It was cold.
Cold like you can’t comprehend.
He couldn’t feel his fingers or toes.
He huddled in the snow, trying to shield himself from the wind scouring the mountain.
He was exhausted.
Every breath he took hurt.
His oxygen tank was empty.
Conditions were too poor for a rescue.
His radio crackled to life, Base Camp had managed to patch him through to his pregnant
wife at home in New Zealand to say goodbye.
His final words to her were “Sleep well my sweetheart.
Please don’t worry too much.”
Mount Everest, where you can reach up and touch the heavens.
Man has always strived to conquer the mountain, yet often it’s Mount Everest that does the
conquering.
During a 36 hour period from May 10th-11th 1996, 8 people perished when they were caught
in a blizzard while attempting to descend from the summit of Mount Everest.
What went wrong during that fateful disaster?
Why is Mount Everest so deadly?
Mount Everest straddles the border between Nepal and Tibet.
It’s the crown jewel of the Himalayas, a 1500 mile (2414 kilometer) long mountain system.
Contrary to popular belief, Mount Everest is not the world’s tallest mountain.
With an official measurement of 29,035 feet (8850 meters), the peak of Mount Everest is
the world's highest point above sea level.
The title of the tallest mountain on earth belongs to Mauna Kea in Hawaii.
Measured from its submarine base in the Hawaiian Trough at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean,
Mauna Kea is 33,480 feet (10,204 meters) tall.
However, only 13,796 feet (4205 meters) of the mountain rises above sea level.
Reaching nearly five and a half miles (8.85 km) into the sky, Mount Everest looms large
in terms of human inspiration and awe.
Since the first historic ascent of New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Tenzing Norgay
in 1953, more than 5,000 people have successfully climbed Mount Everest.
Sadly, more than 300 people have died attempting to climb the mountain.
In fact, an estimated 200 dead remain on the mountain.
Some bodies remain according to the wishes of the dead, most remain because of the difficulty
and expense to retrieve a corpse.
In fact, just below Mount Everest’s peak there’s an area known as "rainbow valley",
filled with frozen dead dressed in brightly colored winter gear.
Although there are 15 known routes and route variations to the peak, most climbers use
2 main climbing routes.
One of which is a more difficult climb and approaches Mount Everest’s summit from Tibet
in the north.
The other more popular route comes up from the southeast ridge in Nepal.
The average cost to climb Mount Everest is around $70,000.
The cost includes permits from the government, equipment, provisions, guides, and other essentials.
Aside from cash, climbers need plenty of spare time, climbing Mount Everest takes between
2-3 months.
The Himalayas climbing season is short, lasting only a few weeks.
From late April to late May the frigid weather conditions typically improve, creating a narrow
window of time allowing climbers to ascend.
Mount Everest is generally climbed in a series of stages, rather than a single long ascent.
Climbers will often spend weeks at Base Camp, acclimatizing to the attitude, but also waiting
for suitable weather conditions.
Spring temperatures on Mount Everest can reach as low as -4°F to -31°F (-20°C to -35°C).
At the summit wind speed is often in excess of 100 mi/h.
Assuming good weather, a fit, experienced, acclimatized person can climb Mount Everest
in about 37 hours via the Nepalese route.
That includes four six-hour treks from Base Camp to Camp 1, Camp 1 to 2, Camp 2 to 3 and
Camp 3 to 4, with plenty of rest stops in between, and then a final summit ascent of
10-12 hours.
Climbers die on the mountain in a variety of ways: avalanches, falling rocks, crevasse
falls and from exposure after getting lost in whiteout conditions.
Acute exhaustion, dehydration, hypothermia, hypoxia and severe altitude sickness can also
be deadly.
At the South Base Camp which is 17,598 ft ( 5,364 metres) high on the Khumbu Glacier,
oxygen levels are at about 50 percent of what they are at sea level.
At the peak of Mount Everest, oxygen levels are one third of what they are at sea level.
Common symptoms of altitude sickness are headache, nausea, dizziness, impared or delayed cognitive
abilities and violent, chest wracking coughes with frothy pink sputum.
Ninety-five percent of climbers carry supplement oxygen and use it when they reach the ‘death
zone’ or above about 26,000 feet (7925 meters).
The final 2,780-foot stretch of the climb past Camp 4 is where the majority of deaths
occur.
