Aside from those who climbed Mount Everest “because it’s there”, there may well be as many additional reasons as there are those men and women who have actually made it to the top.
Doug: I’m climbing Mount Everest because I can…because to be able to climb that high and see that kind of beauty that nobody ever sees, it’d be a crime not to.
Or, perhaps, more to the point here, the reasons of those who tried to: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_p … nt_Everest
It has never been an inclination of mine to risk death in accomplishing something that one would do only in order to say that they accomplished it. Of course, I don’t believe in life after death so that will always be a factor in choosing not to do things like this.
On the other hand, what do I know of the extraordinary adrenaline rush that those who do accomplish these things often speak of – in awe. And the whole point here often revolves precisely around the fact that you risk death.
It’s trade off then. And some are willing to make it, while most are not.
Of course there are ways to get that adrenaline rush and have more measure of control. Like parachuting out of an airplane. Or bungee jumping. There is always the possibility of death here as well but considerably less so if you know what you are doing. On Everest though you are often at the mercy of the elements. Of the mountain itself. There is not much you can do to control a raging blizzard. Or an ice fall. Or an avalanche. So the risk of death climbing a mountain like Everest becomes considerably more problematic.
And then there are the ubermen who view the whole thing in terms of their ego — their manhood. Or the “my way or the highway” blokes that get others killed. And then there are the “amateurs”. They pay the experts tens of thousands of dollars to train them [over the course of 40 days] for the task. But they’re still no less tourists when push comes to shove.
And then the part where the closer they get to the top, the more risk that some are willing to take to make it all the way. And tragically the more risk of taking others with them.
And last but not least the moral conundrum – the part where conditions become so dire that some either are or are not tempted to start thinking along the lines of “every man for himself”.
IMDb
[b]On 18 April 2014, an avalanche on Everest killed 16 people, more than the 1996 disaster on which this movie is based. Most of the dead were Sherpas preparing for the upcoming climbing season. Filming had to be postponed.
When Rob Hall’s team is asked why they are climbing Everest; everybody answers “because it’s there”. In a 1924 interview, George Mallory, asked why he would risk his life to become the first to summit of Everest, famously answered “because it’s there.” Mallory disappeared during a summit attempt in June 1924. His body was found in May 1999, 245 meters from the summit.
Into Thin Air author Jon Krakauer came out against the film, particularly a scene in which his character refuses to help Anatoli Boukreev’s team with search and rescue. Krakauer told the Los Angeles Times, "I never had that conversation. Anatoli came to several tents, and not even Sherpas could go out … no one came to my tent and asked. Director Baltasar Kormákur defended the film in a response, stating the scene “was to illustrate how helpless people were and why they might not have been able to go out and rescue people.”
The film was released in 2015, the first year since 1974 that nobody successfully reached the summit.
The bodies of Andy ‘Harold’ Harris and Doug Hansen have never been recovered. Another expedition found the body of Rob Hall almost two weeks after his death; his widow Jan requested that it remain there, as his last wish was most likely to stay on the mountain. As depicted in the movie, Scott Fischer’s body was found by his friend Anatoli Boukreev. He moved it away from the climbing trail; it also remains on the mountain. Boukreev found the body of Yasuko Namba almost a year later. He built a primitive tomb from stones to protect it from scavengers. When her widower found out, he financed an expedition that recovered her body later that year.[/b]
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everest_(2015_film
trailer: youtu.be/5ZQVpPiOji0To
Everest [2015]
Directed by Baltasar Kormákur
[b]Title Card: Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers to summit Everest. Over the next 40 years, only top professional climbers attempted the same feat. One in four died. 1992: New Zealander Rob Hall pioneered the concept of commercial guiding on Everest for amateur climbers. Over the next four years his team, Adventure Consultants, successfully led 19 clients to summit without a single fatality. 1996: Other commercial operators follow Rob Hall’s lead, including Scott Fischer’s Mountain Madness. More than 20 expeditions compete to summit Everest in the same two week window.
