THE TRAGIC DEATH OF DAVID SHARP

On May 15, 2006, thirty-four year old Englishman, David Sharp, froze to death in Green Boots Cave on the Northeast Ridge of Mt. Everest.  His death ignited a controversy that continues to this day:  what obligation does a climber have when he/she comes upon a fellow climber in extremis?
It is well documented that over 40 climbers passed Mr. Sharp on their way up or down the mountain.  This included Mark Inglis who became the first double amputee to summit the highest mountain in the world.  When word got out that many climbers passed Mr. Sharp dying at Green Boots Cave, there was substantial public condemnation of their actions.  Even Sir Edmund Hillary, revered worldwide as the first person to climb Mt. Everest, expressed indignation and outrage.  In addition, the Everest expedition company used by Mr. Sharp–Asian Trekking–came under attack.  The event drew significant media attention and was the subject of numerous newspaper reports, magazine articles, film documentaries and books.

My personal belief is that much of the criticism, especially the criticism of Mark Inglis and Asian Trekking, was excessively harsh and unjustified.

MARK INGLIS

When climbers passed Mr. Sharp in Green Boots Cave on May 15, he was completely immobile and near death.  His arms, legs and face were severely frozen and frostbitten.  He could not stand upright, even with assistance, and it took the effort of several men just to drag him out of the cave and into the sun.  It is well established that an immobile climber in the so-called “Death Zone” above 26,000 feet cannot be rescued, no matter what resources are put against the task.  In 2004, three Korean climbers perished on the Northeast Ridge of Mt. Everest.  There was a similar outcry over the lack of efforts to save their lives.  The following year, a 14 person team of expert Korean climbers returned to bring the bodies down the mountain.  They were able to locate only one body, still clipped to the fixed line at 28,700 feet.  After hours of effort, they were able to move the body only 500 feet.  After covering the body with stones and conducting a brief ceremony, they descended without having accomplished their goal.  In 2010, when I was on the mountain, an English climber was coming down from the summit on the North side of Everest when he lost his vision, most likely because of cerebral edema.  He eventually collapsed.  Despite the heroic efforts of a team of Sherpas sent up to help bring him down, he could not be moved, and was left to freeze to death on the mountain.

David Sharp’s condition in Green Boots Cave was equally, if not more, hopeless.  It is hard to imagine what any climber moving up the Northeast Ridge that night could have done to help Mr. Sharp, who was virtually frozen in place at 28,000 feet.  When Mr. Sharp was first discovered in Green Boots Cave, it was 1 am in the morning on May 15.  Even assuming a rescue attempt might have been launched, it would have had to wait until sunrise many hours later.  At that point, his condition would have been even more hopeless.

Mark Inglis, who bore much of the criticism, was a double amputee who was himself suffering severe frostbite damage from the harsh weather conditions.  His condition was so severe he had to be carried down a portion of the mountain on the back of a Sherpa.  In addition, he was a client on an expedition team, not an experienced expedition leader, guide or Sherpa.  He was simply in no position to render assistance to Mr. Sharp.

If Mr. Sharp was mobile as he sat in Green Boots Cave, I believe other climbers, guides and Sherpas aware of his peril would have had a moral and ethical obligation to render assistance.  Most of them would have answered the call.  Just 10 days after Mr. Sharp died, Dan Mazur was leading three clients on the Northeast Ridge.  He came upon Lincoln Hall, who was sitting alone in the snow just below the summit.  He had been left for dead the previous day by his Sherpas and had spent the night on the ridgeline.  When Dan came upon Mr. Hall, his jacket was open and his expedition gloves were off.  He was near death, but was able to stand and move with assistance.  Dan and his clients gave up their summit bid and called down for help.  A team of Sherpas was sent up and Mr. Hall was assisted down the mountain to safety. He suffered significant frostbite damage, but survived.

