Everest Emergency Essay

Into Thin Air, a book about the Everest disaster in 1996, represents the human experience because Earth's elements are impartial and cannot comprehend ethnicity, gender or culture. People from various backgrounds were flocking to Nepal, with little in common, besides their hope of reaching the summit of Mount Everest. The 29,029 foot mountain, was incidentally forcing all who were facing it, to go through a similar journey of severe sickness, emotional crisis, extreme self-reliance and deadly encounters. The book speaks to all humanity because emotional and physical struggles are common experiences, diminished by human spirit and self-reliance. A true example of self-determination, Beck Weathers, was left for dead beside Yasuko Namba after

Rob Hall, the Kiwi guide of the Everest expedition group of Adventure Consultants, was the head guide during the terrible accidents of 1996. He led his team through many obstacles, facing them head on and never faltering until his last moments. Even in his dying breath he didn’t succumb to fear and didn’t want anyone to worry about him. Rob Hall would not leave Doug Hansen alone, even though he knew Hansen would die eventually, and didn’t desert him until there was a 100 percent certainty that Hansen was dead. Even though Hall himself had told all of the Adventure

And they got one climber off, and they crashed attempting to rescue the second man” (Helicopter Rescues Increasing on Everest 7). It is a rescuer’s job to know the risks for saving a climber but if the climber is a professional, they shouldn’t be easily be making mistakes. When there are rescuers who come pick you up fast when you can’t complete the climb, it is like having a safety net behind you. But where is the safety net behind the rescuers? There isn’t one, once they make a mistake, there won’t be someone to save them, so there shouldn’t be rescuers saving climbers when they are risking their own lives but also the

In order to continue climbing Everest, many aspects of climbing need to be improved before more people endanger their lives to try and reach the roof of the world. The guides have some areas that need the most reform. During the ascension of Everest the guides made a plethora mistakes that seemed insignificant but only aided in disaster. The guides first mistake is allowing “any bloody idiot [with enough determination] up” Everest (Krakauer 153). By allowing “any bloody idiot” with no climbing experience to try and climb the most challenging mountain in the world, the guides are almost inviting trouble. Having inexperienced climbers decreases the trust a climbing team has in one another, causing an individual approach to climbing the mountain and more reliance on the guides. While this approach appears fine, this fault is seen in addition to another in Scott Fischer’s expedition Mountain Madness. Due to the carefree manner in which the expedition was run, “clients [moved] up and down the mountain independently during the acclimation period, [Fischer] had to make a number of hurried, unplanned excursions between Base Camp and the upper camps when several clients experienced problems and needed to be escorted down,” (154). Two problems present in the Mountain Madness expedition were seen before the summit push: the allowance of inexperienced climbers and an unplanned climbing regime. A third problem that aided disaster was the difference in opinion in regards to the responsibilities of a guide on Everest. One guide “went down alone many hours ahead of the clients” and went “without supplemental oxygen” (318). These three major issues: allowing anyone up the mountain, not having a plan to climb Everest and differences in opinion. All contributed to the disaster on Everest in

In Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air, a Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster, Jon Krakauer explains his encounter with the great Mt. Everest. As a child, Jon Krakauer longed for climbing, yet he never envisioned that this one ascension would be a calamity. Krakauer was doled out by Outside Magazine to write about the business undertakings that were being directed on Mount Everest in May 1996. Jon Krakauer, the storyteller and creator, depicts a direct record of this disastrous voyage. Krakauer, his aide, and a gathering of climbers set out to the highest point of Mt. Everest to perceive how dangerous or safe it was to handle the world's biggest mountain. Lamentably, 1996 was Everest's most exceedingly bad season ever, and Krakauer describes the

One of the most common problems to face in a disaster is people panicking, and not taking actions which could have fixed the situation. While climbing to Camp Two, Ngawang Topche contracted HAPE (a High-Altitude Pulmonary Edema). He did not take care of it properly, and in the end he died due to the lack of concern from him and others around him. Despite “feeling weak, groggy, and short of breath for more than two days”, and having it interfere with his work, he continued to push through symptoms that may not have seemed life-threatening at the time, but easily could have been (112). When his condition became dangerous, the climbers nearby were unable to help him properly. They did take him down the mountain, but even that did not cure his condition. HAPE is usually cured by bringing people to lower altitudes with more oxygen. At this point, it was obvious that his condition was deadly, yet he and the others around him did not try to get him to a hospital immediately, possibly costing him his life. They still believed it was just HAPE, and he would get better with time. Even though he had been coughing up blood, Topche continued to insist “he didn’t have HAPE” (115). Topche came from Rolwaling, a village where the strongest sherpas were born, and HAPE usually only affects inexperienced climbers. To him, admitting he had HAPE was as good as ruining his career, but that would be better than losing his life. When faced with a high stakes situation, Topche and those around him panicked and made poor decisions. The other sherpas denial of the situation delayed crucial treatment Topche needed, but they believed he just had a “stomach ache” (115). The sherpas chose not give him extra oxygen, and while it may not have saved his life, it may have helped. Despite the amount of evidence that showed Topche’s life was in danger, the sherpas continued to think that HAPE was not a condition another sherpa could get. When confronted with a disaster, the human mind can break down, and people only rely on what they know. Decisions that seem easy to

