the ascent: Anatoly’s high-altitude work (he laid the route with the Sherpas when he realized that he was short of hands), his acclimatization process, working with clients and talking with Fisher. If he and Hall had followed the advice of Boukreev, the victims could have been avoided altogether, but history does not know the subjunctive mood, just as mountains do not know the feeling of compassion. The partial apology that Krakauer included in the 1999 reprint of his book was no longer seen by Bukreev: in December 1997, an avalanche overtook him and high-altitude cameraman Dmitry Sobolev on Annapurna. The bodies were never found. Boukreev was 39 years old.
Ingvar Eggert Sigurdsson as Boukreev. Photo: letmedownload.in
Version number 3: elements
Balthazar Kormakur, who made the difficult decision to make a blockbuster based on the tragedy, which will turn 20 next year, decided not to put an end to the endless debate of the parties, but to go the other way. The creator of the film "Everest" was much more interested in the elements and the challenge that each of the travelers was thrown by the death zone in exchange for conquering the roof of the world. Neither profession, nor family, nor venerable age can stop someone who once caught mountain fever - the film focuses on how each climber hides his illness and weakness in order to reach the top at any cost. To create a reliable story, the film team did not turn to the texts of "professionals" at all - the works of Krakauer and Boukreev were left aside. The greatest attention was paid to the book of Beck Withers - the same client who himself crawled to the camp on frostbitten hands and feet. It is not without reason that it is called “Abandoned to Die”: Withers felt for himself that not only a mountain, but also people in extreme conditions can be cruel. Left for dead three times (the first time by Rob Hall on the rise when he was struck by snow blindness, the second time on the South Col, and the third time at night in a camp tent during a new storm), he nevertheless managed to save more than his life , but also a sympathetic attitude towards other participants in the tragedy.
The creators of Everest did not take sides: they sought to show the personal drama of everyone who was destined to be on the mountain that day, and the struggle for life in spite of all obstacles
Another source of information for the film crew was the transcript of conversations between the leader of the Adventure Consultants and his wife, Jan Arnold. In these dialogues, Rob Hall reports on the situation, freezing on Hillary's steps alone, and tells the details of what happened at the very top in the midst of a storm, and says goodbye to his pregnant wife. The scene of the personal drama in the film is reproduced as detailed as possible: Hall died saving one of his clients, Doug Hansen, whom he once did not have time to lift up the mountain and took with him a second time with an eye to victory. The manifested humanity cost him his life: having started the descent too late and wasting oxygen, both remained forever on the mountain.
Frame from the movie "Everest", kinopoisk.ru
Also, Kormakur, unlike many researchers of the situation, guessed to talk not only with the expedition members, whose memories are clouded by oxygen starvation, cold and horror from the death of their comrades, but also with those who watched the disaster from the sidelines and participated in rescue operations. David Breashears, a member of the IMAX expedition that filmed the documentary about Everest that spring, donated his oxygen to the victims and helped them descend, and also told the creators of the new film many interesting details. The creators of Everest did not take sides: they sought to show the personal drama of everyone who was destined to be on the mountain that day, and the struggle for life in spite of all obstacles.
However, we still know something about which of the climbers the creators of the new film sympathized with: in Everest, Krakauer only had a couple of remarks - a strange question “why are you all here” in the base camp, addressed to the expedition members, and the phrase “I won’t go with you,” thrown to Bukreev before the start of his rescue operation. But the team approached the selection of an actor for the role of the Russian climber as seriously as possible (he is played by the Icelandic movie star Ingvar Sigurdsson, who has already played Russians), and Boukreev himself is shown in detail in the climbers' rescue scene.
