No matter what anyone says, people keep repeating the same blind statment of "i cant believe they walked past him, why didnt they help"
Go and read any of the now hundreds of articles on this story. Most now account that the guy was in varying stages of death that day, and the group that stopped said he could not stand or move any of his limbs and could just move his eyes at that point.
The point about them not taking any more risk than the boat racers is not even comparable. Those boat racers were not in an environment where 3-5 minutes of exposure would cause instant death.
This guy was 1,000 feet shy of the summit, basically immobile and half frozen solid. The group has now stated again and again that the decision was to press onward because to stop for any extended period would have severly risked the lives of the entire group.
While i feel the same human compassion, i dont think its nearly as simple as throwing a huge blanketed moral compass on their decision. I think at this point its an agree to disagree situation. many here are presenting the situation in such a way that they lead me to belive they would lower their families into a flaming volcano to save a guy who was burned beyond hope already....i think people need to take a cold, hard look at the situation and put yourself in a leadership position. If you had a group of people whom you were responsible for, would you risk every single one of their lives, knowing that there was a measurable and almost certain chance one or more would die, only to give an already dying man a few more moments of peace (if you can even say he was congant enough to recieve it?)? Would you be able to sleep easier knowing you effectively caused the deaths of ten to try to save one who you beleived beyond saving? If you say that you'd be willing to make that sacrifice, you should never be a leader of men....these are cold, hard, survival choices made on the spot under extremes we can only slightly begin to imagine, and it bothers me that the people who have to live with that cold hard reality are being attacked by hoardes of people caliming they should have done more, but have no solutions and no answers as to what more they could have done other than joined him in his fate.
Call me cold, or uncompassionate, but i would have stopped, asessed the situation, and most likely kept walking. There is a point where being a hero is being foolish, and risking many lives to save one just does not weigh out. Sometimes compassion is making hard choices. People die on that mountain 20 feet from their tent, unable to make it that last 20 feet. Most cannot even drag their own weight down, and most deaths are on the descent, as mr sharp's was. Gear is at a minimum to make the best attempt, and i find it hard to beleive that anyone here would have accepted nearly certain death to drag what they saw as a lost cause down a decent that they were already risking their lives to attempt alone....maybe some here would make that choice. History has proven again and again about those types of people. Some are heroes, pulling off the impossible due to combinations of scenarios and luck. Most who made that choice would be no more than a lump in the snow right now from every expert account I have read.
The question is would you personally, when all is said and done, rather:
One dead frozen man and 40 men who had better chances at living?
One chance at saving that one man, with the risk that a great many would have a high percentage of also dying and even if he were saved, had little chance to survive?
A few martyrs to die with him, just to prove that humans are compassionate?
Ive seen a lot of questions but not a lot of answers. Those climbers made choices and they all lived. What would you have done differently and how do you envision those different scenareios to have worked out? lets try to keep to the environment, though. So no stopping for longer than 5 minutes, no magic vending machines, no magic sources of extra oxygen, no skiing down ice cliffs, no unassisted rope work, no bursts of energy where exceptional things happen....reality. What is the reality of the alternatives, and how would YOU justify those alternatives to the widows of the men you might commit to death, to yourself?