…
Rob: Can you just listen up? Guys? We got 2,000 feet, 600 vertical meters to Camp Four. It’s roped all the way, so I know you can make it. Now, once we get to the yellow band we’re gonna regroup, put on the masks, turn on the gas. Make sense?
…
Climber: 325 dollars a bottle. For oxygen? That’s daylight robbery!
Climber: Yeah, well, he’s cornered the market, he’s got it. He reckons there’s gonna be 20 teams at Base Camp this season.
Rob: Twenty teams?
Climber: I mean, with all the Sherpas and porters, it’s gonna be a tightz squeeze up there.
…
Jan: Just be back for the birth, Rob Hall.
Rob: You try and stop me.
…
Rob [to the climbers]: You, my friends, are following in some very famous footsteps. A history made famous by George Everest, George Mallory, Tenzing Norgay, Edmund Hillary. Legends all of them! For those of you who dare face their dreams, Adventure Consultants offers something beyond the power of words to describe. And why don’t we describe it in the brochure?
[a pause]
Rob: Because it’s mostly just pain.
…
Rob [to the climbers]: To put it simply guys, human beings simply aren’t built to function at the cruising altitude of a 747. Okay, once we get above here, above the South Col, our bodies will be literally dying. And I mean literally dying. It’s not called the Death Zone for nothing. So the game is, can we get you up to the top and down to the bottom before that happens?
…
Beck: How close did you get?
Doug: Well, I got real close but it got late and I was pretty shot anyways.
Beck: Well, I think I would have made a run for it.
Doug: Every day I wake up thinking that.
Beck: Then why didn’t you do it?
Rob: 'Cause I turned him around. Morning 15 at the South Summit, bad conditions, we weren’t gonna make our 2:00 p.m. turnaround. See, it’s all good and well to make the top, Beck, but you pay me to bring you down safely. Remember that.
…
Caroline [a doctor to the climbers at base camp]: So Rob and Harold and Mike will tell you all sorts of stuff about mountaineering, but from a medical standpoint getting you to the top of Everest is really about oxygen. And the lack of it. To give you the best chance of summiting you need to prepare your bodies for the thin air up there. So, over the next month, before the final ascent you’re gonna make three partial acclimatizing ascents returning here to Base Camp after each one.
Rob [once they are out on the ice]: The bad news is that each ascent begins and ends with the Icefall. I’m sorry, but there is no way around it. There are millions of tons of glacial ice continually moving day and night. You got seracs the size of tower blocks, you got crevasses so deep they probably don’t even have a bottom.
…
Caroline [to the climbers]: Look out for hypothermia, things like slurred speech and irrational behavior. I’ve seen hypoxic climbers rip off all their clothes at 8,000 meters because they’re feeling hot. You all know about cerebral edema, the swelling of your brain to the point of loss of motor function and eventually death. And pulmonary edema, which is your lungs filling with fluid so you effectively drown. The only cure is to get down the mountain, fast.
…
Scott: There’s too much competition, Anatoli.
Anatoli: We don’t need competition between people. There is competition between every person and this mountain. The last word always belongs to the mountain.
…
Climber: What’s going on, man?
Rob: We’re still waiting for the South Africans. Taiwanese took forever as well.
…
Rob [to Scott]: Are these ladders going to take two?
…
Rob: You okay?
Beck: There’s no guarantee to the summit, I get it. But to get killed because I’m waiting in line like I’m in freaking Walmart. That’s not why I paid you 65,000 dollars. Now get me off of here.
…
Rob: Look, Base Camp’s, you know, chockablock full this year, so, I think it would all benefit us greatly by coming together like this and, you know, working out some kind of plan and schedule.
Ian: What, like some kind of rota?
Rob: Yes.
Ian: On Everest? Everyone knows Everest is a business for you, Robert, are you kidding? What gives you the right to tell us when we can climb and when we can’t?
