Welcome to Everest 1996

It's the hottest week of the year in my area and I want to write about a place known for being inhospitable because of it's height and cold.

Why?

Well, it starts back a few months ago...on YouTube.

I've had a lot going on for the past nine months and things have only recently started to settle down - not by much, but started. When I'm in a melancholy mood, I often find myself listening to YouTube videos and documentaries (sometimes really old ones uploaded onto YouTube) about tragic events. For about a month, this included the 1996 Everest disaster.

If you are unfamiliar with the events that took place high on Mount Everest on the 10th and 11th of May, 1996, I've linked the Wiki page here. On the dates in question, multiple teams were racing to the top of the world's highest peak. Two of these teams were lead by experienced mountaineers Rob Hall and Scott Fischer. In total, eight people died trying to descend the mountain after a surprise weather event trapped the majority of the climbers in an area known as the "death zone". 

The "death zone" is an area on mountains taller than 8000 meters (26,000 ft) above sea level. At this altitude the pressure of oxygen in the atmosphere is too low to sustain human life. As soon as a person enters the "death zone", they are already starting to die and are on a limited time to leave the area before their body stops working entirely. Often climbers carry supplemental oxygen in tanks with them to mitigate the effects of oxygen deprivation. 

But if the oxygen tanks run out or there's an accident, no one is coming to help you down the mountain from the "death zone". 

Most climbers on Mount Everest who die, do so on the descent and within the "death zone". Some say that it's easy to reach the "ceiling of the world", it's getting back down that's no guaranteed. 

After dozens upon dozens of videos of the specific 1996 disaster I learned that one of the biggest sources of information was Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air. It's a fairly well known nonfiction account of journalist and author Jon Krakauer's actual experience on Mount Everest during the disaster. Spoilers, he lives. 

Krakauer's account is very well known...and heavily criticized. 

My own takeaway reading Into Thin Air was that Krakauer was deeply traumatized by the events that took place, was struggling with a severe case of survivor's guilt, and was using the writing process as a way to process what he lived through. It's really well written, hard to put down, and incredibly interesting. I didn't feel that Krakauer was trying to villainize one person on the mountain, nor did I think he cast blame on anyone.

At least not in the book.

Apparently, Krakauer was a lot more vocal outside of his book and with his first publication in Outside Magazine right after the disaster occurred in his criticism of Anatoli Boukreev, a world famous Russian climber who was one of the guides on Scott Fischer's team. Krakauer was a client on Rob Hall's team. Both Hall and Fisher were in a bit of a competition with each other to get as many clients as possible on Everest's peak to showcase their amazing guiding services.

Boukreev is an extremely important part of the 1996 story. Without his courageous efforts (and there is no denying that what he did was courageous), more people would have likely died. On May 10th, Bougkreev climbed up and down Everest faster than anyone else. Though he was a guide, his understanding of his role was to ensure that clients had all the equipment necessary to summit and return by themselves. He was insistent that Scott Fischer approved of his plan and methods to return to Camp IV (the last camp and relatively safe haven before the race to the summit through the "death zone") before everyone else in case there was an emergency and he needed to return with more oxygen or provide rescue support.

Part his reasoning for not staying with clients is that he climbed without supplemental oxygen. He claimed that by acclimatizing himself and not using supplemental oxygen, he'd be able to better react if all oxygen supplies were completely used up. It's a controversial method and argument, and one that I don't have much of an opinion on as I am not knowledgeable enough on the subject.

Krakauer's (likely) misplaced anger towards Boukreev, inspired the Russian to cowrite his own take on what happened those fateful days in May. His account, The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest and cowritten with G. Weston DeWalt, is a much more technical account of what happened. Boukreev and DeWalt provide insight into the mountain climbing sport and industry that Krakauer's account lacks. Though not as smoothly written, The Climb is a must read for anyone interested in the tragedy and mountaineering as a whole.

Sadly, Boukreev passed away while climbing another 8000 meter mountain, Annapurna, shortly after his book's release in 1997. Boukreev continues to be an icon of the mountaineering community and was awarded the David A. Sowles Memorial Award by the American Alpine Club for his role in rescuing climbers during the 1996 disaster. However, he is still a controversial figure for his role and some of the questions Krakauer raises are valid.

Naturally, I had to read both books.

But there was one more story I wanted to check out before I went on my book ordering spree. That was the miraculous story of Beck Weathers who, despite all odds, survived a night in the "death zone". 

