1996 Mount Everest disaster

Adventure Consultants

The Adventure Consultants' 1996 Everest expedition, led by Rob Hall, consisted of 19 people, including eight clients.

Sherpas

• Sardar Ang Dorje (26)
• Arita
• Chuldum
• Kami
• Lhakpa Chhiri
• Ngawang Norbu
• Tenzing

The Sherpas listed above were the climbing Sherpas hired by Rob Hall's Adventure Consultants.^[7] Many other Sherpas working at lower elevations performed duties vital to the Adventure Consultants and Mountain Madness expeditions. Most climbing Sherpas' duties required them to ascend at least to Camp III or IV, but not all of them to summit. The expedition leaders intended for only a select few of their climbing Sherpas to accompany clients to the summit. Legendary Sardar Apa Sherpa was scheduled to accompany the Adventure Consultants group but withdrew due to family commitments.^[8]

With the exception of Namba, no client on Hall's team had reached the summit of an 8,000-meter peak, and only Fischbeck, Hansen, and Hutchison had previous high-altitude Himalayan experience. Hall had also brokered a deal with Outside magazine for advertising space in exchange for a story about the growing popularity of commercial expeditions to Everest. Krakauer was originally slated to climb with Scott Fischer's Mountain Madness team, but Hall landed him, at least in part by agreeing to reduce Outside's fee for Krakauer's spot on the expedition to less than cost.^[9]

Mountain Madness

The Mountain Madness 1996 Everest expedition, led by Scott Fischer, consisted of 19 people, including 8 clients.

Guides

• Scott Fischer (40) (USA) – expedition leader; died on the Southeast ridge balcony 350 m (1,150 ft) below the South Summit
• Anatoli Boukreev (38) (Kazakhstan/Russia)– professional mountaineer
• Neal Beidleman (36) (USA)– professional mountaineer

Taiwanese expedition

"Makalu" Gau Ming-ho led a five-member team to Everest on 10 May 1996.^[13]

The previous day (9 May), Taiwanese team member Chen Yu-Nan had died following a fall on the Lhotse Face.

Indo-Tibetan Border Police

Half of the climbing team from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police North Col expedition from India (Subedar Tsewang Samanla, Lance Naik Dorje Morup, and Head Constable Tsewang Paljor) died on the Northeast Ridge.

Delays reaching the summit

Shortly after midnight on 10 May 1996, the Adventure Consultants expedition of three guides and eight clients plus Sherpas began a summit attempt from Camp IV, atop the South Col (7,900 m or 25,900 ft). They were joined by six client climbers, three guides, and Sherpas from Scott Fischer's Mountain Madness company, as well as one climber and two Sherpas in an expedition sponsored by the government of Taiwan.^[20]

The expeditions quickly encountered delays. The climbing Sherpas and guides had not set the fixed ropes by the time the team reached the Balcony (8,350 m or 27,400 ft), and this cost the climbers almost an hour. The cause of this delay is unclear, in part due to the death of the expedition leaders.^[21]

Upon reaching the Hillary Step (8,760 m or 28,740 ft), the climbers again discovered that no fixed line had been placed, and they were forced to wait an hour while the guides installed the ropes. Because some 33 climbers were attempting the summit on the same day, and Hall and Fischer had asked their climbers to stay within 150 m (500 ft) of each other, there was a bottleneck at the single fixed line at the Hillary Step. Hutchison, Kasischke, and Taske returned towards Camp IV as they feared they would run out of supplementary oxygen due to the delays.^[3]

Climbing without supplemental oxygen, guide Anatoli Boukreev from the Mountain Madness team was the first to reach the summit (8,848 m or 29,029 ft), at 13:07.^[22][23] Many of the climbers had not yet reached the summit by 14:00, the last safe time to turn around to reach Camp IV before nightfall.

Boukreev began his descent to Camp IV at 14:30, having spent nearly 1.5 hours at or near the summit helping others complete the climb. By that time, Hall, Krakauer, Harris, Beidleman, Namba, and Mountain Madness clients Martin Adams and Klev Schoening had reached the summit,^[22][23] and the remaining four Mountain Madness clients had arrived. After this time, Krakauer noted that the weather did not look so benign.^[24] At 15:00, snow started to fall, and the light was diminishing.