The perilous position Mr. Sharp found himself in on May 15 is a risk every climber understands and accepts.  I am sure Mr. Sharp would be the first to acknowledge this point.  He chose to climb alone, with insufficient oxygen, no radio, no satellite telephone and no Sherpa support.  It was his third attempt to climb Mt. Everest from the North side.  In previous attempts he lost toes to frostbite, and boldly declared he was prepared to lose more to reach the top.

ASIAN TREKKING

Equally troubling is the criticism leveled at Asian Trekking, the expedition organizer hired by Mr. Sharp.  What very few people understand is the difference between a “guided” climb and an “unguided” climb.  In a fully guided climb, experienced guides are with the climbers the entire time they are on the mountain and the team always moves together.  In an unguided climb, the climbers are pretty much on their own when they move up and down the mountain.  Unguided climbs are therefore best suited to climbers who are experienced and prefer the freedom and independence that come from moving solo or with just a Sherpa to help carry their gear.

Asian Trekking offers two types of unguided climbs on the North side of Everest–full service to the summit and no service above Advance Base Camp.  By “service” I mean that Asian Trekking assumes responsibility to obtain the permits, transport the climbers and gear to Chinese Base Camp and establish and stock the camps from Chinese Base Camp to the summit.  With the no service option, Asian Trekking’s responsibility ends once the climber arrives at ABC.  The climber is responsible to get himself and his provisions up and down the mountain above ABC.  Obviously, the no service option is only suitable for highly experienced, independent and strong climbers.  It is also much less expensive.

David Sharp signed up with Asian Trekking for the no service option.  There is no dispute that he was a highly experienced and competent climber.  He chose to move alone, with no Sherpa support and only 2 bottles of oxygen.  It also appears he decided to move to the summit very late in the day, a very dangerous proposition even in the best weather conditions.  Asian Trekking was not keeping track of his movements on the mountain because he was moving without a radio or satellite telephone.  I am not aware of any evidence to indicate Asian Trekking was notified of his desperate condition at Green Boot’s Cave until it was far too late to mount a rescue effort.  Unless one takes the position that no service, unguided climbs should be banned on Mt. Everest, I don’t see the basis for criticism of Asian Trekking.

I have been on the North side of Everest three times and have met many no service climbers.  Many of them are good friends.  They are a hardy, brave and independent lot, and each one understood and assumed the risk in traveling alone with virtually no support or radio contact.  Not one of these climbers asked, expected or wanted Asian Trekking, or anyone else, to keep track of their movements.  However, if any one of them had gotten into trouble and had Asian Trekking had been notified, I am absolutely confident a rescue effort would have been mobilized immediately, and we all would have joined in the effort.

This is not a defense or apology for Asian Trekking.  Like every other expedition company, they make mistakes.  For example, in 2011, when I was on the North side, I had to turn around and descend at the First Step on the Northeast Ridge, even though I was moving strong and had plenty of time to make the summit.  My Sherpa miscalculated the amount of oxygen we would need to make the summit and return safely.  It would be easy for me to harbor a bitter attitude towards the Sherpa and Asian Trekking who employed him.  But, in the end it was my responsibility to make sure we had enough oxygen since I was on an unguided climb.

In my view, no one is at fault for what happened to David Sharp, except Mr. Sharp himself.  My guess is that he would agree with this assessment.

CLIMB EVERY MOUNTAIN explanation

He says that he has grown up physically to a certain height but he is still tiny against the life. In an accident happened while climbing up a mountain, his lower part of the legs was dead and that made him 2 cm small. Inglis was working in an rescue department and in a blizzard he was trapped inside the storm for 13 days where he lost his knee down portion (In very low temperature human body starts to rot, that is the reason why people wear warm clothes in colder atmosphere.)

Now the story comes 30 years ahead... He was the first handicapped person to reach MT. Everest and the second to climb MT. Cho Oyu. He used to wear 3/4th pants all day long and even during his climbs. He has great integrity of positive mentality in him. He should not take his disabilities as his bad luck.. he use to greet his luck by good attributes. He was appointed as a motivational guide later...

