Mount Everest

On May 15, 2006 British climber David Sharp died 450 meters from the summit of Mount Everest. This was his third attempt at summiting the legendary mountain, and unlike his previous two attempts he successful reached the top. Also unlike his first two attempts he never made it down the mountain. On May 23, 2006 the controversial story of Sharp’s death entered the media.

I heard only the barest of details in passing that night since I was making dinner with the news on and only caught bits and pieces of various stories that evening. What I heard appalled me. I couldn’t understand how 40 climbers could pass the dying man on their way up to the summit without attempting to help him in anyway. Were people really that callous towards human life, or was something else going on here?

Over the next few days as more details emerged I became increasingly bothered by the story and all the unanswered questions I had surrounding it. I knew so little about Everest beyond the pop culture awareness of its history, so like a good historian I began to do some research. After watching a brief segment on Canada AM I was turned onto the book, “Into Thin Air” by Jon Krakauer. Both host’s of the show heartily endorsed the book as one of the best non-fiction books about Everest and what it is really like to climb the mountain. I ordered it from my University library and promptly forgot about it as my own life’s demands crowded out other lines of idle thought.

When the book arrived I devoured it. Krakauer was a journalist for Outside Magazine in 1996 when he made his summit bid in order to write an article for the magazine. What started out as a piece on the commercialization of Everest and the conditions on the mountain ended up becoming a book on the most disastrous day in its history, one that left 8 people dead. Written only months after his trip, Krakauer weaves historical expeditions of the mountain with his own trip and leads the reader through a detailed account of the events and factors that led to the expeditions horrible outcome. At times I had to remind myself that the book wasn’t fiction and this actually happened to real live people.

I am still deeply disturbed by David Sharp and Jon Krakauer’s stories, but I found “Into Thin Air” offered me some sort of explanation that the mass media was unable to provide. Question’s had been answered in regards to Sharp’s death, but even more questions emerged. I had no idea how deadly a trek up Everest was, (even during the best season, 1993 with 129 successful ascents, for every 16 people who reached the top one person died) and that people paid upwards of $65,000 for the privilege. To date some 200 people have died making the journey, and conditions on the mountain are so difficult that most of the corpses have been left where they fell- some of them are easily visible from the standard climbing routes.

Exact numbers of the death toll are difficult to get a hold of due to a cloud of silence surrounding almost any death up on the mountain and those who die off the mountain from complications due to high altitude climbing. My sense of justice and decency was inflamed with this revelation. It is incredibly difficult to find any details of those who’ve died attempting to summit. What I did find was one or two websites trying to change this disturbing trend to shroud Everest deaths in silence, almost in denial that they even exist.

Only one website offered me any sort of explanation for the silence: "For years, ExplorersWeb have been fighting the silence surrounding some deaths in the mountains. Each time, we have been told that the secrecy is only a concern for the victims' families and we have no respect. Time after time, it has turned out that the hush has served much less noble agendas: To cover up foul play in mountains without law."

What I have found in my quest for answers has made me look into the greed, sense of entitlement and hubris inherent in human beings. Where amateur climbers believe their hefty fees and expenses have bought them a guaranteed trip to the summit and not just access to the mountain and the expertise of their guides and sherpas. The commercialization of Everest creates an interesting ethical dilemma wherein climbers can bypass a dying human being mere feet away from them and then justify their behaviour because they have paid so much money that ascent becomes more important than saving a life. Their rationale, while seemingly plausible on Everest since it is so difficult, would never be even remotely acceptable if the same thing happened on a city street.

Prior to hearing this story and reading Krakauer’s book I held no such notion of ever climbing Everest and now I have no desire whatsoever to get anywhere near the place- including base camp. “Into Thin Air” is such a powerful, raw and uncensored account of one fateful expedition to Mount Everest, that you’ll wonder why anyone even attempts it in the first place. There is no sugar coating or downplaying of the conditions on the mountain and it drove home just foolish we are to think it has been conquered with modern technology. I finished reading the book over 2 weeks ago, and I am still haunted by it.