Hall's Sirdar, Ang Dorje Sherpa, and other climbing Sherpas waited at the summit for the clients. Near 15:00, they began their descent. On the way down, Ang Dorje encountered client Doug Hansen above the Hillary Step and ordered him to descend. Hansen did not respond verbally, but shook his head and pointed upward, toward the summit.^[25] When Hall arrived at the scene, the Sherpas offered to take Hansen to the summit, but Hall sent the Sherpas down to assist the other clients, and instructed them to stash oxygen canisters on the route. Hall said he would remain to help Hansen, who had run out of supplementary oxygen.^[25]

Scott Fischer did not summit until 15:45. He was exhausted from the ascent and becoming increasingly ill, possibly suffering from HAPE, HACE, or a combination of both. Others, including Doug Hansen and Makalu Gau, reached the summit even later.^[21]

Descent in a blizzard

Boukreev recorded that he reached Camp IV by 17:00. Boukreev's reasons for descending ahead of his clients are disputed.^[26] Initially, Boukreev said he was going down with client Martin Adams,^[27] but later descended faster and left Adams behind.^[27] Boukreev also maintained that he wanted to be ready to assist struggling clients farther down the slope, and to retrieve hot tea and extra oxygen if necessary.^[28] According to Boukreev, this plan was discussed with and approved by expedition leader Fischer.^[23][29]

Krakauer sharply criticized Boukreev's decision not to use bottled oxygen while employed as a guide.^[30] Boukreev's supporters, who include G. Weston DeWalt, co-author of The Climb (1997), state that using bottled oxygen gives a false sense of security.^[31] Krakauer and his supporters point out that, without bottled oxygen, Boukreev was unable to directly help his clients descend.^[27]

The worsening weather began causing difficulties for the descending team members. The blizzard on the southwest face of Everest was reducing visibility, burying the fixed ropes, and obliterating the trail back to Camp IV that the teams had broken on the ascent. Fischer, helped by Lopsang Jangbu Sherpa, was unable to descend below the Balcony (8,350 m or 27,400 ft) in the storm. Sherpas left Makalu Gau (at 8,230 m or 27,000 ft by Gau's account^[32]) with Fischer and Lopsang when Gau, too, became unable to proceed. Eventually, Lopsang was persuaded by Fischer to descend and leave him and Gau.^[21]

Hall radioed for help, saying that Hansen had fallen unconscious but was still alive. At 17:30, Adventure Consultants guide Andy Harris, carrying supplementary oxygen and water, began climbing alone from the South Summit (8,749 m or 28,704 ft) toward Hansen and Hall at the top of Hillary Step.^[3] Krakauer's account notes that by this time, the weather had deteriorated into a full-scale blizzard: "Snow pellets borne by 70 kn [130 km/h; 81 mph] gusts stung my face."^[33] Boukreev gives 18:00 as "the onset of a blizzard".^[22][23]

Several climbers got lost on the descent during the storm. Mountain Madness guide Beidleman and clients Klev Schoening, Fox, Madsen, Pittman, and Gammelgaard, along with Adventure Consultants guide Mike Groom and clients Beck Weathers and Yasuko Namba, wandered in the blizzard until they could no longer walk, huddling some 20 m (66 ft) from a drop-off of the Kangshung Face. Hall's client Stuart Hutchison attempted to organize a rescue effort for those still on the mountain, but could not find anybody willing to leave the South Col. The climbers were exhausted and considered a rescue effort suicidal.^[34]

Near midnight, the blizzard cleared sufficiently for the group still on the mountain to see Camp IV, some 400 m (1,300 ft) distant. Beidleman, Groom, Schoening, and Gammelgaard set off to find help and reached Camp IV. They gave Boukreev the approximate locations of the still-stranded climbers above. Madsen and Fox had remained on the mountain with the group in order to shout for the rescuers. Boukreev, alone, left the camp three times and spent most of the night attempting to find the stranded climbers. On his second and third attempt, he located them and escorted Pittman, Fox, and Madsen to safety. Pittman, Fox, and Madsen were from his Mountain Madness expedition. Of the two other people he found, Namba (from the Adventure Consultants expedition), seemed close to death. Beck Weathers had been with the group but had walked away and disappeared into the storm. All of the climbers, including Boukreev, then at Camp IV were too exhausted to make another attempt until the next morning to reach Namba and Weathers.^[35][36]

Mountaineer Galen Rowell described Boukreev's rescue efforts in the Wall Street Journal as "One of the most amazing rescues in mountaineering history performed single-handedly a few hours after climbing Everest without oxygen..."^[37] In 1997 Anatoli Boukreev was awarded the David A. Sowles Memorial Award by the American Alpine Club. The award is the American Alpine Club's highest award for valor in recognition of his rescue of climbers in the 1996 Everest disaster.^[38]

11 May

In the early morning of 11 May, at 04:43, Hall radioed Base Camp that he was on the South Summit (8,749 m or 28,704 ft), confirming that he survived the night. He reported that Harris reached the two men, but Hansen, who was with him since the previous afternoon, was now "gone", and Harris was missing. Hall was not breathing bottled oxygen because his regulator was too choked with ice.^[3]