People used to ignore Inglis due to his disabilities but it use to inspire them when he used to talk about his journey towards being a mountaineer. Inglis was interested in Rugby but he played it at the worst level. Then he decided to find his thrill in Climbing. He took guidance from Bert, his teacher, and became a rescue mountaineer... He had a close call towards MT. Everest but he had to wait for 25 years due to his leg injury...

Lets get back to his past... he was stuck in the blizzard with his companion. They had five cookies and they spent a day on one cookie. This action saved them for five days. At lower temperature human calories burns spontaneously in a rapid way... the same was happening with Inglis and Philip on that day... he approx. loosed half of his weight. He says that the maximum anyone in his history could live long for 9 days in those conditions. All they left on almighty. They observed a chopper sound on the seventh day. That sound was ear pleasing.. They were provided food and other necessity and later they were rescued but the conditions got worst when he say his legs decaying due to the bacterium. .

The brave hearten Inglis yet again decided to get up on his passion but was unable. Later on, he decided to join academics.. he studied Biochemistry in humans, 10 year career in wine-making and by the time Mr. Inglis used to even go for skiing and cycling, and he has even won Silver Medal in Sydney 2000 Paralympic game which is organised for handicapped. He got tough day by day and learned with the circumstances. He again stood up for his passion in 2002 and from then he never looked back.. He targeted MT. Cook and then even reached to MT. Cho Oyu which is just 649 m short then that of Everest. It was hard for him for the time being but now he feels confident for climbing up at any peek. He used to be with the associates while climbing up the mountain and he had to be with them in terms of speed. It was really tough job to do so.. but the hard work paid him with interest.

Inglis has to climb in the same speed at that of his associates otherwise he would leave behind and may die. His companions used to wait at a place to make there feet warm again and the best part of Inglis legs were that he could replace it our manage it anywhere and start up his journey again. He takes 3 times longer from other to go for the next climb...  He has been considered as the motivational guide across the worlds considering his hard work and passion for his job. In his every speech he used terms relating to mountaineering. He begins with his snap of climbing Everest and expresses positiveness in his phrases by " I see is a man whose legs won’t be affected by frost-bitten feet again.’’

 He has boosted up himself with confidence and now he goes for hiking in Northern part ever year. He do not compress himself by highlighting his disabilities. His afore statements explains his positive attitude towards things... he means that he does not wants to fall down to up-pant, he wants people to low there eyes in front of him... He is an great example of Positivity.

Climb every mountain by Sharmila Ganesan-Ram

Mark Joseph Inglis, ONZM (born 27 September 1958) is a mountaineer, researcher, winemaker and motivational speaker. He holds a degree in Human Biochemistry from Lincoln University, New Zealand, and has conducted research on Leukaemia. He is also an accomplished cyclist and, as a double leg amputee, won a silver medal in the 1 km time trial event at the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games.
In addition to being a goodwill ambassador for the Everest Rescue Trust, Inglis has created a New Zealand based charitable trust Limbs4All. He has also created a range of sports drinks and energy gels named PeakFuel. He is heavily criticized for passing a distressed David Sharp without offering any assistance. Sharp was in a grave condition and eventually died.




People often ask Mark Inglis if he can be any height he wishes. In reply, he says, "Yes, I am very short when I am climbing mountains and tall otherwise." At any given time, though, this cheerful Kiwi is two centimetres shorter than he used to be till that perilous November in 1982. A heavy blizzard at New Zealand's Mt Cook, where he was a 23-year-old search and rescue mountaineer, relegated Inglis to an ice cave for 13 days. Following his rescue, a major media event, both his legs had to be amputated knee-down because of severe frostbite.

Today, almost 30 years later, as the first double amputee to have reached the summit of Mt Everest, the second double-amputee to scale Mt Cho Oyu and perhaps the only double amputee to wear three-quarter pants all the time, this 51-year-old mountaineer has a lot to tell people about life. "I don't tell them I am disabled. Disability is a state of mind. I say I'm a double amputee," says the jolly Kiwi, who is in the city to deliver a series of motivational lectures to corporates, schools and whoever is willing to borrow inspiration from his survival story.

