SELF

Compassion Chills on Mount Everest

In 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climbed the 29,035-foot peak of Mount Everest. Thousands followed, thanks to Nepal’s lifting its tight restrictions on climbing the legendary mountain. By 2006, more than 2,700 people had reached the summit of the world’s tallest mountain, many paying more than $60,000 for the experience.

One result of this commercial influx has been the erosion of the traditional moral code of mountaineering. In the rush to the top, amateurs who have paid a fortune will do anything it takes to get to the summit, including abandoning other climbers.

David Sharp became a casualty in March of 2006. The thirty-four-year-old engineer from Cleveland managed to reach the summit on his own. However, he ran out of oxygen on the way back down. As he lay dying, forty climbers passed him by, too eager to achieve their own goals to take a chance on offering their oxygen to someone else. David Sharp froze to death.

Ed Viestrus, who has scaled fourteen of the world’s eight-thousand-meter peaks, says passing people who are dying is not uncommon. “Unfortunately, there are those who say, ‘It’s not my problem. I’ve spent all this money, and I’m going to the summit.’ ”

This attitude has produced disgust in many climbers, including Sir Edmund Hillary. “On my expedition, there was no way you’d have left a man under a rock to die,” he said.

 — “The Crowd on Mount Everest,”     The Week (June 30, 2006)