Into Thin Air: Rob Hall

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Into Thin Air: Rob Hall

Everest is an unbelievable mountain that has taken the lives of a number of the greatest climbers in history. It was my job to ensure that clients make it up that treacherous mountain safely. My name is Rob Hall. I was the main guide and cofounder of a climbing company called Adventure Consultants. My friend, Gary Ball, and I used to be professional climbers. Together we succeeded in climbing to the highest summit on each of the seven continents in seven months. This was our greatest achievement. After this, we decided to start our own company guiding clients up large mountains. In May 1992, we successfully led six clients to the summit of Everest. Unfortunately, Gary died of cerebral edema in October 1993 during an attempt on the world’s sixth-tallest mountain. He died in my arms and the next day I buried him in a crevasse. Despite the pain that his death had caused me, I continued guiding for our company and eventually led thirty-nine climbers to the summit of Everest.

My last trip to the summit was a journey filled with danger and hardships. The group of people that I was to lead up Everest included Doug Hansen, Sandy Pittman, Jon Krakauer, and Beck Weathers. Doug Hansen had attempted the summit on a guided expedition by me a year earlier, but we had to turn back. All and all the beginning of this trip was similar to many of my other commercial expeditions. We started at Kathmandu and worked our way to Phakding, where I picked up my crew of Sherpas. The Sherpas are very important to our expedition, so I told the team to appreciate their hard work. We then continued to climb until we stopped at Lobuje. This overcrowded village was disgusting and caused many of my clients to become ill....

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...al and I soon found out that the valves on the oxygen tanks were frozen. During this time, I frequently radioed Base Camp to keep them informed on the situation. I began to work on unfreezing the oxygen canisters while periodically checking Doug Hansen’s condition. Early in the morning Doug Hansen died. There was nothing that I could do to save him. I couldn’t thaw the oxygen tanks in time. I should have told him to turn back. In an attempt to preserve my life I finally was able to thaw the oxygen tanks. I promised Base Camp that I would descend but soon found this feat to be impossible. All of this calamity had left me very fatigued and all I could do was lay on the Hillary Step as my energy drained. I spent the very short remainder of my life reflecting on my achievements and hoping the rest of my team was all right. Then I drew my last breath and died.

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