Hillary
blasts modern day Everest climbers’ “horrific” ethics
NewKerala.com
May 24, 2006
London: Sir Edmund Hillary, the first to scale Mt Everest in 1953, has
severely criticised a recent incident whereby one the climbers hailing
from his country New Zealand turned a blind eye from another climber
who was in distress and dying because he ran short of oxygen while
climbing down the peak.
The deceased was later found to be a British national.
Condemning the attitude of modern day Mt. Everest climbers as
horrifying, he said, “the climbers don't give a damn for anybody else
who may be in distress. People have a duty to try to help people they
find on the mountain in distress.”
New Zealand’s Mark Inglis (47), who became the first to climb the peak
despite his two limbs been amputated, had recently revealed that his
team of around 40 climbers saw British national David Sharp suffering
as they climbed up the 29,028 ft high peak. According to him, Sharp was
suffering from oxygen deprivation when he passed him sheltering under a
rock. “Trouble is, at 8,500m it's extremely difficult to keep yourself
alive, let alone keep anyone else alive. On that morning, over 40
people went past that young Brit. I was one of the first. We radioed
and expedition manager Gus said, 'Look, you can't do anything. He's
been there x number of hours, without oxygen. He's effectively dead',”
The Independent quoted Inglis as saying.
Sir Edmund, also a New Zealander, said that such an incident would not
have happened in his days. “On my expedition there was no way that you
would have left a man under a rock to die. It simply would not have
happened. It would have been a disaster from our point of view. There
have been a number of occasions when people have been neglected and
left to die and I don't regard this as a correct philosophy. I am
absolutely certain that if any member of our expedition all those years
ago had been in that situation we would have made every effort,” the
London-based paper quoted him as telling the New Zealand Herald.