Workout

Scott Fisher and Rob Hall Everest. American climber Scott Fisher, who conquered the Lhotse peak: biography. suffered severe frostbite

There is everything here to touch the Devil’s lair, and the walking dead, and human madness, and it burns like in the furnace of the underworld, but... from the icy abyss.
Either heroes or madmen come here voluntarily. This can be debated for a long time, but the fact remains that inhuman torment is prepared for people here.
This is Everest.
The Mallory-Irving team was the first to reach the summit in 1926. They didn't come back.
Only more than 70 years later, in 1999, climbers discovered Mallory, he was lying head down, frozen into the rock, hugging it with his hands.

Since then, the rock has buried a huge pile of people, many were not buried, and here and there, on the way of ascent, dead bodies appear.

There are also living ones, but often the most correct decision is to leave exhausted climbers to the will of providence, because of the danger of losing your life along with them.
TV channel " Discovery “They found an exhausted Englishman, and could only find out his name, leaving him to die in the icy abyss.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eW6ifxuVFY

One of the biggest tragedies on Everest occurred in 1996.
Journalist and mountaineer Jon Krakauer described it very well and in detail in his diary.

John, along with eight others, became a client of Rob Hall, the organizer of the Adventure Consultants firm.
Rob is a lucky New Zealander, having lifted 39 people to the top in five years. Because of this, the price tag for his services is three times higher than that of others.

The other group is led to the ascent by Steve Fisher, a bodybuilder with the face of a movie star whose company is called Mountain Madness, which more than accurately describes his technique.
Steve is childishly charming, smokes marijuana and loves to drink, sometimes beyond his limits.

Hall and Fisher lead ragtag groups of wealthy clients who are willing to put their lives at risk for large sums of money.
Upon closer inspection, they could be mistaken for a suicide squad.

For example, 47-year-old Japanese Yasuka Namba, with mediocre mountaineering skills, who intends to become the oldest lady on the peak of Everest.
Doug Hansen, a 46-year-old postal worker, having saved up again, is trying to climb his fifth eight-thousander.
The main “star” of Fisher’s group, Sandy Pittman, a member of the prestigious New Yorker Society club, is married to one of the founders MTV .
This is her third ascent.
With her characteristic eccentricity, Sandy drew the attention of major New York newspapers to herself.
Steve Fisher must bring VIP client to the top, this will bring good publicity for his company.
Sherpa Fischer Lopsang drags 35 kg of equipment and the Sandy satellite station up the slope, which later turned out to be impossible to connect at altitude.
Sandy wanted to send emails from 7,900 meters above sea level, and Scott Fisher doesn't have the courage to stop the dangerous whims of his clients.

Morning comes and about 50 climbers are ready to conquer the peak today, and there are so many people on the slopes of the mountain, it’s like a traffic jam during rush hour.
Everyone moves very slowly and often stands.
At night, the senior Sherpas of Hall and Fischer's groups were supposed to tighten the railing ropes, but it turns out they can't stand each other, and the organizers didn't have enough sense to force them to do their job.
Breathing noisily, Lopsang pulls Sandy like a plow horse.

Fisher's assistant Anatoly Boukreev argues with the manager and does not want to help his clients climb up.
Fischer does it himself. Helps one to rise, goes down and rises again. It is clear that he is exhausted.
Beck Withers, a doctor from Texas, gave himself a ticket to the climb on his own anniversary. Due to the thin air, he loses his vision due to surgery.
Rob promises to pick him up after the climb.

Two o'clock in the afternoon comes, the very moment when, according to the rules, it is necessary to turn back.
But this does not happen, Fischer and Hall drag their clients upstairs, signing a verdict for some of them and themselves.

Hall waits at the summit for Doug Hansen for almost two hours. Why didn't Rob turn it around when the time to climb exceeded all reasonable limits?
It turns out that a year ago Rob had already turned Doug around, preventing him from rising to the top. And according to Doug’s stories, Rob strongly persuaded him to try to climb again.

A strong storm arises.

Everyone is very exhausted, Lopsang is throwing up, Sandy is swaying from side to side, she could fall into the abyss at any moment.

U Hansen's oxygen cylinder runs out - he is completely exhausted.
Hall tries to bring him down, almost motionless, without supplemental oxygen.
They get stuck and radio in with Hall's assistant, Harris.

Harris slowly gets up and goes to help alone. This decision cost him his life.

A section of the path that under normal conditions climbers cover in half an hour takes them more than 10 hours.

Lopsang catches up with Fischer and stays next to him for almost three hours, insuring and helping his boss.
In the end, he is no longer able to help, Lopsang decides to leave Scott Fisher and makes his way down through the snowstorm.

Exhausted, he gets to the camp, tells Boukreev that Fischer is very bad and falls into oblivion.

But it's not just Rob Hall, Scott Fischer and those who walked with them who are fighting for their lives this night.

Scott Fisher and Rob Hall

A few tens of meters above the rescue camp there is a struggle for the lives of the instructors of the team of Fischer and Hall with the helpless clients of Namba and Withers.
The Japanese woman has run out of oxygen, and she cannot walk on her own, the Texan is even worse, blind, in the icy void, the client waited for Hall for 12 hours and did not wait...

For the next two hours, eleven people wander in a gale of large ice crystals just meters from the rescue tents.
They come across several empty cylinders, but are disorientated.
Staggering, Beidleman feels a slight rise with his feet; he sees nothing, but feels that there is an abyss beneath him.
His instinct did not deceive him and saved the lives of his entire group; they approached a two-kilometer abyss.

The temperature drops to minus 45 degrees Celsius and everyone has run out of oxygen.
Eventually, the eleven climbers squat or curl up and close their eyes, awaiting death.
Beidleman sees a sign - several stars in the clearing sky, gathering all his strength he tries to force everyone to rise, but Pittman, Withers, Namba and another climber are too weak. If they don't get help they will die.

Boukreev goes out in search of the unfortunate people. Indeed, after a little over an hour he sees the faint light of a lantern in the snowstorm.
The strongest of the five is still conscious and appears to be able to walk to the camp on his own.
The rest lie motionless on the ice - they do not even have the strength to speak.
Yasuko Namba seems dead - snow is stuck in her hood, her right shoe is missing, her hand is as cold as ice.
Boukreev connects the oxygen cylinder he brought to Sandy Pittman’s mask and makes it clear that he will try to return as soon as possible.

Anatoly Bukreev

It's 4:30 a.m., it'll be dawn soon.

Before his death, Rob Hall said goodbye to his pregnant wife via satellite phone.

As it turned out, Hall had two oxygen tanks at his disposal, but the oxygen mask valve was frozen and he could not connect them.

12 days later, two Americans, whose path passed through the southern peak, found a frozen body on the glacier.
Hall was lying on his right side, half covered with snow.

On the morning of May 11, as several groups made desperate attempts to rescue Hall and Fisher, two bodies were found covered in a centimeter layer of ice: they were Yasuko Namba and Beck Withers.
Both were barely breathing. Rescuers considered them hopeless and left them to die.
But a few hours later, Withers woke up, shook off the ice and wandered back to camp.
He was put into a tent, which was torn down the next night by a strong hurricane.
Withers again spent the night in the cold - and no one bothered about the unfortunate man: his situation was again considered hopeless.
Only the next morning the client was noticed.
Finally, the climbers helped their comrade, whom they themselves had already sentenced to death three times.
To quickly evacuate him, a Nepalese Air Force helicopter rose to a dangerous height.
Due to severe frostbite, Beck Withers had his right hand and fingers on his left amputated.
The nose also had to be removed - its likeness was formed from the skin folds of the face.

