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This Mount Everest Disaster Shows

The Danger Of Clinging To Goals

source FARNAM STREET

In 1996 a disaster of historic proportion happened on the peak of Mount Everest. In the entire climbing season, 15 climbers died. Eight of those deaths took place on a single day.

Journalist and mountain climber Jon Krakauer captured this story in his breathtaking book " Into Thin Air." Krakauer didn’t just uncover the story after the fact, he was on the mountain that day.

You would think that by now Everest would have become such a commercial expedition that anyone with sufficient money and a little climbing ability could make it to the summit and back. While that’s largely true, it’s not that unusual to hear of people dying. The 1996 disaster was different. Aside from the number of people dying on the same day, it was inexplicable.

The weather on the summit can kill you in the blink of an eye. Weather changes everything. Only the weather on this day was no different than usual. No sudden avalanches pushed a group towards death. No freak snow storms blew them away. No, their failure was entirely human.

"Into Thin Air" puts part of the blame on the stubbornness of Anatoli Boukreev, a Kazakhstani climbing guide. While there is some evidence to support this claim, most climbers are, by definition, stubborn and arrogant. Despite this, disasters of this magnitude are rare. There was something more at play.

We’ll never know for sure what happened but it looks like an example of mass irrationality.

Only 720 feet from the summit, in an event that has since become known as "the traffic jam," teams from New Zealand, the United States, and Taiwan, representing 34 climbers in total, were all attempting to summit that day. Their departure point was Camp 4, at 26,000 feet. The summit was 29,000 feet. Those 3,000 feet are quite possibly one of the most dangerous spots on the planet. As such, preparation is key.

The Americans and New Zealanders co-ordinated their efforts. The last thing you want is people walking on each other impeding a smooth progression up, and if you’re fortunate, down the mountain. The Taiwanese climbers, however, were not supposed to climb that day. Either reneging or misunderstanding, they proceeded on the same day.

Now the advance team also made a mistake, perhaps from confusion about the number of climbers. They failed to secure safety ropes at Hillary Step. This wouldn’t have been such a big deal if there were not 34 climbers trying to reach the summit at the same time. As a result of the ropes not being laid, progression was choppy and bottlenecked.

The most important thing to keep in mind in any attempt at Everest is time. Climbers have limited oxygen. Weather can change in a heartbeat and you don’t want to be on the summit at night. If you leave Camp 4 at midnight and things go your way, you might be able to reach the summit 12 hours later. But, importantly, you also have a turnaround time, which depends on weather and oxygen levels.

This is the time that no matter where you are, you’re supposed to turn around and come home. If you’re 200 feet from the summit and it hits your turnaround time, you have a very important choice to make. You can attempt to climb the last 200 feet or you can turn around. If you don’t turn around you increase the odds of running out of oxygen and descending in some of Everest’s most dangerous weather.

In this case the teams encountered a traffic jam at Hilary pass that slowed progression. They disregarded their turnaround time, which had just passed. American Ed Viesturs, watching from a telescope at Camp 4, was in disbelief. "They’ve already been climbing for hours, and they still aren’t on the summit," he said to himself, with rising alarm. "Why haven’t they turned around?"

On that day and with those oxygen supplies the last safe turnaround time was two o’clock.

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