Canadian who helped fellow mountaineer on Everest never hesitated

Canadian Andrew Brash had the summit in sight and was just 200 metres away from the top of the world's highest mountain, when he ditched his dream of conquering Mount Everest so he could help rescue a fellow climber from Australia.

That decision earned Brash, a Calgary resident, worldwide acclaim. But to hear him tell it there was really no choice.

"When I saw Lincholn sitting on the ridge, I knew our trip was over," he said. "I knew what we were going to do."

Brash and his team stopped when they found fellow mountaineer Lincholn Hall with no gloves and no hat, just sitting on the edge of a cliff in a thin shirt. His Sherpas left him for dead the night before, thinking he had died from brain swelling on his way down from the summit.

more

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/06/02/brash06022006.html

:yourock:


PS: DU Admin please consider creating "a face with Canadian flag" like this one on "smilies lookup table :patriot:...but with a Canadian flag. Thanks

, a much greater summit; what a beautiful story.

:pals:

I wouldn't dream of leaving anyone behind to die. It's that simple. A day out hiking, or out fishing on the water becomes secondary the moment another human being is in trouble.

Hell, even during the deepest cold war there were incidents of the USCG rescuing Russian fisherman, and vice-versa.

Given that, this Canadian really is a hero.

http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Alberta/2006/05/28/1602016-sun.html">No summit for city hero

rest at link

but it would be great if they could reach the summit together on a later date.

This story bothers me in that it makes it seem that Brash was nearly the sole person to save Hall's life when it ignores the others that were involved to a greater degree. Dan Mazur, an American climber, was leading a team on which Brash was a client. As the team leader, it was Mazur's decision to stop and aid Hall, and organize a rescue. Brash certainly helped, but it was Sherpas who brought Hall down on a stretcher, and Mazur who made the decisions about staying, what to do for Hall and get the rescue organized. All the teams on the North side of the mountain helped to save Hall, when this article makes it seem that this team was the only one to do anything.

http://www.mounteverest.net/news.php?id=3313
Joint Effort Never Before Seen on Everest's North Side: Lincoln Hall in C1
10:55 am EST May 26, 2006

(MountEverest.net) Early this morning, climbers on their way up the mountain found Australian Lincoln Hall still alive - after his spending one night in the open at 8700m. A rescue operation was immediately launched – resulting in an unprecedented joint effort from all teams still on Everest's north side.

Sherpas reached Lincoln who, after receiving O2 and drugs, regained consciousness but remained in extremely serious condition. He was transported down across the technical upper sections of Everest.

This morning, Dan Mazur reached Lincoln on his way to the summit with some clients, and found him still alive. He gave him oxygen, tea and lent him his radio, so Lincoln could speak to his team. Dan then proceeded to the summit** while Abramov and other teams on the mountain immediately dispatched all resources up the mountain to save Lincoln.

**Ed correction May 27: In a rescue debrief on May 27 it turned out that the two stayed with Lincoln until help arrived.


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25689-2201156,00.html
I Imagine You Are Surprised To See Me Here, Said 'Dead' Everest Climber
May 29, 2006

THE veteran Himalaya high altitude guide stopped in astonishment at the vision before him on Mount Everest’s death zone.

Alone in the snow at 8,700m (28,500ft) sat a motionless, ragged figure. He had no hat; his snow jacket was half torn off; his climbing equipment was missing; and frostbite was attacking his face and hands.

"I imagine you are surprised to see me here," the man whispered as Dan Mazur, 44, bent down to check for signs of life.

The ragged figure was that of Lincoln Hall, the Australian climber pronounced dead by his Sherpas and abandoned to the mountain the previous evening. Mr Hall, 50, had collapsed, suffering from altitude sickness, shortly after achieving his lifelong ambition to reach the top of Everest on Thursday morning. His Sherpas had battled for nine hours to try to save him but eventually left, believing him to be the eleventh recorded fatality on Everest this grim climbing season.


http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3683893a12,00.html
Aussie Climber's Miracle Survival Story
29 May 2006
Sydney Morning Herald

It was a perfect Himalayan morning and the American climber Dan Mazur knew the bad weather that had forced him to turn back a week earlier would not stop him reaching the summit of Mount Everest this time. Then he rounded a bend and saw Lincoln Hall.

"He had his top off and and his gloves off and his hat off and he was sort of jerking around and his eyes were glazed," Mazur said yesterday. "The first thing he said was, 'I imagine you are very surprised to see me here'."

Hall was articulate but not "all there", Mazur said by satellite phone yesterday from Advanced Base Camp, a day and a half's climb below the site of the extraordinary encounter.

Jangbu Sherpa, who with Mazur was guiding an Englishman, Miles Osborne, and a Canadian, Andrew Brash, to the summit, made the first decision: he tied Hall to the mountain. "He was unroped, sitting in a lotus position on a sort of knife-edged ridge - he could have fallen a couple of thousand metres," Mazur said. Then the group gave Hall some oxygen, water and food. He started to recover and his thinking became clear.

I mean, my reaction: a lot of people helped... GOOD! That's how it ought to be, damnit.

Just because some stupid bastard decided to quit and his Sherpas left him for dead doesn't mean that you should give up on your quest for self-enrichment. As a Republican I am ashamed that a fellow mountain climber would quit just 200 yards (we don't recognize metric) from his goal.

had already had been to the top of Everest several times so for them not reaching the summit was no big deal. The members who really sacrificed a dream were Brash and Osbourne. Brash a teacher has said that his trip to Everest a once in a lifetime event, he will not be attempting another climb.

That a self-evident act like this one becomes heroic.