While reading Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (a personal account of a disaster on Mt. Everest’s summit) I felt certain events revealed human beings and their systems fail - on mountaintops, high seas, farms, cities, Wall St. and Main St., Anytown - for some of the same reasons.
Near Everest’s summit, Rob Hall (an accomplished climbing guide), did not turn himself or a client around for safe retreat toward evening refuge as previously arranged.
Krakauer writes:
“In any case, Hall did not turn Hansen around at 2:00 P.M. - or, for that matter, at 4:00, when he met his client just below the top. Instead, according to Lopsang (Sherpa climber), Hall placed Hansen’s arm around his neck and assisted the weary client up the final forty feet to the summit.”
“They stayed only a minute or two, then turned to begin the long descent.”
Later events conspired to make their descent extremely difficult, then impossible.
Hansen was never heard from or seen again.
[Hansen’s grave: photo link]
A lone ice ax, found near the end of fixed ropes above a 7,000 foot sheer drop, bore testimony to his fate.
Hall was heard from later that day and into the night but never seen alive again [except possibly by Harold Harris, a young NZ climber and guide, who attempted to rescue Hall and Hansen - and paid the price with his own life].
Rob Hall’s frozen body, however, remained visible to future climbers for some time near the summit.
***
Personal and system failures can be tragic. What causes tragic failures?
Tomorrow, the conclusion
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