Beck Withers

Over the course of two days in May, the following members of our teams died: instructors Rob Hall, Andy Harris and Scott Fisher, clients Doug Hansen and Japanese Yasuko Namba.
Min Ho Gau and Beck Withers suffered severe frostbite.
Sandy Pittman did not suffer any serious damage in the Himalayas.
She returned to New York and was terribly surprised and confused when her report on the expedition generated a flurry of negativeresponses.

Balthasar Colmacur brought the 1996 tragedy to the screen.
How he did it is up to you to judge for yourself.

The film “Everest” was recently released, telling about the worst tragedy on the mountain. A story based on real events... I found a diary of one of the participants in that hike.

A participant in an expedition in the Himalayas recorded a chronicle of the tragedy,
mixed with frivolity and vanity,
fatal arrogance, courage and big money

Jon Krakauer journalist, mountaineer.

One of my feet is in China, the other is in the kingdom of Nepal; I'm standing on the highest point on the planet. I scrape the ice off my oxygen mask, turn my shoulder to the wind and absentmindedly look down at the vastness of Tibet. I had long dreamed of this moment, expecting unprecedented sensual delight. But now that I am actually standing on the top of Everest, I no longer have enough strength for emotions.

I haven't slept for fifty-seven hours. Over the past three days, I have only managed to swallow a little soup and a handful of chocolate-covered nuts. I have been tormented by a severe cough for several weeks now; During one of the attacks, two ribs even cracked, and now every breath is for me; real torture. In addition, here, at an altitude of over eight thousand meters, the brain receives so little oxygen that in terms of mental abilities I am now unlikely to give a head start to a not very developed child. Apart from the insane cold and fantastic fatigue, I feel almost nothing. Next to me are instructors Anatoly Boukreev from Russia and New Zealander Andy Harris. I take pictures. Then the descent. I spent less than five minutes on the greatest peak on the planet. I soon notice that in the south, where just recently the sky was completely clear, several lower peaks were hidden in the advancing clouds. After fifteen minutes of careful descent along the edge of a two-kilometer abyss, I come across a twelve-meter cornice on the crest of the main ridge. This is a difficult place. As I fasten myself to the hanging railing, I notice, and this worries me very much, that ten meters below, at the foot of the cliff, about a dozen climbers are crowded together, still on their way to the top. All I have to do is unhook from the rope and give way to them. Down there are members of three expeditions: a New Zealand team led by the legendary Rob Hall, a team from the American Scott Fisher, and a group of climbers from Taiwan. As they slowly climb up the rock, I eagerly wait for it to be my turn to descend. Andy Harris was stuck with me. I ask him to get into my backpack and turn off the valve of the oxygen cylinder, I want to save oxygen. Over the next 10 minutes I feel surprisingly good and my head clears. Suddenly, out of the blue, it becomes difficult to breathe. Everything is swimming before my eyes, I feel like I might lose consciousness. Instead of turning off the oxygen supply, Harris mistakenly opened the valve all the way, and now my tank is empty. There are still 70 difficult meters down to the spare cylinders. But first you have to wait for the queue below to clear. I take off the now useless oxygen mask, throw my helmet onto the ice and squat down. Every now and then you have to exchange smiles and polite greetings with climbers passing up. In fact, I'm desperate.

Everest map

Finally, Doug Hansen, one of my teammates, crawls up. "We did it!"; I shout to him the usual greeting in such cases, trying to make my voice sound more cheerful. Tired Doug mutters something unintelligible from under his oxygen mask, shakes my hand and trudges further upstairs. Fischer appears at the very end of the group. The obsession and endurance of this American climber have long been legendary, and now I am surprised by his completely exhausted appearance. But the descent is finally free. I fasten myself to a bright orange rope, with a sharp movement I go around Fischer, who, with his head down, leans on his ice axe, and, falling over the edge of the rock, I slide down.

I reach the southern peak at 4 o'clock. I grab a full tank and hurry further down, to where the clouds are getting denser. A few moments later, snow begins to fall and nothing is visible. And 400 meters above, where the summit of Everest still glows against the azure sky, my teammates continue to cheer loudly. They celebrate the conquest of the highest point on the planet: they wave flags, hug, take photographs - and waste precious time. It doesn’t even occur to any of them that in the evening of this long day every minute will count. Later, after 6 corpses were found, and the search for those two whose bodies could not be found was stopped, I was asked many times how my comrades could have missed such a sharp deterioration in the weather. Why did experienced instructors continue to climb, not paying attention to the signs of an approaching storm, and leading their less than well-prepared clients to certain death? I am forced to answer that in those afternoon hours of May 10, I myself did not notice anything that could indicate the approach of a hurricane.

At the foot of Everest, four weeks earlier.

Scott Fisher's team is climbing Everest at the same time as us. Fischer, 40 years old, is a quite sociable, stocky athlete with a tail of blond hair at the back of his head, driven forward by inexhaustible internal energy. If the name of Hall's company, Adventure Consultants, fully reflects the New Zealander's methodical, pedantic approach to organizing climbs, then Mountain Madness, the name of Fisher's enterprise, defines the latter's style even more precisely. At 20, he was already famous for his risky technique.

Scott Fisher

Many people are attracted by Fischer's inexhaustible energy, the breadth of his nature and his capacity for childlike admiration. He is charming, has the muscles of a bodybuilder and the physiognomy of a movie star. Fischer smokes marijuana and drinks somewhat more than his health allows. This is the first commercial expedition to Everest he organized.

Hall and Fisher each have eight clients, a diverse group of mountain-obsessed people who are united only by their willingness to spend a significant amount of money and even risk their own lives just to stand on the world's highest peak. But if we remember that even in the center of Europe, on Mount Mont Blanc, which is half as low, dozens of amateur climbers sometimes die, then the commercial groups of Hall and Fischer, consisting mainly of rich but not very experienced climbers, even with favorable conditions resemble suicide squads. Take one client, Doug Hansen, a 46-year-old father of two grown children and a postal worker from Renton, near Seattle.

To fulfill his life's dream, he worked day and night, saving the necessary amount. Or doctor Seaborn Beck Withers from Dallas. He gave himself a ticket to this far from cheap expedition for his fiftieth birthday. Yasuko Namba, a frail Japanese woman from Tokyo with very limited climbing abilities, at 47 years old, dreams of becoming the oldest woman to conquer Everest.

Yasuko Namba

At an altitude of 6400 meters, we came face to face with death for the first time - it was the corpse of an unlucky climber, wrapped in a blue plastic bag. Then one of the best and most experienced porters of the Fisher team suffered from pulmonary edema. He had to be evacuated by helicopter to a hospital, but Sherpa died a few weeks later. Fischer's client with the same symptoms was, fortunately, brought to a safe height in time, and thanks to this his life was saved.

Anatoly Bukreev

Fischer quarrels with his deputy, Russian instructor Anatoly Boukreev: he does not want to help clients climb up the rocks, and Fischer has to do the grueling work of a guide alone.