In the death zone, air has so little oxygen that even with oxygen tanks, climbers have
likened simply breathing as akin to vigorously running on a treadmill while having the flu.
Typically climbers can only spend about 25 minutes atop Everest, to allow time to descend
to Camp 4 before nightfall, to mitigate problems with capricious afternoon weather and to avoid
running out of supplemental oxygen.
Knowing the consequences can be death, why do people try to climb Mount Everest?
Probably for an astonishing sense of achievement; for the amazing euphoria.
You are literally on top of the world, the closest you can be to the stars while still
on earth.
Climbers have called the feeling of standing on Mount Everest ‘indescribable’.
The hopeful 33 climbers who planned to summit on May 10th craved the extraordinary moment
where they’d stand on the roof of the world.
However, for some of them the journey brought fear and pain, for others death.
There were a few different groups on the mountain that day, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police,
a national Taiwanese expedition and two private companies catering to westerners, the Adventure
Consultants team led by Rob Hall and the Mountain Madness team led by Scott Fischer.
Though they were business rivals, experienced climbers Rob and Scott were both leading teams
from Nepal via the southeast ridge, so they decided to cooperate.
Their fourteen climbers and 6 guides would make the journey up the south face of Mount
Everest together.
The wind had been bad, but slowly calmed throughout the evening of May 9th.
At around 10pm, the climbers prepared for the climb; it was decided by Rob and Scott
that weather conditions were good for making a summit attempt.
They left Camp 4 around 11:30pm.
The plan was to have some Sherpas go ahead and anchor the climbing ropes.
It’s not exactly clear why this didn’t happen, one of the lead Sherpas was sickly
and also there was a miscommunication.
Ultimately, not having the ropes rigged ahead of time played a role in the deadly consequences
that occurred...
Once the climbers got into the death zone, the going was slow and everyone except for
one of the guides from Mountain Madness Anatoli Boukreev were using supplemental oxygen tanks.
When the climbers reached ‘The Balcony’ at 27,400 ft (8,350 m), a small area where
they could rest, they ended up waiting for about an hour, burning precious daylight while
the ropes were fixed.
Adventure Consultant client Beck Weathers was having trouble with his vision.
He decided not to press on to the summit and would wait at the Balcony to ascend with Rob
Hall.
A few more times, there were bottlenecks as the climbers waited for ropes to be fixed.
Mountain Madness guide Neal Beidleman stepped up and took over the job of rigging from the
Sherpas.
Around midday, some of the climbers made it to the South Summit, Mount Everest’s second
highest point.
The climbers noticed that the wind was picking up.
Three clients of Adventure Consultants - Lou Kasischke, John Taske and Stuart Hutchison
decided to turn around and return to Camp 4, they didn’t think they could reach the
summit by the turnaround time of 1pm.
Actually, there was some confusion as to whether the turnaround time was 1pm or 2pm.
When mountain climbing, a turnaround time is chosen before the climb begins.
Basically the turnaround time means the absolute last moment on your planned schedule that
you will turn back.
Climbers can become afflicted with “summit fever”.
Summit fever is the obsessive desire and stubborn determination to reach the peak of a mountain
at all costs, ignoring logical decisions.
Summit fever plus sunk cost fallacy plus mental impairment due to altitude sickness can be
a recipe for death on Mount Everest.
Just after 1pm, guide Anatoli Boukreev arrived on the summit.
Not far behind were guide Neal Beidleman and 4 clients Jon Krakauer, Martin Adams, Andy
Harris and Klev Schoening.
Also, there was a big traffic jam of climbers on the Hillary Step just below the summit.
Without supplemental oxygen, Anatoli couldn’t stay on the summit long and quickly began
to descend towards Camp 4 alone.
Over the next hour, some of the other climbers reached the summit and then began to descend.
By 3pm all of the Mountain Madness clients had been to the summit and were on their way
down.
The descending climbers realized that the wind was whipping up.
It began to snow.
Bad weather was creeping up the mountain.
Scott Fischer finally summited shortly after 3:30pm.
He had been ill and errantic on the climb, possibly suffering from High-altitude pulmonary
edema, HAPE for short, or High-altitude cerebral edema or HACE, or a combination of both conditions.
Though Sherpas told him to turn around, client Doug Hansen ignored them and continued to
ascend.
Rob Hall helped him.
Close to 4pm, they finally reached the summit.
Around 4:30 Rob radioed Base Camp, saying that they were low on oxygen and needed help.