Rob: I’m not telling you, mate. I’m asking. If we know when everybody’s planning to summit, for instance, you know, we can avoid the chaos that happened in the Icefall today. Adventure Consultants are aiming for May 10.
Ian: So are we, man!
Scott: Us too.
Another team leader: Yeah, May 10.
Scott: Okay, that’s bumper-to-bumper traffic on the Hillary Step.
Rob: Yes, it is, that’s my point.
Ian: Look, this is ridiculous. We’re summiting when we want. All right? And I don’t need your permission to climb the mountain.
Rob: Ian, have you seen how many people are here at Base Camp?
Ian: We’re finished here.
…
Rob: I think we’re gonna have some trouble once we get above Camp Three. I mean, you wanna top it on the 10th, yeah?
Scott: Yeah.
Rob: So do I.
Scott: What, are you saying we should team up?
Rob: Well, it’s an idea, yeah.
Scott: Oh, man. I don’t know, man. We have different styles, man. All due respect, you’re a hand-holder. I mean, the best, but…I just believe that if you can’t get up there yourself you shouldn’t be on the mountain at all.
…
Scott: We’re planning on stashing, what, eight bottles of O up at the South Summit.
Anatoli: Well, I’m not using O.
Rob: What do you mean? You’re not using oxygen at all?
Scott: Come on, man. You know you want to.
Anatoli: English air. Don’t need it.
Rob: Yeah, but Anatoli, you’re guiding for Scott this year. You have people’s lives in your hands. It’s a job.
Anatoli: Never used it. Never will. Bigger problems if you run out.
…
Jon: All right. It’s all on the table, here. It hurts, it’s dangerous, it destroys relationships, it’s costing you all a small fortune… I gotta ask the question, you know I do. Why?
Beck: Why…
[a pause]
The climbers all in unison: Because…it’s there!
…
Jon: Come on. Guys, I’m serious. Yasuko. Why are you climbing Everest?
Yasuko [one of the very few women climbing]: Uh…I’m 47 years old, I have reached six of the seven summits, so…of course, now I have to reach the seventh.
Jon: That’s not an answer.
…
Rob: Ice!
…
Rob [on the radio]: Rob Hall to Scott Fischer, Rob Hall to Scott Fischer, Mountain Madness, how do you copy?
Scott: Hey, man! Scott, here. I’ve been down to Base Camp, and I’m back at Camp One. I’m gonna catch you tomorrow.
Rob: What, you’re not gonna rest up a day first? No? Scott, you sound a little rough. Mate, take an extra day.
Scott: No way, Jose, what, miss out on all the fun?
Rob: That’s a lot of up and down in one day, even for you, Scott.
Scott: You know what they say, man. It’s not the altitude, it’s the attitude.
…
Helen [on the radio]: Rob, I’ve just been over to Mal’s to get a weather update. It’s moving fast. It’s changed course slightly. And it could still go north, but, if it doesn’t it’s gonna hit sometime on the 11th, I reckon.
Rob: It’s a weather forecast, Helen. This mountain makes its own weather.
…
Doug: Why do we do this to ourselves?
Beck: Oh, this is crazy. You know, I never told Krakauer this when he was asking us why we climb Everest. When I’m at home I just got this big, black cloud following me. You know, like a depression? And when I’m out here on a mountain, any mountain…It’s just like it’s a cure. I feel like I’m reborn.
Doug: So, you’re happy now?
Beck: No, I’m starting to wonder. This is suffering, man. This is suffering.
Doug: Yeah. Suffer a few more days, for the rest of your life you’ll be a guy that got to the top of Everest.
…
Helen: I hope we’re not looking at another year with no clients at the top.
Caroline: Well, if they don’t get a move on pretty soon they’re out of time, aren’t they?
Helen: Yeah. And what’s Jon gonna say about that in his article?
…
Rob: Doug, Doug, Doug. It’s over, mate.
Doug: What?
Rob: I’m sorry.
Doug: No, no, no.