At Camp III, our penultimate mountain shelter before the summit, we prepare for the final stage of the ascent. Nearby were climbers from Taiwan with their leader, photographer Min Ho Gau. Ever since the hapless Taiwanese needed rescuers to conquer Mount McKinley in Alaska in 1995, the team has become notorious for its lack of experience. The climbers from the Republic of South Africa are equally incompetent: their group is followed by a whole trail of scandalous rumors, and several experienced athletes separated from them at the base camp.

We begin the attack on the summit on May 6th. And although there is an agreement between the groups not to attempt the assault on Everest all at the same time - otherwise there will be queues and jostling on the approach to the very top - this, unfortunately, does not stop either the South Africans or the team from Taiwan.

On the southern col (height 7925 meters) there is a camp, which becomes our base for the duration of the assault on the summit. The South Col is a vast ice plateau between the wind-whipped cliffs of the upper Lhotse Mountain and Everest. On the eastern side it hangs over an abyss two kilometers deep, at the edge of which our tents stand. There are more than a thousand empty oxygen cylinders lying around, left behind by previous expeditions.

On the evening of May 9, the teams of Hall, Fischer, the Taiwanese and the South Africans reach the South Col. We made this multi-hour journey in difficult conditions - there was a strong wind and it was very slippery; some arrived at the place already in the dark, completely exhausted. Here comes Lopsang Yangbu, senior Sherpa from Scott Fisher's team. He carries a 35-kilogram backpack on his back. Among other things, there are satellite communication devices - Sandy Pittman wants to send electronic messages around the world from an altitude of 7900 meters (later it turned out that this is technically impossible). It does not occur to Fisher to stop such dangerous whims of clients. On the contrary, he promised to personally carry Pittman’s electronic toys upstairs if the porter refused to carry them. By nightfall, more than fifty people had gathered here, small tents standing almost close together. At the same time, a strange atmosphere of isolation hovers over the camp. The gusty wind on the plateau howls so loudly that it is impossible to communicate even if you are in neighboring tents. As a team we exist only on paper. In a few hours the group will leave the camp, but each will move forward on his own, not connected to the others by any rope or special sympathy.

In the evening, at half past eight, everything calms down. It’s still terribly cold, but there’s almost no wind anymore; The weather is favorable for the summit attempt. Rob Hall shouts loudly to us from his tent: “Guys, today looks like today is the day. At half past eleven we begin the assault!

Rob Hall

25 minutes before midnight I pull on my oxygen mask, turn on the lamp and step out into the darkness. Hall's group consists of 15 people: 3 instructors, 4 Sherpas and 8 clients. Fisher and his team - 3 instructors, 6 Sherpas and clients - follow us at intervals of half an hour. Next come the Taiwanese with 2 Sherpas. But the South African team, which found the grueling climb too difficult, remained in the tents. That night, thirty-three people left the camp in the direction of the summit.

At 3:45 in the morning, 20 meters below me, I notice a large figure in a poisonous yellow puff. In conjunction with her is Sherpa, who is much shorter in stature. Breathing noisily (he is not wearing an oxygen mask), the Sherpa literally drags his partner up the slope like a horse drags a plow. This is Lopsang Yangbu and Sandy Pittman. We stop every now and then. The night before, the guides from the teams of Fischer and Hall had to hang the fixed ropes. But it turned out that the two main Sherpas couldn't stand each other. And neither Scott Fisher nor Rob Hall - the most authoritative people on the plateau - were able or willing to force the Sherpas to do the necessary work. Because of this, we are now losing precious time and energy. Hall's 4 clients are feeling worse and worse. But Fischer's clients are in good shape, and this, of course, puts pressure on the New Zealander. Doug Hansen wants to turn down, but Hall persuades him to go further. Beck Withers lost almost all his sight; Due to low blood pressure, the consequences of his eye surgery became apparent. Soon after sunrise he had to be left helpless on the ridge. Hall promises to pick up Withers on his way back.

At the top of Everest, 13 hours 25 minutes.

Fisher's team instructor Neil Beidleman, in conjunction with one of his clients, finally reaches the top. Two other instructors are already there: Harris and Boukreev. Beidleman concludes that the rest of his group will appear soon. He takes a few photos and then starts a playful fuss with Boukreev.

Andy Harris

At 2 p.m., still no word from Fischer, Beidleman's boss. Right now and not later! - Everyone should have started to descend, but this is not happening. Beidleman has no way to contact other team members. The porters carried a computer and a satellite communication device upstairs, but neither Beidleman nor Boukreev had with them a simple intercom device that weighs practically nothing. This blunder subsequently cost clients and instructors dearly.

At the top of Everest, 14 hours 10 minutes.

Sandy Pittman makes it to the ridge, slightly ahead of Lopsang Yangbu and three other members of the group. She can barely drag herself; after all, 41 years old - and before the peak it falls like a decimated man. Lopsang sees that her oxygen tank is empty. Luckily, he has a spare one in his backpack. They slowly walk the last meters and join in the general rejoicing. By this time, Rob Hall and Yasuko Namba had already reached the summit. Hall talks to base camp via radio. Then one of the employees recalled that Rob was in a great mood. He said, “We're already seeing Doug Hansen. As soon as it reaches us, we will move down." The employee transmitted the message to Hall's New Zealand office and a whole bunch of faxes scattered from there to the friends and families of the expedition members, informing them of complete triumph. In reality, Hansen, like Fischer, had not a few minutes to go to the top, as Hall thought, but almost two hours. Probably, even in the camp, Fischer’s strength was running out - he was seriously ill. In 1984, in Nepal, he picked up an infection that developed into a chronic illness with frequent attacks of fever, like malaria. It happened that the climber was shaking all day with severe chills.

At the top of Everest, 15 hours 10 minutes.

Neil Beidleman has been lounging on the highest point of the planet for almost two hours by this point and finally decides that it is time to leave, although the group leader, Fisher, is still not in sight. By this time I had already reached the southern peak. I will have to continue the descent in a snow storm and only by 19.40 will I be able to reach camp IV, where, having climbed into the tent, I will fall into a semi-conscious state due to severe hypothermia, lack of oxygen and complete exhaustion of strength. The only one who returned to base camp that day without any problems was the Russian, Anatoly Boukreev. At 17 o'clock he was already sitting in his tent and warming himself with hot tea. Later, experienced climbers would doubt the correctness of his decision to leave his clients so far behind - more than a strange act for an instructor. One of the clients would later say about him with contempt: “When the situation became threatening, the Russian ran out of there as fast as he could.

Neil Beidleman, 36, a former aeronautical engineer, on the other hand, has a reputation as a calm, conscientious instructor and is loved by everyone. In addition, this is one of the strongest climbers. At the summit, he gathers Sandy Pittman and 3 other clients together and begins the descent with them, heading to Camp IV. 20 minutes later they come across Scott Fisher. He, completely exhausted, silently greets them with a gesture. But the strength and abilities of the American climber have long been legendary, and it doesn’t occur to Beidleman that the commander might have problems. Much more disturbing to Beidleman is Sandy Pittman, who can barely move. She is staggering, her consciousness has become so dark that the client has to be secured so that she does not fall into the abyss.