Meanwhile, down below guides Neal Biedleman and Matt Groom shepherded a large group of
climbers in increasingly worsening weather.
Beck Weathers, who had temporary blindness joined the group as they passed the Balcony.
By 6pm the storm had become a blizzard with fierce 80 mph winds.
Seventeen climbers were caught on the mountain after dark with a wind chill of 70 below zero.
Most had run out of or are soon to run out of supplemental oxygen.
The climbers couldn’t see where they were going.
There was thunder, lighting and white out conditions so bad that though the group came
within 200 vertical feet of Camp 4, they had to stop and huddle together to wait out the
storm.
Finally at midnight, the weather briefly eased, which allowed the guides to catch sight of
Camp 4.
The group continued on, but four climbers were too incapacitated to move—Beck Weathers,
Yasuko Namba, Sandy Pittman, and Charlotte Fox.
The others made it back to Camp 4 exhausted and on the verge of collapse.
They pleaded that help be sent for the others.
Guide Anatoli Boukreev ventured out into the storm and helped Charlotte and Sandy to Camp
4.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t assist the nearly comatose Beck and Yasuko, especially in the
middle of the storm.
They were deemed beyond help and were left to perish.
Still stranded near the summit, on the Hillary Step were Rob Hall and Doug Hansen.
Base Camp informed them that rescue was not possible.
They suggested to Rob to leave Doug behind, saying that there was a chance he could make
it on his own.
He refused.
During their unsuccessful attempt to descend, Rob briefly looked away and when he looked
back, Doug was gone, most likely fallen over the edge.
Rob maintained radio contact with Base Camp throughout the night.
He got a chance to say goodbye to his pregnant wife, who was patched through from New Zealand
by satellite phone.
Adventure Consultants guide Andy Harris, who was caught in the storm at the South Summit,
also died, his body was never found.
On the morning of May 11th, Scott Fischer and the leader of the Taiwanese team Makalu
Gau were found together by Sherpas at 1200 feet (365 meters) above Camp 4.
Scott was unresponsive.
Convinced that Scott was beyond hope, the Sherpas left him there.
Although severely frostbitten, with assistance, Makalu was able to walk and was guided down
by Sherpas.
Beck, who was left for dead, somehow survived the night.
His companion, Yasuko didn’t.
After being unconscious for hours, he was miraculously revived with a shot of dexamethasone,
a potent steroid hormone with qualities that suppress immune activity and inflammation.
Late on the afternoon of May 11th, Beck staggered into Camp 4 with severe frostbite.
Makalu and Beck were assisted down to Camp 2 and were flown out in a very dangerous helicopter
rescue at 19,860 feet (6,053 meters).
They both survived with amputations due to frostbite.
In all, 8 climbers died during the storm.
Three Indian climbers on the Tibetian side of the mountain, Tsewang Smanla, Tsewang Paljor,
and Dorje Morup.
The leaders of the two western expeditions—Rob Hall and Scott Fischer.
Guide Andy Harris and two clients, Doug Hansen and Yasuko Namba, also perished.
People around the world reacted to the tragedy.
Much was made about the commercialization of Mount Everest and how inexperienced climbers
rely on guides and oxygen tanks to fulfill their dreams when they have no business climbing
Everest.
Anatoli Boukreev was also criticized for not carrying oxygen and leaving clients behind
to climb by himself.
However, if he had not left when he did, he wouldn’t have been physically rested enough
to assist with the rescue of Charlotte and Sandy.
Also, the leaders of the climb, Scott and Rob bore responsibility for ignoring the turnaround
time.
While it’s impossible to know their motives, it’s thought their competitive need to outdo
each others’ businesses encouraged them to make risky decisions.
Since the 1996 disaster, several multi-person fatalities have occurred on Mount Everest.
In 2014, 16 climbers scaling the Khumbu Icefall were killed when a huge wedge of ice the size
of a mansion, broke loose from the side of the mountain and smashed down against slope
below.
Then, in April 2015, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Nepal triggered an avalanche which wiped
out South Base Camp, claiming 19 lives and leading to the cancellation of the climbing
season.
Most recently in May of 2019, 11 climbers died during a bottleneck in the death zone.
As long as mountains exist, humans strive to climb them.
Would you climb Mount Everest?
Why or why not?
Let us know in the comments!
Also, be sure to check out our other video called What Happens At & What Do We Know About
Area 51?!
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