Beck Weathers was thought dead multiple times on Mount Everest. He was an experienced climber who ran into some trouble with his eyesight, becoming blind in the high altitudes after having corrective eye surgery - something doctors didn't know would happen until his experience. He waited for Rob Hall to retrieve him on the descent, but Hall never came. Weathers had to be guided down the mountain when the storm struck. He along with several other climbers huddled in a group, trying to stay warm until either help arrived, the storm ended, or the sun rose. During the night, he started suffering hallucinations and ended up separating from the group. He doesn't remember falling unconscious, but evidently he did.

The miracle was that he woke up.

Having been left again, this time because others thought he was past the point of being saved, he staggered his way into Camp IV. He was placed in a tent and again left alone because everyone thought he would be dead soon. 

Weathers didn't die.

He was discovered to still be alive in Camp IV and carefully brought down to an area on the mountain known as the Western Cwm (Cwm, pronounced koom, is Welsh for valley) near Camp II. Here he, along with another climber, "Makalu" Gau Ming-Ho, were airlifted (it was the highest helicopter rescue at that point) to safety. He lost his hands, nose, and toes.

Left for Dead: My Journey Home from Everest is Weathers's account of his survival on Mount Everest, even when most people thought he was past the point of saving. The smartest thing Weathers did his book was to discuss the events of 1996 in the first forth. The rest of his book was dedicated to his background, how he got into mountain climbing, how his wife and friends helped save him, and his mental health and marriage problems. It's a very interesting look at a person's life and how it changed because of the disaster.

The 2015 movie "Everest" is primarily based on Weathers's account.

I couldn't not read what happened to Weathers. He defied the odds in multiple ways. I'm glad his story included his background, marriage issues, and struggles with mental health both before and after his trip to provide an insight into the clients who want to climb these tall mountains. It's not a book for everyone. It's more of a biography than a true account of what happened in 1996. 

If you haven't already concluded, I ordered all three books and read them in the same order presented above. Krakauer's Into Thin Air is the best written of the three (him being an award winning journalist probably helps). However, the story isn't complete with just his work. If you only have the option to read one, go with Krakauer's, but you'll miss a lot if you don't read Boukreev's.

Weathers wasn't the only other person on the mountain or who survived the the descent that day to write a book. Lene Gammelgaard (client for Scott Fischer), Lou Kasischke (client for Rob Hall), David Breashears (documentarian and climber on Mount Everest in 1996), Ed Viesturs (experienced climber on Mount Everest in 1996), and Michael Groom (guide for Rob Hall) all have books that discuss what happened in 1996.

There were multiple reasons why the events of the 10th and 11th of May were so deadly. The storm is the biggest factor. Without the storm, more people who have survived - full stop. However, some blame should be laid at the feet of Hall and Fischer. Both men were experienced climbers who should have followed their normally strict rules. For reasons only known to both, neither stuck to the turn around time of 1:00PM - the latest time anyone could summit without risking a more dangerous descent in the dark. Fischer was less experienced in the commercial guiding and seemed to have not provided enough instructions for his guides. Additionally, it was fairly clear that he was falling ill and, with everyone knowing he was an incredibly gifted and experienced climber, no one talked him into turning around.

We will never know the whys of the actions committed by Hall and Fischer. Both men tragically died in 1996. Fischer was the only member of his expedition to pass away. Four members of Hall's team died on the mountain. The other three fatalities were from an Indo-Tibetan Border Police team on the opposite side of the mountain.

In total, 12 people died on Everest in 1996. Most of the fatalities are mentioned in all three books. It is currently the third deadliest season of Mount Everest - the first two deadliest season were in 2014 and 2015.

I don't know why I became fixated on this one disaster. My blog post doesn't even scratch the surface of the events that occurred and the stories that are told. There's so much I don't understand and never will. I can watch every documentary, read every book, and listen to people analyze the events over and over and still I wouldn't be able to understand it all. Some things just aren't understandable.

Maybe it's because I just lived through a personal tragedy that I'm still trying to process.

Now, after reading all of this, you might be wondering if I would ever climb Mount Everest. The answer is a solid no. 

The odds just aren't in my favor to make that kind of a climb. It would take a lot more time, money, and energy than I have to even attempt. Additionally, I have little to no interest in seeing any more dead bodies, especially not ones frozen to a mountain that are used as landmarks. Everest is also very crowded and polluted, which is causing problems for the people who live closest to the mountain.

I don't plan on climbing any mountains higher than 8000 meters.

Though I am willing to try Kilimanjaro.

But what about you guys? Would you want to climb up to the highest peak of the world? Would you want to be higher than every other living being? Do you think you'd survive?

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Until next week.