Just below the southern peak, the American woman becomes so weak that she asks to be given cortisone, which should neutralize the effects of rarefied air for some time. In Fischer's team, every climber has this drug with him in case of emergency, in a case under his down jacket, so as not to freeze. Sandy Pittman is looking more and more like an inanimate object. Beidleman orders another climber on his team to replace the journalist's almost empty oxygen tank with his full one. He ties ropes around Sandy and drags her down the hard, snow-covered ridge. To everyone's relief, the injection and additional dose of oxygen quickly have a life-giving effect, and Pittman comes to his senses enough to continue his descent without assistance.

At the top of Everest, 15 hours 40 minutes

When Fischer eventually reaches the top, Lopsang Yangbu is already there waiting for him. He gives Fischer the radio transmitter. “We were all at the top,” Fisher reports to base camp, “God, I’m so tired.” A couple of minutes later, Min Ho Gau and his two Sherpas join them. Rob Hall is also still up there, eagerly awaiting Doug Hansen. A veil of clouds slowly closes around the peak. Fischer again complains that he doesn’t feel well - such behavior is more than unusual for a famous stoic. At approximately 15.55 he begins his return journey. And although Scott Fischer made the entire route to the top wearing an oxygen mask, and in his backpack there is a third, almost full cylinder, the American suddenly, for no apparent reason, takes off his oxygen mask.

Soon the Taiwanese Ming Ho Gau and his Sherpas, as well as Lopsang Yangbu, leave the summit. Rob Hall is left all alone, still waiting for Doug Hansen, who finally appears around four o'clock in the afternoon. Very pale, Doug struggles to overcome the last dome before the summit. The delighted Hall hurries to meet him.

The deadline for everyone to turn back had expired at least two hours ago. Later, Hall’s colleagues, who were well aware of the New Zealand climber’s caution and methodical nature, were genuinely surprised by the strange clouding of his mind. Why didn't he order Hansen to turn around before reaching the top? After all, it was absolutely clear that the American did not meet any reasonable time frame to ensure a safe return.

There is an explanation. A year ago in the Himalayas, at about the same time, Hall had already told him to turn back: Hansen had returned from the southern peak, and for him it was a terrible disappointment. Judging by his stories, he went to Everest again largely because Rob Hall himself persistently persuaded him to try his luck one more time. This time, Doug Hansen is determined to get to the top no matter what. And since Hall himself had persuaded Hansen to return to Everest, it must now have been especially difficult for him to prevent the slow client from continuing to climb. But time was lost. Rob Hall supports the exhausted Hansen and helps him climb the last 15 meters up. For one or two minutes they stand on the summit, which Doug Hansen finally conquered, and slowly begin their descent. Noticing that Hansen is barely able to stand, Lopsang stops to watch as the two negotiate the dangerous ledge just below the top. After making sure everything is fine, Sherpa quickly continues his descent to join Fischer. Hall and his client were left alone far behind.

Soon after Lopsang is out of sight, Hansen's oxygen tank runs out and he is completely exhausted. Hall tries to bring him down, almost motionless, without supplemental oxygen. But the 12-meter cornice stood in front of them as an insurmountable barrier. Conquering the peak required the exertion of all forces, and there are no reserves left for the descent. At an altitude of 8780 meters they get stuck and contact Harris by radio.

Located on the southern summit, Andy Harris, the second New Zealand instructor, decides to take the full oxygen cylinders left there to Hall and Hansen for the return trip. He asks for help from Lopsang, who is descending, but the Sherpa prefers to take care of his boss Fischer. Then Harris slowly gets up and goes to help alone. This decision cost him his life.

Already late at night, Hall and Hansen, perhaps already together with Harris, who had risen to them, under an ice hurricane, everyone tried to break through down to the southern peak. A section of the path that under normal conditions climbers cover in half an hour takes them more than 10 hours.

Southeast ridge, height 8650 meters, 17 hours 20 minutes

A couple of hundred meters from Lopsang, which has already reached the southern peak, Scott Fisher slowly descends along the southeastern ridge. His strength decreases with every meter. Too exhausted to perform tedious manipulations with the railing ropes in front of a series of cornices over the abyss, he simply descends along another - sheer one. It’s easier than walking along hanging railings, but then, to get back on the route, you have to walk a hundred meters knee-deep in the snow, losing precious strength. At about 6 p.m. Lopsang catches up with Fischer. He complains: “I feel very bad, too bad to go down the rope. I will jump." The Sherpa insures the American and persuades him to slowly move along. But Fischer is already so weak that he is simply unable to overcome this part of the path. The Sherpa, also very exhausted, does not have enough strength to help the commander overcome the dangerous area. They're stuck. The weather gets worse and worse, they squat on a snow-covered rock. At about 20 o'clock Min Ho Gau and two Sherpas emerge from the snowstorm. The Sherpas leave the completely exhausted Taiwanese next to Lopsang and Fischer, while they themselves continue their descent lightly. An hour later, Lopsang decides to leave Scott Fisher with Gau on a rocky ridge and makes his way down through a snowstorm. Around midnight, he staggers into Camp IV: “Please, go upstairs,” he begs Boukreev. “Scott is really bad, he can’t walk.” Sherpa's strength leaves him and he falls into oblivion.

A blind client waited twelve hours for help.
And I didn’t wait...

South-eastern ridge, 70 meters above camp IV, 18 hours 45 minutes

But it's not just Rob Hall, Scott Fischer and those who walked with them who are fighting for their lives this night. Seventy meters above rescue camp IV, no less dramatic events unfold during a suddenly violent snow storm. Neil Beidleman, the second instructor of Fisher's team, who waited for almost two hours in vain at the top for his boss, moves very slowly with his group. The instructor from Hall's team is the same: he is exhausted with two absolutely helpless clients. This is Japanese Yasuko Namba and Texan Beck Withers. The Japanese woman ran out of oxygen long ago and cannot walk on her own. The situation is even worse with Withers. It was during the ascent that Hall left him at an altitude of 8400 meters due to almost complete loss of vision. And in the icy wind, the blinded climber had to wait in vain for help for almost twelve hours.

The instructors, their students and two Sherpas from Fischer's team, who emerge from the darkness a little later, now form a group of eleven people. Meanwhile, the strong wind turns into a real hurricane, visibility is reduced to six to seven meters. To get around the dangerous ice dome, Beidleman and his group make a detour to the east, where the descent is less steep. At half past eight in the evening they reach the gentle southern col, a very large plateau on which the tents of Camp IV stand just a few hundred meters away. Meanwhile, only three or four of them have the much-needed batteries for their flashlights. In addition, they all literally collapse from exhaustion.

Beidleman knows they are somewhere on the east side of the saddle and the tents are located to the west of them. Exhausted climbers need to step towards the icy wind, which with terrible force throws large crystals of ice and snow into their faces, scratching their faces. The gradually intensifying hurricane forces the group to deviate to the side: instead of walking directly into the wind, the exhausted people move at an angle towards it.

