Universal Conflicts...... Commitment of the Sherpas and the Curse of the Homeland

It is amazing how many cultures are represented on an expedition team up Mt. Everest. There were as many as 17 different cultures climbing up the mountain in 1996 willing to do whatever they could to reach the summit. The mountain practically pulls them in and brings conflict into their lives because although they know it is extremely dangerous and the risk of their life, they take the chance. There were guides, sherpas, clients, and many more people with different occupations wanting to achieve the dream.

The Sherpas are invaluable members of an expedition, men that are native to the mountain and are paid to cook, work, dig, hall, and load. They help the guides and the clients because Mt. Everest is part of their homeland and it is visible to them every day. I remember some clients feeling badly because they felt like they were not doing any work at all. There is no way the guides could summit Mt. Everest with their expeditions without the help and commitment of the their sherpas.

The universal conflict in climbing Mt. Everest is how these sherpas love but also hate the the pull of the mountain. Most sherpas loved to climb but all of them also needed to make money and so it was a job they could not turn down.

One Sherpa thought the mountain was extremely cursed because his mom and dad had died there when working hard on the peak. Three of his other siblings died from various accidents on the mountain and he and his sister got split up into orphanages in two countries. This was absolutely horrific for the orphan Sherpa.

There are many sherpas that became extremely loyal to their guides as well. One example is Ngawang who struggled with edema when climbing with his boss, Scott Fisher. Fisher let him wander away for too long with a client, putting too much trust in his ability to get to the top alone. He died because of this.

There was another sherpa named Lopsang who was absolutely committed to same guide, Scott Fischer and would do anything he needed to do for him. He gave up his life trying to save Scott and before he died he confessed that he was the one to blame for Scott’s injuries, illness and eventually, his death.

One Sherpa fell into an ice crevasse and was carried down 3000 feet because he was severely injured. A few years later, he had the desire to go back on another expedition and climb which most any climber of any culture would do.

I can see why the sherpas and their families struggle with taking this job not knowing if they are going to survive each climb.

The easiest way I see to compare this to universal conflicts in general is to use the example of teenagers and their addiction to alcohol and drugs. Teens get pulled into drugs and booze just like climbers were pulled into climbing Mount Everest. All is fun for both the young ones and the climbers until someone gets hurt or into trouble. Both drugs and Everest can ruin the lives of not only the one involved, but their families as well. Its just like how at first all of the climbers are happy when they are getting ready to ascend the mountain, but are usually either killed or injured if they even get to the top of Everest. Also, its like how when the teens drink and smoke around friends they are happy but once they get caught by the police or by their parents, the fun is over.

I will finish this journey with this quote from an American Climber.

"Once in their lifetime, every person should journey to a place where legends live, where everything is bigger than life. Everest has always represented nature at its most powerful, most awe-inspiring, most unconquerable." --- An American Mountain Climber

Lessons of a Journey…. Despair and Hope

I hate the fact that Everest poisoned many lives for not only the people who climbed the mountain, but the families and friends of the man or woman who had lost their lives. Relationships were destroyed and marriages were wrecked. It would be hard to live alone or with your baby waiting for your husband or wife to return for a half of a year. The sad part is, that some climbers never come back, sending families into depression or loss of money. One wife who had lost her husband to the harsh mountain of Everest was so sad that she had to be sent into a hospital because of how badly she was depressed. Climbers who came back alive stated that it was the worst experience that they have ever had. Some were in great remorse because of the fact that they could have helped someone, but they were worried about their own safety, like many others and me. Even though I was extremely tired and wiped out, I feel like now I could have some how saved one of the clients or guides from dying at the time.

What happened on Everest continues to take up many of my thoughts each day. I received a lot of feedback from the article that I wrote in Outside magazine. Some of it was understanding, but some of it was very critical. I look at the actions that I took on the mountain and feel like I could have done more. Andy Harris dies only 350 yards away from my tent but I was too weak and too out of it to help.

