Tragedies While Climbing Mount Everest Are Caused by Human Error

Tragedies While Climbing Mount Everest Are Caused by Human Error

Especially in terrible weather, every second counts while nearing the top of Mount Everest on an expedition. A step in the wrong place or a rope hooked to the wrong crag may send a climber falling thousands of feet into a deep crevasse. Turning an oxygen level the wrong way may leave the air non-breathable to a climber after a few short minutes. These errors happen every season on Everest, no matter what the conditions are. Whether errors in judgement or just simple mistakes, accidents on Mount Everest are caused by human error.

During pushes up the mountain, it is easy for climbers to make subtle decisions that may have grave consequences later on the hike. The climb in May 1996 provides a good example of an accumulation of such mistakes. The most obvious lapse in judgement appeared when the guides of the Adventure Consultants and Mountain Madness expeditions, Rob Hall and Scott Fischer, respectively, did not force climbers who had not reached the summit to turn around at the designated time. Fischer passed a few of his clients while descending but allowed them to continue to the top. The final client reached the summit at 4:00 P.M., a full two hours after the designated turn-around time. Unfortunately for those climbers who kept pressing for the peak, a storm arrived around 4:30 P.M. and caused blizzard conditions. If climbers had retreated by 2:00 P.M., they may have had a much better chance to survive. Other climbers later speculated that the two guides wanted to give those who had previously climbed to just short of the summit time to reach the top on the 1996 attempt; unfortunately, the reinforced push cost those clients their lives.

Even the Sherpas, who were renowned for their experience and knowledge of climbing Everest, made costly errors that led to even more tragedy in the spring of 1996. During the morning of the ascent, sirdar Ang Dorje refused to fix the ropes for the other climbers because Sherpas from the Mountain Madness team were not willing to help and "apparently, he was tired of doing more than his fair share." (ITA, 183-4) Ultimately, four climbers had to advance in front of the groups and create paths, resulting in the loss of valuable time for all parties involved. Meanwhile, at Camp Four the Sherpas designated by Rob Hall to help in the case of any emergen...

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... because he believed Scott Fischer would have benefited from the publicity of getting such a celebrity to the top of the peak. Lopsang reasoned, "Scott wants all members to go to summit, and I am thinking Sandy will be weakest member...so I will take her first" (qtd. in ITA, 178). The task left Lopsang visibly exhausted for the majority of the climb after that point. Without exerting that much physical effort, Lopsang may have been able to help other climbers during the tragedy. He could have shown his devotion to Fischer by escorting him down the mountain when the guide became too weak to move on his own. Because of his inability to help on the descent, Lopsang contributed to the amount of human error that occurred on the peak.

Human error, including lapses of judgement and simple physical mistakes, causes the tragedies on Mount Everest to occur. The horrible timing of the blizzard in 1996 took many of the climbers in the Mountain Madness and Adventure Consultants expeditions by surprise. Unfortunately, the climbers would have had a much better chance of being safe at Camp Four during the blizzard if they had followed their own predetermined plans while ascending the mountain.