I stumbled around on a youtube video about all the dead bodies on Mt. Everest, something like 281 are up there. Then that lead me to another video about a guy named David Sharp, a solo climber who went up Everest in 2006, made some decision that ultimately led to him falling gravely ill, holing up in a cave next to a dead body known as green shoes, and 30 people passed him, some seeing him , others did not.
A double amputee named Mark Inglis and 3 other New Zealand climbers stopped to check on him on the way up. He was alive, but mostly incoherent and nearly frozen. They faced a decision as to help him, derailing their potentially once in a lifetime ascent to the Summit, and ultimately they made the decision to leave him there, climb to the top and descend back down. On the way back down they stopped again, he was still alive but in much worse shape, and at that point, no one had enough oxygen to do anything for him.
There is more to the story, especially regarding the decisions David Sharp made from choosing his outfitter to climbing alone to the time he chose to ascend.
So the Everest Test is....
If you planned a once in a lifetime trip to climb Everest, spent upwards of $50K for the climb, trained for months and then encounter a dying man on the mountain 1 hour from the summit, do you make the decision to do whatever you can to save him and forego the climb or do you do what you can in the moment to comfort him and then proceed on knowing you are leaving him to his fate, living the rest of your life knowing you left a person to die?
My wife and I immediately had different answers
FWIW, Sir Edmund Hillary condemned their actions.
Last edited by KFWA; 04/02/21.