For the next two hours, both instructors, two Sherpas and seven clients wander blindly across the plateau in the hope of accidentally reaching the rescue camp. Once they came across a couple of discarded empty oxygen cylinders, which meant the tents were somewhere nearby. They are disorientated and cannot determine where the camp is. Beidleman, who is also walking staggeringly, at about ten o'clock in the evening suddenly feels a slight rise under his feet, and suddenly it seems to him that he is standing at the end of the world. He sees nothing, but feels the abyss beneath him. His instinct saves the group from certain death: they have reached the eastern edge of the saddle and are standing on the very edge of a steep two-kilometer cliff. The poor fellows have long been at the same height as the camp - only three hundred meters separate them from relative safety. Beidleman and one of his clients are looking for some kind of shelter where they could escape the wind, but in vain.

Oxygen supplies have long since dried up, and now people are even more vulnerable to frost, with temperatures dropping to minus 45 degrees Celsius. Eventually, eleven climbers squat on hurricane-polished ice under the precarious protection of a rock ledge barely larger than a washing machine. Some curl up and close their eyes, waiting for death. Others beat their comrades in misfortune with their senseless hands in order to warm themselves and stir them up. No one has the strength to speak. Only Sandy Pittman repeats without stopping: “I don’t want to die!” Beidleman tries his best to stay awake; he is looking for some sign that would foretell the imminent end of the hurricane, and shortly before midnight he notices several stars. The snowstorm continues below, but the sky is gradually clearing. Beidleman tries to get everyone up, but Pittman, Withers, Namba and another climber are too weak. The instructor understands: if he fails to find the tents and bring help in the very near future, they will all die.

Gathering those few who are still able to walk on their own, he goes out with them into the wind. He leaves four exhausted comrades under the care of the fifth, who can still move on his own. About twenty minutes later, Beidleman and his companions stumbled toward Camp IV. There they were met by Anatoly Boukreev. The unfortunate people explained to him as best they could where their five freezing comrades were waiting for help, and, having climbed into the tents, passed out. Boukreev, who returned to the camp almost 7 hours ago, became worried as darkness fell and went in search of the missing, but to no avail. He eventually returned to camp and waited for Neil Beidleman.

Now the Russian goes out in search of the unfortunates. Indeed, after a little over an hour he sees the faint light of a lantern in the snowstorm. The strongest of the five is still conscious and appears to be able to walk to the camp on his own. The rest lie motionless on the ice - they do not even have the strength to speak. Yasuko Namba seems dead - snow is stuck in her hood, her right shoe is missing, her hand is as cold as ice. Realizing that he can only drag one of these poor fellows to the camp, Boukreev connects the brought oxygen cylinder to Sandy Pittman’s mask and makes it clear to the elder that he will try to return as soon as possible. Then he and one of the climbers wander towards the tents. A terrible scene is playing out behind him. Yasuko Namba's right arm is extended upward and completely frozen. Half-dead Sandy Pittman squirms on the ice. Beck Withers, who was still lying in the fetal position, suddenly whispers: “Hey, I got it!”, rolls to the side, sits on a rock ledge and, spreading his arms, exposes his body to the maddened wind. After a few seconds, a strong gust blows him away into the darkness.

Boukreev returns. This time he is dragging towards Sandy's camp, with a fifth man lumbering behind him. The little Japanese girl and the blind, delirious Withers are considered hopeless - they are left to die. It's 4:30 a.m., it'll be dawn soon. Upon learning that Yasuko Namba was doomed, Neil Beidleman burst into tears in his tent.

Before his death, Rob Hall said goodbye to his pregnant wife via satellite phone.

Base camp, altitude 5364 meters, 4 hours 43 minutes

The tragedy of the eleven lost; not the only one on this frosty hurricane night. At 5:57 p.m., when Rob Hall last made contact, he and Hansen were near the summit. Eleven hours later, the New Zealander contacts the camp again, this time from the southern summit. There is no one with him anymore: neither Doug Hansen nor Andy Harris. Hall's remarks sound so confused that it is alarming. At 4.43 he tells one of the doctors that he cannot feel his legs and every movement is given to him with such colossal difficulty that he is unable to move from his place. In a barely audible, hoarse voice, Hall croaks, “Harris was with me last night, but now it’s like he’s not here. He was very weak." And then, apparently unconscious: “Is it true that Harris was with me? Can you tell me? As it turned out, Hall had two oxygen tanks at his disposal, but the oxygen mask valve was frozen and he could not connect them.

At five in the morning, base camp establishes a telephone connection via satellite between Hall and his wife Jan Arnold, who is in New Zealand. She is seven months pregnant. In 1993, Jan Arnold climbed Everest with Hall. Hearing her husband's voice, she immediately understands the seriousness of the situation. “It seemed like Rob was hovering somewhere; she later recalled; Once we discussed with him that it was almost impossible to save a person stuck on the ridge below the very top. He then said that it would be better to be stuck on the Moon - there are more chances.”

At 5:31, Hall injects himself with four milligrams of cortisone and reports that he is still trying to clear the ice from his oxygen mask. Every time he contacts the camp, he asks what happened to Fischer, Gau, Withers, Yasuko Namba and other participants in the ascent. But what worries him most is the fate of Andy Harris. Over and over, Hall asks where his assistant is. A little later, the base camp doctor asks what’s wrong with Dut Hansen. “Doug is gone,” Hall replies. This was his last mention of Hansen.

Twelve days later, on May 23, two American climbers followed the same route to the summit. But they didn't find Andy Harris' body. True, 15 meters above the southern peak, where the hanging railings end, the Americans picked up an ice ax. Perhaps Hall, with the help of Harris, managed to lower Doug Hansen to this point, where he lost his balance and, having flown two kilometers down the vertical wall of the southwestern slope, crashed.

What fate befell Harris is also unknown. An ice ax that belonged to him, found on the south summit, indirectly indicates that he most likely remained at night with Hall on the south summit. The circumstances of Harris' death remain a mystery.

At six o'clock in the morning, base camp asks Hall if the first rays of the sun have touched him. “Almost,” he replies, and this awakens hope; Some time ago he reported that he was constantly shivering due to the terrible cold. And this time Rob Hall inquires about Andy Harris: “Did anyone but me see him last night? I think he went down during the night. Here is his ice axe, jacket and something else.” After four hours of effort, Hall finally manages to clear the ice from his oxygen mask and has been able to inhale oxygen from a cylinder since nine in the morning. True, he had already spent more than sixteen hours without oxygen. Two thousand meters below, the New Zealander's friends are making desperate attempts to force him to continue his descent. The voice of the head of the base camp is trembling. “Think about your baby,” she says on the radio. - In two months you will see his face. Now go downstairs." Several times Rob announces that he is preparing to continue his descent, but remains in the same place.

Around 9:30, two Sherpas, the same ones who had returned exhausted from the summit the previous night with a thermos of hot tea and two oxygen tanks, climb up to help Hall. Even under optimal conditions, they would face many hours of grueling climbing. But the conditions are not at all favorable. The wind blows at a speed of over 80 kilometers per hour. The day before, both porters were severely hypothermic. Soon, 3 more Sherpas are sent up to remove Fischer and Gau from the mountain. Rescuers find them four hundred meters above the south col. Both are still alive, but almost without strength. The Sherpas connect oxygen to Fischer's mask, but the American does not react: he is barely breathing, his eyes are rolled back, his teeth are clenched tightly. Deciding that Fischer's situation was hopeless, the Sherpas left him on the ridge and descended with Gau, on whom the hot tea and oxygen had some effect. Tied to the Sherpas with a short rope, he is still able to walk on his own. Lonely death on a rocky ridge is Scott Fisher's lot. In the evening, Boukreev finds his frozen corpse. Meanwhile, the two Sherpas continue to climb towards the Hall. The wind is getting stronger. At 3 p.m., rescuers were still two hundred meters below the southern summit. Due to frost and wind, it is impossible to continue the journey. They give up.

