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Dark Side of Everest Awaits Climbers, TV Viewers |
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Brian Handwerk for National Geographic News |
| April 25, 2003 |
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National Geographic Channels International takes viewers to The Dark Side of Everest through the eyes and minds of those who've struggled with the mountain's powerful and potentially fatal allure. Everest veterans discuss how the mountain's hostile environment can affect the human values of those who dare to challenge its heights. A listing of broadcast dates and times by region can be found at the end of the article. For some mountaineers, the top of the world also represents the peak of human ambition. But when things go badly high on Everest, as they will sooner or later, difficult moral dilemmas play out in dramatic fashion on a global stage. The Allure of the Roof of the World Matt Dickinson was a filmmaker with little high altitude experience and no summit ambitions when he went to the north side of Everest—until the star of his film was sent down with altitude sickness. Aided by guide Alan Hinkes, Dickinson decided to take his place on the summit attempt and complete his movie. "Although I consider myself a relatively rational human being, I have to confess that the closer I got to the summit of Mount Everest the more I wanted to be there," he explained to the National Geographic Channel. "And the fact that someone was dying in a tent a few meters away from us really was overcome by the sheer magnetism of that challenge to get to the summit." That someone was a member of a Hungarian team, in Camp VI at the same time as Dickinson and Hinkes. Though a climbing physician had declared the man a lost cause, his partner visited Hinkes and Dickinson seeking help. The pair determined they were unable to provide the necessary assistance. While a desire for the summit may have influenced their actions, so did the razor-thin margin of survival high on the unforgiving peak, where those who can't walk are left to die. "I have to say if it was one of my team-members then I definitely would have got up and seen what I could have done," Hinkes said. "And then maybe I would have tried to drag them down. But, I'm just saying that, I mean it's impossible to drag someone at that altitude. You can hardly move yourself really." While in retrospect Dickson said he wishes that he and his climber partner had personally looked at the stricken Hungarian climber, Dickson agreed that their own position offered them no chance to help and would have seriously endangered their own lives. "I think there is a very strong sense that there is a line, that once you have crossed over it you really are beyond help on Everest. And I think that is where the moral boundaries become very fuzzy indeed." For physician and Everest climber Ken Kamler at least one boundary is clear and distinct. "I don't think you can justify walking by somebody," he told the National Geographic Channel. "For what purpose? To summit? How important is that? If you've got someone dying in front of you, whatever effort you still have left within you should be expended towards saving that person. You may decide that you don't have the strength or the wherewithal to save that person. But that's a different issue than continuing on toward the summit." Life and Death Decision Making in the "Death Zone" When exactly is a climber beyond help? How much risk should one mountaineer be willing to take on in the quest to save another? Difficult questions become especially so when they must be made by exhausted and oxygen-deprived individuals who may have no medical training whatsoever. Those unable to walk in the death zone—the area above 7,600 meters (25,000 feet) where climbers breathe only one-third of the atmospheric oxygen found at sea level—have traditionally been considered beyond help. But the miraculous recovery of Texas pathologist Beck Weathers in 1996 called this notion into question. The unconscious Weathers was left for dead on the South Col during the brutal storm of the well-publicized Mountain Everest climbing season of 1996. But somehow, someway, Weathers regained consciousness and motor functions and staggered like a zombie into Camp IV#&151;and the enduring lore of Everest. His miraculous recovery was unprecedented, and his perspective on the human and moral conditions of Everest is unique. "The decision to triage us to death I understand," he continued. "I don't know that I would agree with it. Certainly not in retrospect, because obviously I made it and you wonder what might have happened to Yasuko [Namba] had she been brought back." The Japanese climber perished. But while help is often impossible, that's not always the case. The list of Everest heroes is a long one. Since the earliest years, climbers have repeatedly risked everything from their summit bids to their lives in order to help others in trouble. So, too, have many Sherpas who repeatedly risk their lives on the mountain to earn a living rather than for recreation or glory. Their selflessness and concern for others in the face of danger has become the stuff of Everest legend. Seven-time Everest summiter Pete Athans put his commercial group's summit attempt on hold during the 1996 disaster because of his compelling desire to help. His sense of obligation remained undimmed by altitude. "Yes, you're above 8,000 meters (26,250 feet) but does that absolve you of being human?" he asked. "Does it absolve you of being feeling and helping people? It doesn't." Yet often, climbers pass the stricken and dying on their way to their own summit attempts, reluctant to jeopardize either summit attempts or their own lives for strangers who may appear beyond help. "There is a brutal edge of survivability, above let's say 27,000 or 28,000 feet (8,230 to 8,530 meters)," Dickinson said. "It's almost a cold, rational awareness that you yourself are beyond help. And that is the reason why morally correct behavior seems to go out of the window." But the individuals that Beck Weathers respects the most are able to keep a moral focus under the most trying circumstances. "I don't think morality changes with altitude," he said. "I don't think your obligations to other people change with altitude. Everybody who's going to be on that mountain at some level has physical courage. Moral courage is much rarer. Real character is rare. But I think that the guys who are the big kids climb with certain sense of an ethic to what they do. That it's more important to live within that ethic than it is to go to the summit." The Dark Side of Everest Broadcast Times Australia and New Zealand: Thursday, May 1, 2003—20:30 Asia and Taiwan: Thursday, May 6, 2003—23:00 Canada: Monday, May 26, 2003—01:00 Europe and Africa: Monday, April 28, 2003—21:00 France: Monday, April 28, 2003—22:00 Italy: Sunday, May 25, 2003—02:00 Japan: Thursday, May 1, 2003—20:00 More Mount Everest Stories From National Geographic News: On TV: Surviving Everest Tells of Triumph, Tragedy 1963 Flashback: First Everest Summit by Americans Everest Attempt Is Focus of New Reality TV Show Everest Climber to Emcee Summit Attempt on Live TV Everest: Now Just Another Tourist Trap? Everest Clinic Tends Ills on High Everest Time Line: 80 Years of Triumph and Tragedy Making Movies on the Roof of the World Everest Snowboarder Vanishes On Second Try Altitude a Major Challenge to Climbers The Sherpas of Mount Everest Everest Melting? High Signs of Climate Change Everest Anniversary Expedition Wrap-Up National Geographic 50th Anniversary Everest Expedition Reaches Summit Related Stories From National Geographic Magazine: Everest: 50 Years and Counting Sights & Sounds: The Sherpas American Summit Related Stories From National Geographic Adventure Magazine: After the Storm: '96 Everest Survivors (Audio) Romance on Everest: The Highest Taboo The Everest Mess Little Sister, Big Mountain: Climbing the Himalaya's Cho Oyu Life on Assignment: Himalaya's Cho Oyu (Audio) The Last Cairn: A Climber's Tragic Saga (Excerpt) The Slipping Point: Disaster on Mount Hood 8,000-Meter Man: Ed Viesturs Q&A: Eric Simonson, Everest Sleuth Q&A With the Man Who Found Mallory On Television: National Geographic Channel: Surviving Everest |
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