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The Forum > Article Comments > Feat first isn't the ideal attitude for climbers > Comments

Feat first isn't the ideal attitude for climbers : Comments

By Margaret Somerville, published 2/6/2006

Helping out fellow mountaineers must take precedence over any determination to reach the top.

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Who are the real heroes?

Just read a post on the rescue of Lincoln Hall, which I would recommend as an antidote to all the doom and gloom. http://www.everestnews.com/Summitclimb2005/lincolnhalleverest05302006.htm Four climbers from Summitclimb, Dan Mazur, Myles Osborne, Andrew Brash and Jangbu Sherpa (UK, US, Canadian and Nepali) abandoned their summit attempt to assist Lincoln Hall. Another member of the party, Phil Crampton, had abandoned his climb earlier, too frostbitten after hauling another climber off the Second Step a week before. I originally presumed that Hall had been assisted because he was part of a big expedition or because he was well-known. Apparently not, it was just common humanity, as these climbers didn't know Hall from a bar of soap.

Lincoln Hall had cerebral edema, frostbite and was obviously in the final stages of hypothermia and near death when rescued. The Summitclimb team stayed with Lincoln Hall for four hours until some sherpas (unnamed) valiantly assisted him back to the North Col.

I can't sum it up any better than Myles Osborne who concluded: "We went over to visit this man of mystery we had found at 8600 meters, in his expedition's medical tent. We reintroduced ourselves and sat there talking about his family and wife. During the conversation, I could not help but wonder, 'How in ANY way is a summit more important than saving a life?' And the answer is that it isn't. But in this skewed world up here, sometimes you can be fooled into thinking that it might be. But I know that trying to sleep at night knowing that I summited Everest and left a guy to die isn't something I ever want to do. The summit's always there after all."
Posted by Johnj, Friday, 2 June 2006 10:41:27 PM
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Who cares?
Posted by plerdsus, Saturday, 3 June 2006 4:47:27 PM
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Yes, climbers probably should be helpful to each other.
It must be the best feeling to have a sherpa lug all your gear up a hill, to see the views including all the rubbish and air canisters left behind by other pilgrims. Even to be able to add just one more piece of rubbish or air canister would really be a dream come true.
I'll exercise a prejudice here and suggest it would appeal to the 4wd brigade with its mindlessness.
It is funny though, I read that a sherpa has been busted for stripping nude for a few minutes at the top...so its OK to leave someone for dead, but not to flash. What if the guy WAS dead and had a fancy pear of mountaineering pants on, what kind of trouble would the naughty sherpa get into if he was tempted to salvage said pants?
Posted by The all seeing omnipotent voice of reason, Saturday, 3 June 2006 6:33:35 PM
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Yes All-Seeing one. Much better to spend our holidays at a resort in Bali, knowing that the local population isn't being exploited while we laze on our banana lounges. Or better yet, why not stay at home and wait till Tracey Grimshaw does the Lincoln Hall interview. Then we can watch it on our sweatshop-produced flatscreen TVs, secure in the knowledge that our lifestyle isn't damaging the world, unlike those selfish climbers.
Posted by Johnj, Sunday, 4 June 2006 2:09:19 PM
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I just think that when you make a decision to climb a mountain like that, then you know of the risks, and you know of the effort and even money that others have invested to achieve their, often once in a lifetime, dream and passion.

If you fail on your way up, why should others be obliged to give up their dream just because you failed with yours. YOu take the risk, you deal with the consequences.

When you take such chances and persue the extreme, then you really cant expect so much.
Posted by Jolanda, Sunday, 4 June 2006 4:01:49 PM
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there are beautiful things in life - like cameraderie or - as it is called in the beatiful country of Oz 'mateship'.

In my home country there is something of a cameraderie of the mountains; this spirit of moutain lodges, the tradition of greeting everyone on the path was to me at least as important as getting to another peak...

It's sad that some people feel the need to kill humnity in themselves, to prove that they are 'superhumans' or 'responsible self-reliant beings'...

Just sad...
Posted by Paul_of_Melb, Sunday, 4 June 2006 6:57:43 PM
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