Hall's friends and teammates have been pleading with the New Zealander all day to go down on his own.

These were his last words. 12 days later, two Americans, whose path passed through the southern peak, found a frozen body on the glacier. Hall was lying on his right side, half covered with snow.

Rescue of Beck Withers

On the morning of May 11, while several groups were making desperate attempts to rescue Hall and Fischer, at the eastern edge of the south col, one of the climbers found two bodies covered with a centimeter layer of ice: these were Yasuko Namba and Beck Withers, who had been thrown into the sea by a strong gust of wind the previous night. darkness. Both were barely breathing. Rescuers considered them hopeless and left them to die. But a few hours later, Withers woke up, shook off the ice and wandered back to camp. He was put into a tent, which was torn down the next night by a strong hurricane. Withers again spent the night in the cold - and no one bothered about the unfortunate man: his situation was again considered hopeless. Only the next morning the client was noticed. Finally, the climbers helped their comrade, whom they themselves had already sentenced to death three times. To quickly evacuate him, a Nepalese Air Force helicopter rose to a dangerous height. Due to severe frostbite, Beck Withers had his right hand and fingers on his left amputated. The nose also had to be removed - its likeness was formed from the skin folds of the face.

Everest 1996. Place of death

Epilogue

Over the course of two days in May, the following members of our teams died: instructors Rob Hall, Andy Harris and Scott Fisher, clients Doug Hansen and Japanese Yasuko Namba. Min Ho Gau and Beck Withers suffered severe frostbite. Sandy Pittman did not suffer any serious damage in the Himalayas. She returned to New York and was terribly surprised and confused when her reporting on the expedition generated a flurry of negative responses.

Robert Edwin Hall was born in 1961 in the city of Christchurch, in the south of New Zealand. He was the youngest of nine children in the family, and the Halls lived near the mountains, so he began mountaineering from childhood. It is also known that when Rob was only 14 years old, he offered the Alp Sports company the design of clothing for climbers, and soon Rob left school and began working as a designer. A couple of years later he was already a manager, and even later he moved to New Zealand's largest sports equipment company, Macpac Wilderness Ltd. However, hired work occupied almost all of young Rob’s time, and in the meantime he was simply eager to go to the mountains, and therefore at the age of 21 he switched to his own business, opening a small company “Outside”. This allowed Hall to devote more time to his beloved mountains.

By this time, Rob had already climbed some very remarkable peaks, such as Ama Dablam and Numbur in the Himalayas, but he dreamed of more, and by the late 1980s he made several attempts to conquer eight-thousanders .

His partner and close friend was Gary Ball, and together they conquered Mount Everest in 1990. This was a huge victory, it gave both of them confidence in their abilities, and the friends decided to set a kind of record, conquering seven other eight-thousanders in the world in seven months.

They were successful, and in the early 1990s, Rob and Gary opened their own company, calling it Adventure Consultants. They were engaged in organizing commercial groups and hiking to the peaks, and soon the mountain guides Hall and Ball were already well known - in 1991, they simply masterfully escorted their first group to the top of Everest.

Success was inspiring, the business was gaining momentum, and new, yet unconquered heights awaited Rob and Gary. But fate decreed otherwise - in 1993, Gary died as a result of pulmonary edema during the ascent. Broken by the death of his friend and companion, Rob still managed to pull himself together and continue working.

In 1996, Hall was planning another expedition to Everest - his group included guides New Zealander Andy Harris and Australian Mike Groom and six of Rob's clients. On May 10, all nine people (three guides and six clients) climbed Everest, and as they began their descent, a strong storm arose. In general, 1996 was the most tragic year in the history of Everest - it was then that the largest number of people in history died on its slopes. So, Rob’s group was also unlucky - first they lost a Japanese climber, then two Americans became weak from frostbite. The group fell apart, and Rob was left with the dying Doug Hansen on the South Summit, but he soon died too. The Nepalese at his base camp tried valiantly to organize help, but bad weather prevented them from reaching the summit.

Late in the afternoon on May 11, Rob radioed base camp and asked to speak to home, his pregnant wife Jan Arnold. This was his last communication session, and after that no one saw Rob Hall alive. As it became known later, in a conversation he convinced Jen not to worry and go to bed calmly.

His body was found on May 23 by climbers from the IMAX expedition. Rob's daughter was born two months after the tragedy, she was named Sarah.

Best of the day

Later, many wondered why Rob Hall, an experienced climber and guide, did not cancel the ascent, because he was definitely aware of the impending snow storm. So, the only thing that could explain this was excessive self-confidence and a desire to take risks. At the same time, many professionals understood that since he was carrying out commercial climbing, he should not have exposed the lives of his clients, who had also paid huge sums of money for the climb, to such a terrible risk. However, it was no longer possible to correct anything.

It is known that much later, already in 2010, Hall’s body was thrown down. When the Nepalese, who were organizing an expedition to lower the bodies of dead climbers, turned to Rob’s widow, Jen, after thanking her, refused, citing the fact that she no longer wanted people to put themselves at risk.

Three versions of one terrible tragedy, told by its participants and researchers

Everest 1996

Three versions of one terrible tragedy,
told by its participants
and researchers

In cinemas around the world, the film “Everest” is in full swing, dedicated to the terrible events of 1996 that unfolded on the “roof of the world” due to massive commercial expeditions, inconsistency in the actions of guides and unpredictable weather. A dry summary of the tragedy is as follows: on May 10-11, 1996, after a series of ascents, 8 climbers were left forever on the mountain: a storm that suddenly caught them on a late descent disorientated the travelers, forcing them to wander in complete darkness and a snowstorm in the death zone without oxygen. Thanks to several night trips by one of the guides, three climbers were rescued; another, recognized as dead, later came to the camp himself, half dead and frostbitten. At least 4 books, dozens of articles were written about the tragedy on Everest in 1996, and several films were made, 2 of them feature films. But for almost 20 years, no one has been able to put an end to the discussion - except, perhaps, the new film by Baltasar Kormakur mentioned above. Today we will return to this terrible drama and present three main points of view on the events of May 1996.

The main controversy was between Adventure Consultants expedition member Jon Krakauer (now living), who went to Everest as a guest journalist from Outside, and Mountain Madness expedition guide Anatoly Boukreev, one of the most outstanding climbers of the Soviet school, who conquered 11 eight-thousanders of 14 and those who died on Annapurna in 1997. Today we will try to understand this avalanche of mutual accusations and understand why, despite the total popularity of the views of the Outside journalist, the award for courage in the United States was given to Bukreev, and in the film “Everest” the Russian’s role is one of the leading ones. So, meet: theses from the books “Into Thin Air” (Jon Krakauer, USA, 1997) and “The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest” (Anatoly Boukreev, Weston de Walt, USA, 1997), as well as

Statistics on those killed on May 10, 1996:

"Adventure Consultants": 4 dead (2 guides, 2 clients)
"Mountain Madness": 1 dead (guide)
Indian expedition: 3 dead (military)

a reconciling version from the film “Everest” (Baltasar Kormakur, USA, 2015). And although the outcome of the tragedy and the lists of those killed are described in detail on Wikipedia and various portals, we still warn you: Be careful, spoilers!

