Climber Left To Die After Reaching Top Of Mount Everest After Rescue Attempts Fail

[Ian David]

Climber Left To Die After Reaching Top Of Mount Everest

By Andy McSmith, The Independent

At one o'clock in the afternoon, the British climber Peter Kinloch was on the roof of the world, in bright sunlight, taking photographs of the Himalayas below, "elated, cheery and bubbly".

But Mount Everest is now his grave, because only minutes later, he suddenly went blind and had to be abandoned to die from the cold.

As the team descended, Mr Kinloch's guides noticed that he seemed to lose co-ordination. He would slip and stumble, then resume walking normally. After an hour, he made a surprising request to the team leader, David O'Brien, to be shown how to get down the ladders. At first he said he was having difficulty seeing, then he admitted that he could not see anything.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/02/climber-left-to-die-after_n_597451.html

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. One of those cases where if they'd tried to rescue him...

there'd be two or three more corpses on Everest instead of just one.

[stray cat]

2. You are beyond rescue if you can't get lower than the top on Mount Everest

[Lance_Boyle]

3. Happens every year.

Tragic? Maybe not. How else would a world-class climber want to go out?

[Duer 157099]

25. Could not agree more. For a climber, this is the way to go.

Plus, I hear that death by hypothermia is actually one of the least objectionable.

I mean, we all have to go sometime. For a climber, after summiting Everest, probably the best time.

Of course, not for their families, but that's the risk that goes with it.

[cbdo2007]

4. Just one of the risks you take. They had already helped him for 12 hours and were

struggling themselves also. Here is a link to the actual article rather than the link to Huffpost which then links to the article:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/everest-team-forced-to-leave-sick-british-climber-to-die-1988979.html

Sad but oh well, what can you do? He put everyone else's lives at risk as well.

[Ian David]

5. Sounds like they gave it a good try at rescuing him...

It took four hours for Mr O'Brien and a sherpa to help the stricken climber down to Mushroom Rock, barely 1,000ft below the summit. Two more sherpas arrived and for the next eight hours they all struggled to bring Mr Kinloch,28, down the mountain, administering drugs and oxygen. But they were now dangerously close to needing rescue themselves, and had to abandon him and struggled back into camp at 5.30am, exhausted and suffering from hypothermia and frostbite.

<snip>

He was using the climbs to raise awareness for the charity OCD Action, which aids people with obsessive compulsive disorder.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/everest-team-forced-to-leave-sick-british-climber-to-die-1988979.html

Very sad.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

6. The headline is a bit misleading.

As you say, they attempted rescue for several hours before giving up.

[tblue]

7. It's very sad, but that's ALWAYS the risk of doing that climb.

I feel sorry for him, but not as sorry as I feel for people who die while not putting themselves in mortal danger. Nobody forced him to do that. Now his family and friends are left to mourn. But maybe that's the way he'd want to go. RIP, Peter Kinloch.

[DrDan]

8. "went blind and had to be abandoned" is not exactly what happened

"The other 2 sherpas arrived soon after to help with the rescue. The 3 sherpas and David did everything they could to get Peter beyond this point for the next 8 hours to no avail (tried administering dex, high amounts of oxygen, etcetera). Tragically, they were finally forced to come down. The rescue team did everything in their power to help Peter for about 12 hours coming dangerously close to needing their own rescue and not returning themselves."


details here

http://www.everestnews.com/everest2010/summitclimbeverestnorth05292010.htm

[Ian David]

10. I went back and edited the subject line in my O/P. It *was* misleading. Thanks, HuffPo! n/t

[jdlh8894]

11. Just wondering-

How many sherpas have gone to the top?

[JBoy]

9. I've heard stories of people on their way up not helping someone

because if they helped them, they'd have to abandon their own attempt to reach the summit.

Seems like one of the harsh risks you sign on for.

[jdlh8894]

13. Must have been RePugs.

[cbdo2007]

17. Really if you can't afford to bring a doctor with you - then the risk is all yours.

[Retrograde]

12. Everest has a high fatality rate

Over 10% of the climbers have died, IIRC. It's an extremely harsh environment, and even with bottled oxygen it's hard to move and breathe at that altitude. One of the cable channels runs a series on Everest climbers: several people mention walking past corpses on their way up.

