Krakauer and Mt. Everest

Jon Krakauer’s writing interests me greatly.  I enjoyed Into the Wild and plan to read Into Thin Air as soon as I have some extra time.  I’ve read a couple of articles about the controversy that his work about the Mt. Everest disaster of 1996 stirred up and I feel like anyone who criticizes him for failing to attempt to rescue other climbers either doesn’t have a clear understanding of the situation that climbing Everest really is.  I found this slide show that is presented by the only doctor on the mountain during a summit attempt in 1996 in which twelve climbers lost their lives. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bgqc2m7aBzs

The slide show, along with the Discovery Channel show Everest: Beyond the Limit  paint a vivid picture of what an incredibly dangerous journey that attempting to summit the world’s highest peak is.  The summit of Everest is 29,035 ft, which is the cruising altitude of many commercial jetliners.  There is 1/3 the amount of oxygen in the air at that altitude and the temperatures are sometimes as cold as 40 degrees below zero.  Climbers attempting to summit are exposed to these conditions for 16-20 hours and as happened in 1996 are sometimes caught in storms that cause a complete whiteout.  If you get into trouble anywhere above camp 1 (the first of a series of four camps along the route to the summit) even a helicopter rescue is impossible because the helicopters cannot go higher than 17,000 feet; the air is just too thin.The climb cost more than $50,000 to attempt with a guide and doing so without a guide is suicide for any but the most skilled and lucky climbers.

The people attempting to climb Everest know exactly what they are getting themselves into and are aware that they might die in the process.  There are people who get lost in the whiteout and stray a few yards from the climbing path and are unable to call out or find the path again.  When you’re caught in a storm on the summit you would be foolish to do anything other than attempt to save your own life.  The experienced climbing guides in the slideshow actually tell one of the guides to abandon his weak climber in the hopes of saving his own life.  They reason that there is no sense in having two people die.  The experienced climber makes the decision to stay with the weaker climber anyway and both men perish on the mountain.  I think that some would call this man heroic, but I think he lacked the courage to make the tougher call to leave the inexperienced climber and attempt to save himself and instead just resigned himself to a slow and painful death.

I’m excited to read Into Thin Air soon and see what all the controversy is really about, but my feeling is that the people involved know the stakes and it is not selfish to attempt to save yourself in a dire situation like the climbers found themselves in that May.