Version No. 1: accusation

Jon Krakauer is one of the most prominent outdoor journalists in the United States of the last 20 years. It was he who wrote the investigative book about Alex the Supertramp, a traveler who traveled alone across America to Alaska and met his death there. This book was used to make the cult film “Into the Wild,” which fans of free travel consider the most important movie of the 2000s. But long before this, Krakauer’s important literary achievement was an attempt to understand the tragedy on Everest in 1996, of which he was a direct participant. He belonged to Rob Hall's ill-fated Adventure Consultants expedition, which buried most of its members that fateful day. It was he who was the first to speak out publicly and announce his version of what happened - first with an article in Outside magazine, then with the documentary novel “In Thin Air.”

Krakauer focuses on the mistakes of guides: unhealthy competition, lack of proper organization, inattention to client illnesses and lack of a plan in case of disaster.

Krakauer's main focus is on the mistakes of the guides: their desire to compete with each other in the quality of the service provided in order to attract new participants for the next year, the lack of the proper level of organization, inattention to the needs and illnesses of clients and, finally, the lack of a plan in case of disaster. The bottom line is that all his claims are true: Rob Hall, the head of Consultants, at that time really had a monopoly on commercial ascents on Everest, but the experienced and adventurous Scott Fisher (Mountain Madness), who was preparing for the expedition, suddenly began to step on his heels Almost at the last moment, he recruited the strongest climber of the Soviet school, Anatoly Bukreev, as a guide. Hall brought in best-selling Outside magazine writer Jon Krakauer, giving him a good discount and literally snatching him from Fischer's grasp. Fisher, in turn, took Manhattan star, socialite Sandy Pittman, to the mountain, who promised NBC to broadcast live from the mountain. Naturally, behind all these debates and attempts to please elite clients, real organizational issues were left far away.

Still from the movie "Everest". Photo: independent.co.uk

Hall, Fisher and other guides on the mountain, in the general pursuit of glory, did not keep track of a huge number of things: the safety ropes (railings) were not hung along the entire route, which greatly slowed down the ascent; many clients were frankly unprepared for the climb (poorly physically prepared or insufficiently acclimatized), and the control time for returning from the mountain was never precisely stated, which is why many climbers stood on the summit for an unforgivably long time, losing precious minutes. Finally, Fischer's team didn't even have proper walkie-talkies, which prevented the team from coordinating their actions when disaster struck. But for some reason, Anatoly Boukreev suffered the most from Krakauer - the only one who was able to get his bearings and go out into the night to help his clients. It was Bukreev, during night outings in a terrible snowstorm, who discovered a group of 5 people lost 400 meters from the camp and saved those three who were still able to walk. However, Krakauer writes in his book that the Russian climber was taciturn and did not help clients, followed his own climbing and acclimatization schedule, which he alone understood, did not use oxygen on the climb, and in a difficult situation abandoned all those who died higher on the mountain . Oddly enough, the fact that Krakauer blames Bukreeva saved the lives of three people: the cylinders he saved were useful to those who were dying of frostbite in the disaster zone, and the early return to the camp from the mountain allowed the climber to make two night searches in absolute solitude lost. Perhaps it was Bukreev’s closed, non-contact nature and his poor English that prevented Krakauer from understanding the situation, but he did not abandon the written words even after the death of Anatoly in 1997 on Annapurna, although he agreed to review other points in his book.

Scott Fisher (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Rob Hall (Jason Clarke) in the movie Everest. Photo: wordandfilm.com

For some reason, Anatoly Bukreev suffered the most from Krakauer - the only one who was able to find his bearings and go out into the night to help his clients

The fact that the world completely trusted Krakauer and his point of view seems very strange, if not suspicious. A journalist who at the last moment switched from one team to another because of the price; an unprofessional (albeit strong) climber who was unable not only to reach the tents on his own, but also to come to the aid of a group of 5 people in distress, and who made a number of serious factual errors (he confused client Martin Adams with the “Consultants” guide Andy Harris, who died higher on the mountain, thereby giving vain hope to his relatives) - could Krakauer give an objective assessment of what was happening on the mountain, just a few weeks after the event? As in the case of the later book “Into the Wild,” all the relatives of the victims, without exception, were offended by Krakauer: Rob Hall’s wife for making public the last conversation with her husband on a satellite phone, Fischer’s friends for reproaches of unprofessionalism, the husband of the deceased Japanese climber Yasuko Namba - because, like the others, he considered a still breathing woman unworthy of salvation. Be that as it may, many of his arguments are fair, and the book “Into Thin Air” was and remains an absolute bestseller among all the literature about the tragedy on Everest in 1996.

Rob Hall speaks to his wife on a satellite phone. Still from the film “Everest”, kinopoisk.ru

Version No. 2: feat

Stunned by Krakauer’s accusations, Boukreev responded to the journalist with the book “Ascension,” the main work on which was done by the interviewer Weston de Walt. Oddly enough, in many ways his explanations do not contradict Krakauer’s theses, but confirm them: Boukreev talks in detail about the devastation that reigned during the preparation of Fischer’s expedition and how desperately they tried to hide from clients the fact that there was barely enough oxygen to rise and the descent of all participants, and the money remaining with Fischer is not enough for rescue operations in case of emergency. Boukreev was also surprised by the fact that the most experienced climber Fischer did not follow the acclimatization schedule, ran back and forth on the mountain according to the needs of his clients, without sparing himself, thereby signing his own death warrant. In addition, Boukreev assessed the abilities of his team members much more soberly: several times he asked Fischer to “unfold” several members, but he was adamant and wanted to bring as many clients as possible to the top. These actions put the lives of other climbers at risk: for example, senior Sherpa Lobsang Jambu, instead of hanging ropes on a dangerous section of the route, actually dragged the overworked Sandy Pittman up.

Boukreev never saw the partial apology that Krakauer included in the 1999 reissue of his book: in December 1997 he died on Annapurna

Boukreev also made two important mistakes: during the night outings, he decided that it was no longer possible to save Yasuko Nambu and Beck Withers, who were frostbitten and showed no signs of life, and returned to the camp with the climbers who could walk. The next day, the expedition members again returned to their frozen comrades and considered their condition hopeless, although they were still breathing. Beck Withers returned to camp against all laws of life and physics. Yasuko Namba died alone among the ice and stones. Subsequently, during an Indonesian expedition in April 1997, Boukreev found her body and built an arch of stones over it to prevent highland birds from feeding on it. He repeatedly apologized to Namba's widower for failing to save her. Boukreev also failed to help his boss: in the book, he says that, unlike the Sherpas, he understood perfectly well that Fischer had no chance of surviving a night in a snowstorm at a great height. However, on May 11 at about 19:00 in the evening, he went upstairs to ascertain the death of his comrade.