Rob: Doug, you’re too late, okay? Doug, Doug. Doug, listen to me. It’s way too late. It’s over.
Doug: No, come on!
Rob: Listen to me, mate, I’m sorry, but I gotta turn you around. Okay?
Doug: I can do it. It’s right here, man. It’s right here. I’m not coming back next year, man, it’s my last chance. You gotta let me do this. Let me do this. Please, Rob. Let’s do it. Let’s get it done.
Rob: All right. Come on.
Doug: Thanks, man.
…
Rob [on the radio]: Base Camp, do you copy, over?
Helen: Helen to Rob, go ahead.
Rob: Helen, please. I need a bottle of gas at the top of the Hillary Step. I can’t get Doug down without it. I’m really stuffed.
Helen: Understood that you need a bottle of oxygen at the bottom of the Hillary Step. We are sending it up to you, as soon as we can.
Rob: At the top, at the top.
…
Guy [on the radio]: Guy to Rob.
Rob: Go ahead, Guy, I got you, mate.
Guy: Rob, I suggest you get yourself down. You know you’re doing no good up there. Now, we’ve got people that we can send up to help Doug but you’ve gotta get yourself down, do you understand?
Rob: I mean, come on, man, we’re playing with a man’s life here. There’s no way I’m leaving Doug behind.
…
Helen [with thunder rumbling in the background]: Oh, no…oh, no.
…
Harold: Rob!
Rob: Harold?
Harold: I’ve got oxygen! Here, I found some half-empty ones. Where’s Doug?
Rob: Doug’s gone.
Harold: He’s what?
Rob: Gone!
…
Anatoli: Jon! I need help!
Jon: What?
Anatoli: They’re out there, I need help!
Jon: I can’t see, Toli. I’m snow-blind.
…
Jan [on the phone]: Helen, it’s Jan. Why haven’t I heard from you? Why isn’t anybody calling me?
Helen: They’ve been hit by a storm, Jan. It’s really bad.
Jan: Where is he?
Helen: We don’t know, exactly, but he was still on the summit at 4:00.
Jan: Oh, no. Can he get down?
Helen: Rob can, but Doug can’t. There’s at least 13 people stranded up there and, well, the storm is getting worse.
…
Guy: Can you patch Jan through?
Helen: To Rob?
Guy: Patch her through, yeah. Let’s just try it. Let’s just… Put the sat phone next to the radio. Yeah, if anyone can motivate him to move, then Jan will.
…
Helen [on the phone]: Jan, you’re on.
Jan: Okay. Hi, sweetheart, how are you doing?
Rob [on the radio]: Hi, my love. I’m a bit…A bit cold but I’m okay.
Helen: I know you are. But the sun’ll warm you soon. You’ve gotta get moving. You’ve gotta come on down.
Rob: My hands are frozen. My feet are frozen.
Jan: We’re sending people up to you with tea and O. But you’ve gotta get moving. Rob? Can you hear me? You’ve gotta get your circulation going.
Rob: Okay, my love.
Jan: You do it…You do it right now.
Rob: I love you. Over and out.
…
Mike: We can’t carry them. It’s not possible. It’s gonna… It’s gonna take all we got just to get ourselves down. I don’t wanna die, man.
…
Jan [on the phone]: You have to get him down before dark. He won’t survive another night.
Helen: We know. But the storm’s come back, real bad. We can’t get anyone up to him tonight. We tried.
Jan: He might as well be on the moon.
…
Rob [on the radio into the phone]: How’s Sarah?
Jan: Sarah?
Rob: Yeah.
Jan: Yeah, Sarah’s good.
Rob: Will you call her that for me?
Jan: Yes, I will.
Rob: I don’t think I’m gonna get to meet her. I’m so sorry.
…
Mike: Beck?
…
Peach [on the phone to the American Embassy]: No, you listen, sir, my husband’s already died once as you’ll have seen on the news. Trust me, having him die a second time is not gonna play well on CNN.[/b]
He survived. But he lost both hands and his nose.