By 09:00, Hall had fixed his oxygen mask but indicated that his frostbitten hands and feet were making it difficult to traverse the fixed ropes. Later in the afternoon, he radioed Base Camp, asking them to call his pregnant wife, Jan Arnold, on the satellite phone. During this last communication, they chose a name for their unborn child, he reassured her that he was reasonably comfortable, and told her, "Sleep well, my sweetheart. Please don't worry too much."^[39] Shortly thereafter, he froze to death in his sleep. His body was found on 23 May by Ed Viesturs and fellow mountaineers from the IMAX expedition, but was left there as requested by his wife, who said she thought he was "where he'd liked to have stayed".^[40] The bodies of Doug Hansen and Andy Harris have never been found. Viesturs stated in the IMAX film that upon finding Hall's body, he sat down and cried beside his friend.^[41]

Later in the day, however, Weathers regained consciousness and walked alone under his own power to the camp, surprising everyone there, though he was suffering severe hypothermia and frostbite. Despite receiving oxygen and attempts to rewarm him, Weathers was practically abandoned again the next morning, 12 May, after a storm collapsed his tent overnight and the other survivors again thought he died. Krakauer discovered he was still conscious when the survivors in Camp IV prepared to evacuate. Despite his worsening condition, Weathers could still move mostly under his own power. A rescue team mobilized, hopeful of getting Weathers down the mountain alive. Over the next two days, Weathers was ushered down to Camp II with the assistance of eight healthy climbers from various expeditions and evacuated by a daring high-altitude helicopter rescue, one of the highest ever attempted. He survived and eventually recovered, but lost his nose, right hand, half his right forearm, and the fingers on his left hand to frostbite.^[42]

The climbing Sherpas located Fischer and Gau on 11 May, but Fischer's condition had deteriorated so much that they were only able to give him palliative care before rescuing Gau. Boukreev made a subsequent rescue attempt but found Fischer's frozen body at around 19:00. Like Weathers, Gau was evacuated by helicopter.

Discussion

With regard to the turnaround time, neither Hall nor Fischer was at the summit at 2:00 p.m. it's not clear whether the other guides would have been effective had they attempted to enforce the deadline.

It's very difficult to turn someone around high on the mountain. If a client sees that the summit is close and they're dead-set on getting there, they're going to laugh in your face and keep going.^[53]

Krakauer suggested several measures that might be attempted to prevent future tragedies such as that of 1996, but was pessimistic that the death toll could be decreased. He pointed out that climbing Everest is a dangerous endeavor with a fatality rate in 1996 and previous years of three percent for climbers who go above the relatively low elevation of base camp at 5,300 m (17,400 ft) The fatalities include a large number of elite climbers as well as novices. He noted that "lucid thought is all but impossible at 29,000 feet."^[54]

Adding to the high-altitude problem of oxygen shortage, Kent Moore, a physicist, and John L. Semple, a surgeon, both researchers from the University of Toronto, in May 2004, told New Scientist magazine that an analysis of the weather conditions on 11 May suggested that atmospheric oxygen levels fell by an additional 6% as a result of the storm, resulting in a further 14% reduction in oxygen uptake.^[55][56]

Radios

There were several issues and problems with radios and their use on summit day. Scott Fischer's Sardar did not have a company-issued radio, but did have a "small yellow" radio that was owned by Sandy Pittman. Rob Hall's team also had an issue with a radio during a discussion over oxygen bottles that caused confusion.^[59] Ian Woodall, the leader of a South African team at the South Col, refused to let other groups use his radio after their batteries were depleted during the storm.^[60]

Other fatalities in 1996

The following is a list of the other fatalities during the spring 1996 climbing season on Everest. These deaths were not directly related to the storm or the events of 10–11 May 1996 Everest disaster.

• 9 May – Chen Yu-Nan (陳玉男) – from the Taiwanese National Expedition, died after a fall down the Lhotse Face^[63]
• 19 May – Reinhard Wlasich – Austrian climber, died from a combination of HAPE and HACE at 8,300 m (27,200 ft) on the Northeast Ridge^[64]
• 25 May – Bruce Herrod – photojournalist with a South African team, was on the South Col during the 10–11 May storm and reached the summit two weeks later, but died descending the Southeast Ridge^[65]
• 6 June – Ngawang Topche Sherpa – Nepali Sherpa for Mountain Madness, developed a severe case of HAPE on 22 April while working above Base Camp; died in June in a Kathmandu hospital^[66]

The following fatalities occurred on Everest during the fall 1996 climbing season.^[67][68]

• 25 September – Yves Bouchon – French climber, died in an avalanche at 7,800 m (25,600 ft) on the southeast route below Camp IV, along with the two Sherpas listed below
• 25 September – Lopsang Jangbu Sherpa – Nepalese Sherpa, the same climbing Sardar on the Mountain Madness expedition involved in the May 1996 Everest disaster; died in avalanche
• 25 September – Dawa Sherpa – Nepalese Sherpa; died in avalanche

In the epilogue to High Exposure, David Breashears describes encountering some of the bodies upon climbing Everest again in May 1997.^[69]