Ingvar Eggert Sigurdsson as Boukreev. Still from the movie "Everest". Photo: lenta.ru

Weston de Walt devotes several chapters of the book to what preceded the ascent: Anatoly’s high-altitude work (he was plotting the route with Sherpas when he realized that he didn’t have enough hands), his acclimatization process, working with clients and conversations with Fischer. If he and Hall had followed Bukreev’s advice, the victims could have been avoided altogether, but history does not know the subjunctive mood, just as the mountains do not know the feeling of compassion. Boukreev never saw the partial apology that Krakauer included in the 1999 reissue of his book: in December 1997, an avalanche overtook him and high-altitude cameraman Dmitry Sobolev on Annapurna. The bodies were never found. Bukreev was 39 years old.

Ingvar Eggert Sigurdsson as Boukreev. Photo: letmedownload.in

Version No. 3: elements

Baltasar Kormakur, who made the difficult decision to make a blockbuster based on the tragedy, which next year will be 20 years old, decided not to put an end to the endless debate between the parties, but to take a different path. The creator of the film “Everest” was much more interested in the elements and the challenge that the death zone threw at each of the travelers in exchange for conquering the roof of the world. Neither profession, nor family, nor venerable age can stop someone who once caught mountain fever - the film pays special attention to how each of the climbers hides their illness and weakness in order to reach the top at any cost. To create a reliable story, the film team did not turn to the texts of “professionals” at all - the works of Krakauer and Boukreev were left aside. The greatest attention was paid to the book by Beck Withers - the same client who himself crawled to the camp on frostbitten hands and feet. It’s not for nothing that it’s called “Left to Die”: Withers experienced first-hand that not only a mountain, but also people in extreme conditions can be cruel. Left for dead three times (first by Rob Hall on the climb when he was struck by snow blindness, the second time on the South Col, and the third time in a camp tent at night during a new storm), he was nevertheless able to save not only his life , but also a sympathetic attitude towards other participants in the tragedy.

The creators of "Everest" did not take sides: they sought to show the personal drama of everyone who was destined to be on the mountain that day, and the struggle for life despite all obstacles

Another source of information for the film crew was transcripts of conversations between the Adventure Consultants leader and his wife, Jen Arnold. In these dialogues, Rob Hall reports on the situation, freezing alone on Hillary's steps, and tells the details of what happened at the very top in the midst of the storm, and says goodbye to his pregnant wife. The scene of the personal drama in the film is reproduced in as much detail as possible: Hall died saving one of his clients, Doug Hansen, whom he did not manage to lift up the mountain once and took with him a second time with an eye to victory. His demonstrated humanity cost him his life: having started the descent too late and having wasted oxygen, both remained forever on the mountain.

Still from the film “Everest”, kinopoisk.ru

Also, Kormakur, unlike many researchers of the situation, thought to communicate not only with the expedition members, whose memories were clouded by oxygen starvation, cold and horror from the death of their comrades, but also with those who observed the disaster from the sidelines and participated in rescue operations. David Breashers, a member of the IMAX expedition that filmed a documentary about Everest that same spring, donated his oxygen to the victims and helped them in their descent, and also told the creators of the new film many interesting details. The creators of Everest did not take sides: they sought to show the personal drama of everyone who was destined to be on the mountain that day, and the struggle for life in spite of all obstacles.

However, we still know something about which of the climbers the creators of the new film sympathized with: in “Everest,” Krakauer has only a couple of lines - the strange question “why are you all here” at the base camp, addressed to the expedition members, and the phrase “I won’t go with you,” thrown at Bukreev before the start of his rescue operation. But the team took the selection of an actor for the role of the Russian climber as seriously as possible (he is played by the Icelandic film star Ingvar Sigurdsson, who has already played Russians), and Bukreev himself is shown in detail in the scene of the rescue of the climbers.

If you believe the Sherpas - the indigenous inhabitants of these places - every action has its consequences and every sown seed of karma will sprout sooner or later. Since that tragedy, much more terrible events have occurred on Everest. And now, 20 years later, through the cameras of Kormakur’s cameramen, the tragedy on Everest in 1996 is gradually losing its heroic flair and becoming what it really was - a fatal coincidence of circumstances, mistakes and omissions of many people. All this would not have led to anything serious if not for a terrible unforeseen storm that collected a bloody toll on the mountain. Despite the horror of the situation, the drama at the peak taught those who advocated commercial climbs a lot, forcing them to be more careful and prudent, and reminding clients of the costs of great ambition. And if, despite everything, the eight-thousanders still attract you, we advise you to dive as seriously as possible into the Everest 1996 case and decide for yourself whether you are willing to pay such a price to have your name written in history.

Scott Fischer (December 24, 1955 – May 11, 1996) was an American mountaineer and guide, the first American to summit Lhotse, the fourth highest peak in the world.

Climber career

Fisher spent his youth in Michigan and New Jersey. At the age of 14 he became interested in mountaineering and attended classes for two years.

In 1982, he and his wife Jean Price moved to the Seattle suburbs. In 1984, Fisher founded his own company, Mountain Madness, which offered its clients climbing to the highest points in the world. The cost of such tours reached an average of 50,000 US dollars. In 1992, while climbing peak K2, Fischer participated in a rescue operation carried out jointly by several expeditions to evacuate the French climber Chantal Mauduit, who was suffering from snow blindness, from the mountain. She later climbed five more eight-thousanders and died in an avalanche on Mount Dhaulagiri I in 1998.

Beginning in 1992, Fisher took the "commercialization" of the adventure industry to a new level.

In 1996, Fischer himself died in the May 1996 Everest tragedy, which claimed the lives of seven more people. That day, Scott Fisher, Anatoly Boukreev and Neil Bidleman led eight clients to the summit of Everest. On the descent, the climbers were caught in a snowstorm. All climbers from the Mountain Madness team managed to reach Camp IV on the South Col (approximately 7900 m), except Fischer himself.

Fischer reached the summit at approximately 15:45, but encountered numerous problems on the descent. Lopsang Sherpa walked with him. At an altitude of approximately 8350 m, Fischer realized that he did not have the strength to descend and he sent Lopsang to descend alone. Lopsang hoped to return for Fischer with an additional oxygen tank and rescue him. Anatoly Boukreev made several attempts to reach Fischer that day, but weather conditions did not allow him to do so.

Boukreev finally reached Fischer at 19:00 on May 11, 1996, but found him dead. There were several versions of the causes of Fisher's death. Among them were altitude sickness, hypothermia, etc. In memory of Scott Fisher, a cairn was built on a hill near the base camp on the way to Everest. Climbers climbing the South Slope pass a group of five bodies, one of which belongs to Fischer. In 2010, a special expedition was organized on Everest, the purpose of which was to remove debris from the slopes and lower the bodies of dead climbers. Organizers had hoped to bring down the bodies of Rob Hall and Scott Fisher as well, but Hall's widow, Jan Arnold, wanted her husband's body to remain on the slope where he died. Fisher's widow, Jeannie Price, hoped that Scott's body could be lowered and cremated at the foot of Everest.

The events of May 1996 are recounted in several works written by participants in the events: “Into Thin Air” by Jon Krakauer, “The Ascension” by Anatoly Boukreev, “Left for Die” by Beck Withers and “Climbing High” by Lyn Gammelgaard. In 2008, author Robert Birkby wrote a biography of Scott Fisher, Mountain Madness.

In the film adaptation of John Krakaur's book Death on Everest, the role of Scott Fisher was played by American actor Peter Horton.

In the 2015 film Everest, the role of Scott Fisher was played by actor Jake Gyllenhaal.