that's some cold blooded shit!
Italians passed us by, says Everest rescuer
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1793494,00.html
Jacqueline Maley
Friday June 9, 2006
The Guardian
An American mountaineer who saved an imperilled Australian climber from certain death on the slopes of Everest has told how his party was refused help by two Italians who pretended they could not speak English.
David Mazur, an American climbing guide, has spoken for the first time about his rescue of the Australian, 50-year-old Lincoln Hall, whom he found sitting on a ledge halfway up the mountain in a psychotic state brought on by exposure and lack of oxygen.
His revelations about the actions of some of Everest's would-be conquerors come weeks after British climber David Sharp was left to die on the mountain by scores of climbers who passed him by.
On May 25 Mr Mazur was guiding two paying clients to the top of the world's highest peak when he came across the Australian, prone, disoriented and freezing, at an altitude of 8,600 metres. Mr Hall had been left a day earlier by his own guides, who pronounced him dead after he had shown no signs of life for two hours. He was without gloves, a hat, oxygen bottles or a sleeping bag. His thinking was disordered and he apparently believed he was on a boat and had pulled off some of his clothes.
Mr Mazur and his team spent the next four hours pulling Mr Hall away from the slopes and plying him with bottled oxygen, food and liquids.
But as they raced against dwindling oxygen supplies to save his life, having abandoned their own hopes of reaching the summit, two Italian climbers walked past them towards the peak.
They asked the Italians for help but the Italians protested that they couldn't speak English and kept climbing. When he returned to base camp, Mr Mazur discovered that the two men could speak English, after all. "I don't know why they did not want to stop to help," Mr Mazur said. "I hope when I am there, in that state, and someone passes me ... I hope it is someone like me."
The incident comes after a season that has claimed the lives of at least 10 climbers. British climber David Sharp was left to die by up to 40 passing adventurers, leading many to question the ethics of mountaineers.
Sir Edmund Hillary, who with Tenzing Norgay conquered Everest for the first time in 1953, was damning about the callousness of modern climbers and said human life was "far more important than just getting to the top of the mountain".
"On my expedition there was no way you would have left a man under a rock to die," he said. Other climbers say when it comes to mountaineering, it is every man for himself, and to help others is to risk your own life.
Mr Mazur said he had no regrets about the action he had taken.
"It was very disappointing for me to miss my chance at the summit, but even more that I could not get my job done," he said. "[But] it was worth it. You can always go back to the summit but you only have one life to live.
"If we had left the man to die that would have always been on my mind ... how could you live with yourself?"
Mr Hall escaped from his ordeal with severe frostbite, water on the brain and a chest infection.
Italians passed us by, says Everest rescuer
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1793494,00.html
Jacqueline Maley
Friday June 9, 2006
The Guardian
An American mountaineer who saved an imperilled Australian climber from certain death on the slopes of Everest has told how his party was refused help by two Italians who pretended they could not speak English.
David Mazur, an American climbing guide, has spoken for the first time about his rescue of the Australian, 50-year-old Lincoln Hall, whom he found sitting on a ledge halfway up the mountain in a psychotic state brought on by exposure and lack of oxygen.
His revelations about the actions of some of Everest's would-be conquerors come weeks after British climber David Sharp was left to die on the mountain by scores of climbers who passed him by.
On May 25 Mr Mazur was guiding two paying clients to the top of the world's highest peak when he came across the Australian, prone, disoriented and freezing, at an altitude of 8,600 metres. Mr Hall had been left a day earlier by his own guides, who pronounced him dead after he had shown no signs of life for two hours. He was without gloves, a hat, oxygen bottles or a sleeping bag. His thinking was disordered and he apparently believed he was on a boat and had pulled off some of his clothes.
Mr Mazur and his team spent the next four hours pulling Mr Hall away from the slopes and plying him with bottled oxygen, food and liquids.
But as they raced against dwindling oxygen supplies to save his life, having abandoned their own hopes of reaching the summit, two Italian climbers walked past them towards the peak.
They asked the Italians for help but the Italians protested that they couldn't speak English and kept climbing. When he returned to base camp, Mr Mazur discovered that the two men could speak English, after all. "I don't know why they did not want to stop to help," Mr Mazur said. "I hope when I am there, in that state, and someone passes me ... I hope it is someone like me."
The incident comes after a season that has claimed the lives of at least 10 climbers. British climber David Sharp was left to die by up to 40 passing adventurers, leading many to question the ethics of mountaineers.
Sir Edmund Hillary, who with Tenzing Norgay conquered Everest for the first time in 1953, was damning about the callousness of modern climbers and said human life was "far more important than just getting to the top of the mountain".
"On my expedition there was no way you would have left a man under a rock to die," he said. Other climbers say when it comes to mountaineering, it is every man for himself, and to help others is to risk your own life.
Mr Mazur said he had no regrets about the action he had taken.
"It was very disappointing for me to miss my chance at the summit, but even more that I could not get my job done," he said. "[But] it was worth it. You can always go back to the summit but you only have one life to live.
"If we had left the man to die that would have always been on my mind ... how could you live with yourself?"
Mr Hall escaped from his ordeal with severe frostbite, water on the brain and a chest infection.
