Climbing the Mt. Everest without legs.

[Arjunkumar Shastry]

Mark Inglis
Incredible!

[Deepak Bala]

Incredibly crazy ! I cant believe he managed to do it

[Mani Venkatesan]

Amazing chap!

[Daniel Lucas]

Nice! I wish I could do it even with my 2 legs. :roll:

[Ashok Mash]

Same here. Thats something I want to do at some stage, but to be honest, I don't think I would ever have enough passion to do something like that!

[Paul Sturrock]

The one in ten death rate scares me a little. As do the permit costs, which are currently somewhere round $35000 from the Nepalese side.

[Bujji Gadu]

Check this. Shame on his team, if this were true.

[fred rosenberger]

1 in 10? really? that sounds high, doesn't it?

[Jim Yingst]

[Pokri]: Shame on his team, if this were true.

He had no team; it was a solo climb. Nonetheless, shame on the other teams, particularly those still going up. Some of those going down might have already been in a situation where their own lives were in serious peril, and it may be a legitimate decision to keep going rather than try to bring him down, which would increase their own risk. Anyone going up though, apparently still had confidence they were safe enough to continue, and chose to put getting to the top over saving another climber. Or so it seems to me, anyway.

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

Originally posted by Jim Yingst:
Or so it seems to me, anyway.

Me to. I don't understand the mindset.

On the other hand, I don't understand our hero's mindset, either. Did you read how he lost both his legs in the first place?

In a climbing accident!

[Paul Sturrock]

Originally posted by fred rosenberger:
1 in 10? really? that sounds high, doesn't it?

Yeah - horribly high. Though I've never been to Everest myself I have climbed with a good few people who have been there, including some who have guided on Everest. There was a simmilar theme from all of them about why so many die: too many people are too determined to turn back when things look dodgy. One guy told me there is a rule guides are supposed to follow: you set your plan for the accent in stone and don't deviate one iota (unless your change is to give the climb up). This is particularaly important when the altitude makes informed decision making pretty much an impossibility. Too many people have spent too much money and invested too much time in training to contemplate giving up even when the odds look staked strongly against them.

Anyone going up though, apparently still had confidence they were safe enough to continue, and chose to put getting to the top over saving another climber. Or so it seems to me, anyway

Me too. Its the same mindset that gets climbers in trouble though - climbers are too focused on their goal to remember that doing the humane/prudent thing is far more important. After the '96 disaster a story surfaced where a Japanese team had passed a (they thought) dying climber on the way up, making the judgement that he was beyound help. They could have used their spare oxygen and manpower to carry him off the hill and he might have survived. Instead they carried on for the summit. On their way back down (two days later) the man was still alive, though probably by then genuinely beyond saving. A nasty story, but unfortunately not a one-off.
[ May 25, 2006: Message edited by: Paul Sturrock ]

[Cp Baherwani]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12953241/
"More than 1,500 climbers have reached the summit of Mount Everest in the last 53 years and some 190 have died trying."

[Jim] He had no team; it was a solo climb.

The ethics of climbing Everest
It was a 40 member team and none of them thought of saving him or atleast staying with him in his last hours.
[ May 25, 2006: Message edited by: Chandra Prakash Baherwani ]

[Jim Yingst]

Chandra, in the first article 40 is given several times as the number of people who saw him. In the second article, 40 is more specifically the number of people on Mark Inglis' team, all of whow saw David Sharpe. At no point is it indicated that David Sharpe is on the same team as the 40; the first article specifically says Sharpe was solo, and of Mark Inglis: "His own party was able to render only limited assistance and had to put the safety of its own members first". Sharpe was not a member of Inglis' party.

[Cp Baherwani]

Jim! My bad. I read Pokri's post as his team = Mark Inglis' team and misinterpreted your post.

[Jim Yingst]

Hm, maybe that's what Pokri meant - in which case my bad. Oops.

[Robert Hayes]

As a serious climber (although not 8000er) a decade back I was rather impressed by Joe Simpson's books that culminated in "Dark Shadows Falling".

At the end of the day it's not whether a "guy is going to die anyway", but having the decency of being there when he does. At least, that was his take.

Can't recommend "Touching the Void" enough for anyone who can't imagine being left for dead.

[Cp Baherwani]

Another life in danger on Mt Everest
'Dead' Everest climber 'is alive'

Prayers and hope for the best.

[Jeff Albertson]

Originally posted by Chandra Prakash Baherwani:
Another life in danger on Mt Everest
'Dead' Everest climber 'is alive'

This article is also about that Australian climber:

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/05/27/everest-rescue.html

It points out that other climbers abandoned their atttempts at the summit to aid the injured climber.