Seated at the Taj lobby—where he feels people are showing a cultured nonchalance towards this strange foreigner in three-quarter pants who keeps adjusting his prosthetic legs—Inglis beams when he recalls how it all began with rugby. "I was really bad at rugby in school, and in 1970s New Zealand if you were bad at the game, what else could you do but climb?" he laughs. Initiated into mountaineering by his teacher, Bert, he soon became a professional search and rescue mountaineer, who, like every other adventure-seeker in his country, saw Mt Everest as a stepping stone to success. But that dream had to wait for over 25 years thanks to the terrible blizzard of '82.

Inglis was stuck in an ice cave with fellow mountaineer Philip Doole—with five cookies between them, the duo survived on half a biscuit a day for the first five days. "At minus 20 degrees in that altitude, the human body tends to burn as many calories as a racing cyclist," says Inglis, whose weight dropped from 70 kg to 39 kg. "The maximum someone had lasted in our situation was nine days. We spent most of our time praying for relief." It came on the seventh day in the form of a helicopter which dropped food, sleeping bags, a primus and a radio. On the thirteenth day, they were rescued. "But the worst part was seeing my legs rot later," Inglis says.

Showing rare courage, the mountaineer tried to get back to his passion. But after the initial painful attempts and the resulting frustration, he decided to take a break from the mountains and turned to academics. A degree in human biochemistry was followed by a ten-year career in winemaking. Meanwhile, he also dabbled in skiing and cycling, which culminated in a silver medal in the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games. "Every day, I learnt to walk better," says Inglis, who renewed his tryst with the rocky mountains in 2002. He first scaled Mt Cook with his prosthetic legs and later, in 2004, successfully reached the summit of Cho Oyu, which is only 649 metres lower than Everest. "It was very hard but I felt confident of going on Everest now," says Inglis, who set out on the mission in 2006. "There were people around me with legs who were cribbing about how hard it was. And I would look at them and think, "Boy, you really don't know how hard."

Inglis had to climb at the same speed as others ("Otherwise I would die") and even broke one of his stumps midway but "the best part of having legs like mine is that you can fix them on the spot", he smiles. He takes three times longer to recover after an expedition, but all his experiences are converted into bullet points for his motivational talks across the world, where he uses mountaineering as a metaphor for life. His lectures usually begin with a photo of him scaling Mt Everest. "What do you see?" he asks his audience. "A double amputee climbing Mt Everest? What I see is a man whose legs won't be affected by frost-bitten feet again."

Inglis, who now goes on two treks to the North Pole every year, enjoys mountain biking. Despite becoming a spectacle for the mountain people, he does not hide his prosthetic legs inside full pants. There's a deeper reason for that. "I'd rather be seen pulling my pants up to adjust my legs than pulling them down."

Glossary

1) Perilous - fraught with danger.
2) Kiwi - A resident of New Zealand.
3) Blizzard - A storm with heavy wind and snow.
4) Amputated - To remove with surgery.

Glossary

1) Double Amputee - Someone who has a limb removed by surgery.
2) Perhaps - May be
3) Disabled - Not able to perform an activity.
4) Motivate - To Inspire.
5) Jolly - Happy.

Glossary

1) Lobby - Reception room area.
2) Nonchalance - Not bothering, to ignore.
3) Prosthetic -  Replaced part of body.
4) Rugby - A game.

Glossary
1) Fellow - Friend, A guy, Companion.
2) Duo - Both.
3) tend - turn.
4) Cyclist - Cycle Rider.
5) Primus - Stove, Instrument to cook food.
6) Rot - To decay.

Glossary
1) Frustration -  Disappointment.
2) Culminated - To reach final destination.
3) Tryst - A meeting with loved one.
4) Prosthetic - Artificial body part.