One of the other clients on the expedition named Beidleman actually saved five lives, but felt haunted everyday at work from then on because he failed to save one client who was not even on the same expedition, nor his own responsibility. Everest had negatively changed the lives and thoughts of climbers by its way of nature in which the expeditioners will never forget.

But on a positive note, there are some that have learned and moved on from the horrible day on Everest and this has given me hope that someday I too will not let it haunt me. I was able to talk with Lou Kasischke a few months later and this is part of what he said. “Everest was the worst experience in my life. …. I learned some important things about my life, others and myself. I feel now I have a clearer perspective on life. I see things today I never saw before.” I also talked to Beck who had to be evacuated from Everest. He had his right arm amputated halfway below the elbow, all four fingers and thumb removed from his left hand and his nose amputated and reconstructed with tissue from his ear and forehead. It is incredibly amazing that he conquered these changes in his life with such a positive attitude. He did not know if he was going to be able to continue his career as a physician, but at the same time, he did not blame anyone for what happened to him.

The journey was all about how you dealt with the ending. Regardless, it changed all of our lives forever.

Mt Everest 1996

Journey Themes and Attitude….

Attitude is everything when it comes to reaching the summit of Mt. Everest. There was not a climber that I met that was not positive that they would get to the top successfully. Even guides were willing to risk their lives so that their clients would get to feel the thrill of getting to the top. Rob Hall was leading me as my guide and inspiration. He was very well respected in the climbing world. One of the climbers in our expedition was Doug Hanson. Hanson was a postal worker who had two jobs just so he could pay to summit Mt. Everest. Just the year before, Hanson had been turned around just below the summit because it was unsafe to keep going. He was very disappointed and so was his guide Rob Hall. After many phone calls that next year, Hall convinced Hanson to try again. Hanson was having a hard time reaching the summit, but he never gave up. Hall wanted him to reach the summit so desperately that he ignored the time deadline for getting to the top and waited for Hanson to reach him. Even though Hanson was very weak, Hall grabbed him and pulled him up the last few yards so that he could touch the peak. However, Doug died before he could get far enough down to reach Hall. Rob just sat and waited until Doug came down, which was never, so Rob Hall passed away sitting very close below the summit as the storm came into full power.

Communication was also an important key for surviving the climb on Mt. Everest. The main way we communicated at the top was with radios. The problem was that we did not have enough radios, the connection was bad only for our expedition, and it was hard to hear exactly what was going on. The storm did not help this and neither did the softness and the infirmness in each clients voice because of fear. A perfect example is the struggle Scott Fisher had during his descent of Everest. Beck, a client, was at a place where there were oxygen canisters available for climbers who had run out. For certain climbers if they ran out of oxygen, this could mean death. Beck had lost some of his mental awareness and told Fischer that all of the canisters were empty. It was later realized that the oxygen canisters were full. If someone had questioned Beck or have tried an oxygen canister on, Fischer may have survived. If more people had radios, lives may have been saved.

The mental and physical awareness of the climber is also important. The climbers knew that they were at risk of developing serious illnesses during their climb. The altitude is a major obstacle. This is why we took so long to get up. We have to acclimate our bodies by going slowly. HAPE is one illness that can occur. This is High Altitude Pulmonary Edema and comes from climbing too high and too fast. Your lungs fill with fluid and it can cause death. The only real cure is to rapidly descent. HACE is High Altitude Cerebral Edema, which is a severe (frequently fatal) form of altitude sickness. This causes swelling in the brain tissue from fluid leakage. These both impair your judgment and make it hard to make very important safety decisions when climbing. It makes you do things you would not do in different circumstances. There are also problems with hypothermia; frostbite and fatigue that can make it hard to accomplish your summit goal. This may stop whole teams of getting to the top because of their respect to help out an ill climber.

In our case, it was the power of nature that made everything that happened close to the summit even more dangerous. With the risk of avalanches and the hurricane that swept late in the day on May 10, 1996, we were overcome with helplessness. With the windstorm, there was no visibility and once darkness set in, it was hard to tell where the missing people were.