If you believe the Sherpas - the indigenous inhabitants of these places - every act has its consequences and every sown seed of karma will come up sooner or later. Since that tragedy, much more terrible events have occurred on Everest. And now, 20 years later, in the lenses of the cameramen of Kormakur, the tragedy on Everest in 1996 is gradually losing its heroic flair and becoming what it really was - a fatal combination of circumstances, mistakes and omissions of many people. All this would not have led to anything serious if it were not for a terrible unforeseen storm that collected bloody tribute on the mountain. Despite the horror of the situation, the drama at its peak taught those who advocated commercial ascents a lot, forcing them to be more careful and prudent, and reminding clients of the value of great ambitions. And if, despite everything, the eight-thousanders still beckon you, we advise you to dive as seriously as possible into the Everest 1996 case and decide for yourself whether you are ready to pay a similar price for your name to be inscribed in history.
Robert Edwin Hall was born in 1961 in Christchurch, in the south of New Zealand (New Zealand). He was the youngest of nine children in the family, and the Halls lived near the mountains, so he began to go in for mountaineering from childhood. It is also known that when Rob was only 14 years old, he offered the Alp Sports company the design of clothing for climbers, and soon Rob had already left school and began working as a designer. A couple of years later he was already a manager, and even later moved to the largest company in New Zealand for the production of sports equipment - Macpac Wilderness Ltd.. However, work for hire occupied almost all the time of young Rob, and in the meantime he was just rushing to the mountains, and therefore, at the age of 21, he switched to his own business, opening a small company "Outside". This allowed Hall to devote more time to his favorite mountains.
By this time, Rob had already managed to climb some very remarkable peaks, such as Ama Dablam (Ama Dablam) and Numbur (Numbur) in the Himalayas (Himalayas), but he dreamed of more, and by the end of the 1980s made several attempts to conquer the eight-thousanders .
His partner and close friend was Gary Ball, and together they conquered Mount Everest in 1990. It was a huge victory, it gave both of them confidence in their abilities, and the friends decided to set a kind of record by conquering seven other eight-thousanders of the world in seven months.
They were successful, and in the early 1990s, Rob and Gary opened their own company, calling it "Adventure Consultants". They were engaged in the organization of commercial groups and hikes to the peaks, and soon the mountain guides Hall and Bolle were already well known - in 1991 they simply virtuoso escorted their first group to the top of Everest.
Success was inspiring, the business was gaining momentum, ahead of Rob and Gary new, yet unconquered peaks awaited. But fate decreed otherwise - in 1993, as a result of pulmonary edema during the ascent, Gary died. Broken by the death of a friend and companion, Rob managed to pull himself together and continue to work.
In 1996, Hall planned another expedition to Everest - his group included guides New Zealander Andy Harris (Andy Harris) and Australian Mike Groom (Mike Groom) and six of Rob's clients. On May 10, all nine people (three guides and six clients) climbed Mount Everest, and when they began their descent, a strong storm arose. In general, 1996 was the most tragic year in the history of Everest - it was then that the largest number of people in history died on its slopes. So, Rob's group was also unlucky - first they lost a Japanese climber, then two Americans became exhausted from frostbite. The group fell apart and Rob was left with the dying Doug Hansen on the South Summit, but he too died soon after. The Nepalese from his base camp valiantly tried to organize help, but bad weather prevented them from reaching the summit.
In the late afternoon of May 11, Rob radioed the base camp and asked to speak to home, his pregnant wife, Jan Arnold. This was his last communication session, and after that no one saw Rob Hall alive. As it became known later, in a conversation, he convinced Jen not to worry and go to bed calmly.
His body was found on May 23 by climbers from the IMAX expedition. Rob's daughter was born two months after the tragedy, she was named Sarah.
Best of the day
Later, many wondered why Rob Hall, an experienced climber and guide, did not cancel the ascent, because he knew exactly about the coming snowstorm. So, the only thing that could explain this was excessive self-confidence and a desire to take risks. At the same time, many professionals understood that since he was carrying out a commercial ascent, he should not have exposed the lives of clients, who, moreover, paid huge money for the ascent, to such a terrible risk. However, it was impossible to fix anything.
It is known that much later, already in 2010, Hall's body was thrown down. When the Nepalese who organized the expedition to bring down the bodies of the dead climbers turned to Rob's widow, Jen, thanked, refused, citing the fact that she no longer wants people to put themselves at risk.