[WeDidIt]

14. Once in the death zone, it's every climber for themselves

There is 3035 feet between Camp 4 and the summit. The entire 3035 feet is the death zone. Fail to keep moving there and you are dead. Try to help somebody there and you are dead.

Everything above 26,000 feet is a death zone for humans. Although people have summitted wihtout supplementary oxygen, it's rare and incredibly risky.

[Parker CA]

15. Unfortunate, but every climber who steps onto that mtn should know, even if in the back of their

mind, that they may not make it up, and if they do, they may not make it down. The summit is only 50% of the climb, and after an early departure from the South Col on summit day, extended time in the death zone due to weather or a medical condition will turn a positive experience into a negative one with the blink of an eye.

As someone else said, for a climber who loves the mtns and experiences this kind of issue, the upper ridges of Everest are a final resting place one may find fitting.

[gmoney]

16. Can't a helicopter get up there?

I know it's not sporting and all, but seems like a helicopter could get up there, lower some sort of harness, and haul the guy up to safety? Also realize that it's probably very windy and treacherous, but still seems it should be possible.

but then again, what do I know?

[jljamison]

19. nope

the thinness of the air creates two problems:
1) it severely degrades the ability of an engine to generate power (fuel-air mixture)
2) it impedes the rotors ability to create enough thrust -

[rrneck]

20. I think it's too high.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_maximum_altitude_that_a_helicopter_can_achieve

On May 14th, 2005, an Ecureuil/AStar AS 350 B3 helicopter operated by Eurocopter was reported to have landed on Mount Everest (29,035 feet). The landing is in dispute. The listed service ceiling of the rotorcraft is between 17 and 18 thousand feet, which is considerably short of the summit altitude.

An unmanned high altitude helicopter is nearing completion. TGR Helicorp in New Zeland has designed the "Alpine Wasp" specifically for rescue evolutions on Everest. The machine's diesel engine will give it an operating ceiling in excess of 30,000 feet.

The CH-47 Chinook twin rotor helicopter is used by the USAF to rescue climbers on Mount Denali (McKinley) in AK. It can reach an altitude in excess of 19000 to land at an elevation of around 18000. The biggest problem at that point is restarting the engines, so a special storage device directs pure oxygen into the engine inlet to restart.

Even if current helicopters could get up there, it would be so close to the maximum operational envelope of the machine that almost anything could screw it up.

[Ian David]

23. A giant helium balloon could do it, but would be difficult to control.

Though I wonder if you could leave a trail of Emergency Evacuation Balloons along the climbing routes, ready to be inflated.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_altitude_record#All_balloons

[cbdo2007]

22. Not worth risking the pilot's life for.

The only thing that would have upset me about this story is if someone else had died trying to save this guy's life.

[Parker CA]

24. Helicopters can barely get to the top of the Khumbu Icefall which ends below

19,500'. A resuce was made a number of years ago from that point, but the helicopter rotors almost failed twice during the attempt.

The reality of climbing that high is that you're relying 100% on your team, and especially so, upon yourself at the higher altitudes above camp 3.

[Tutankhamun]

18. If I died while climbing Mount Everest, I'd try to die leaning against a

rock and pointing the way to the top. That way, climbers could see me and it would be kind of like I was alive -- for thousands of years! They would name a part of the mountain after me -- "Dead, pointing guy with a frozen grin pass".

[rrneck]

21. Heh,

Del Gue: Ain't that Hatchet Jack's rifle?
Jeremiah Johnson: Yep. Found him froze to a tree.
Del Gue: Damn! He was a wild one, old Hatchet Jack. He was livin' two year in a cave up on the Musselshell with a female panther. She never did get used to him.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068762/quotes

[FedUpWithIt All]

26. Is this the same climbing group with the 13 year old boy? n/t

[entanglement]

27. Tragic. It seems the Sherpa guides made a heroic (but failed) rescue attempt.

[GumboYaYa]

28. That's why my wife made me promise that I would never try to climb Everest

before we got married. Even though the climb is relatively easy in technical terms, the risks of doing anytghing at that altitude are real and unavoidable even for the very best climbers. Anyone who doesn't fully understand all the risks of any mountain and readily accept those before setting out is a fool.