When people often take on the challenge of climbing Mt. Everest, they are aware of the risks that comes with it. One of the biggest controversal disasters that occured on Everest is the 1996 Mt. Everest disaster. A group of many, includng the author of Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer, were all caught in a storm when almost nearing the summit whivh concluded to 8 deaths and a story others could never tell. In the sstory, it shows a large point of veiw of what happened through the trip, and a majority of people had to find who to to blane for what had happwned. Aftter readind and understanding, i choose to believe that Jon Krakauer and the Nepal government are responsible for the deaths that occured during the disaster on 1996 Besides the weather, the suffering still did occur, which showed the true colors of the poeple. Krakauer and Nepal pressured a choice of good and evil during this trip with caused the deaths to make the others partially at fault.

The Harvard Business School case Mount Everest – 1996 narrates the events of May 11, 1996, when 8 people-including the two expedition leaders— died during a climb to the tallest mountain in the world (five deaths are described in the case, three border police form India also died that day). This was dubbed the “deadliest day in the mountain’s history” (at least until April 18, 2014). The survivors and many analysts have tried to decipher what went wrong that day, find an underlying cause, and learn from the event.

In the editorial, Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer discusses the topic of the disaster that occurred that day at Mount Everest. He states many of the events that happened in detail and how it changed his life completely. Throughout that day, Jon Krakauer joined a team in which their goal was to reach the summit of Mount Everest with several different guides. They were leaded by guides to help along the way to help reach the summit successfully. As the day went on , many of the team members were left behind in which it gave a bad sign.

In the Spring of 1996, David Breashears was one of the people on Mount Everest the days of the storm that killed multiple people. Fortunately, he was not stuck in the midst of the full ferocious storm like Rob Hall’s and Scott Fischer’s teams. Since the May 1996 incident, David Breashears has been busy doing what he came to Everest in the first place to do, film. It took years for Breashears to decide to make a documentary about what happened. It’s something that you have to think of; Breashears, a recipient of 4 National Emmy Awards for achievements in filmmaking, didn’t even think of making a film out of what happened. After the 1996 incident, his team regrouped and reached the summit of Everest on May 23 and passed the body of Rob Hall and

Lack of psychological safety within the team members failed to fix cognitive bias of irrationality. If members developed trust within the team, cognitive bias could have been prevented or at least minimized. The truth that climbers might make irrational decisions and find it hard to turn back when they are so closed to the summit was obvious, but teammates seeing this problem did not speak up since they did not feel that their thoughts were welcome and felt uneasy. More cognitive biases could also been prevented to lessen the complex system of the expedition. Since climbing Mt. Everest is already a high risk venture, any additional problems such as irrational decisions can cause a crisis. Using the early sign of issues with Hall’s team’s progress, it was obvious that the probability of failing the expedition was high before the team even started. Hall could have used the issues as a sign of the complex systems that exist, and could have used this knowledge to prevent any irrational decisions. The complex systems and the lack of psychological safety also contributed to the tragedy. The team members failed to communicate and trust each other, which then added more problems to the complex systems. For instance, Boukreev’s could have spoken up to his team leader, Fischer, about his concerns regarding his team members lacking experience to begin with. By speaking up, he could have prevented more chain reaction due to lack of communications and feedback within the

In this video of Mt Everest How it was made Mount Everest is one of the tallest mountains in the world. It is part of the Himalayan Mountains. They were formed in the last few million years. After the supercontinent of Laurasia broke up millions of years ago, India moved slowly north towards Asia and then crashed into it. The seabed between the two plates(the earth's crust is divided into large areas of land called plates) was crumbled and pushed up on the northern rim of India to form mountains. These two plates of the earth's crust are still moving, so the Himalayas are being pushed up higher. The highest mountain on the planet, Mount Everest is growing two inches taller each year. Satellite technology says the mountain is currently 29,107

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT This chapter provides an overview that describes the basic types of hazards threatening the United States and provides definitions for some basic terms such as hazards, emergencies, and disasters. The chapter also provides a brief history of emergency management in the federal government and a general

On May 10, 1996 six people died trying to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. These people were parts of two expeditions that were in the Himalayas, preparing to ascend the summit for six weeks. The first group was under the direction of Rob Hall, who had put 39 paying clients on the summit in five years. Hall was considered the leader of the mountain and the man to see no matter what the discrepancy. Group two, headed by Fisher, who like Hall, was trying to start a profitable business in providing the experience of climbing Mt. Everest to all for the price of 60 to 70 thousand dollars. Unfortunatly, neither man would live to tell the tale of this expedition.

The most famous natural formation in the world has to be Mount Everest. Mount Everest ranks as the tallest mountain in the world with its summit reaching an elevation of 8,848 meters above sea level. Mount Everest is known to other countries by different names. In Nepal it’s called Sagarmatha and the Chinese call the mountain Chomolungma. The mountain is recognized for its vastness and its beauty. But the mountain is also known for being a truly dangerous place.