The Similarities And Differences Of Rob Hall And Scott Fischer

10 feet from the top of the deadliest mountain in the world, a mountain that captivated thousands of people over centuries, 14-year-old Peak Marcello is about to become the youngest climber ever to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. However, Peak suddenly stops and doesn’t go to the summit. Instead, he helps his friend Sun-jo gets there first so Sun-jo becomes the youngest climber to reach Mt. Everest. Peak helped Sun-jo achieve fame and glory by reaching the mountain, yet he had not. What happened that made Peak make this decision? The author of the novel Peak, Roland Smith shows Peak as a self-centered boy who realizes that doing the right thing is more important that any accomplishment.

Jon Krakauer was asked by Outside Magazine to write an article about the commercialism on Everest. Of course, Krakauer knew he was going to get a lot of money out of it if he did it, so immediately he knew that he had to climb. While on the expedition, all the clients had a hard time adjusting to the altitude, tiring easily, losing weight, and moving slowly. Some of these individuals were people who had the ability to climb and some who were completely inexperienced. Jon Krakauer had some experience and was ahead of most of his teammates most of the time. He had no idea what lied in store for them, but that was something that he didn’t care

The book "Within Reach: My Everest Story" by Mark Pfetzer wand Jack Galvin is an autobiography written by Mark Pfestzer at the age of 16. Mark writes about his mountain climbing adventures over a 4 year period that started at the age of 12. The book covers the years of Mark's life mountain climbing from 1992 all the way up to 1996 when Mark is actually climbing on Mount Everest. The chapters in the book are written in a first person narrative with a dated diary format. Each one of Mark's entries talks about his struggles, adventures and personal experiences with the challenges of climbing a mountain.

As said by Zopa, “You can never tell who the mountain will allow, and who it will not.” Peak needs to reach the top of the mountain as soon as possible, before he turns 15, in order to break the world record of having the youngest person reach above 29,000 feet. To do this, though, he endangers his life with the cold, getting oxygen, and just the climb itself. As they say, “Climb high, sleep low,” to get acclimatized, that way your lungs will be caught up with your body, or else they would collapse and you could come down with a serious case of HAPE. With the climb itself, Peak faces quite a few difficulties. At one point, when he was climbing up a steep slope with his axes, one of Sun-Jo’s slipped, and he was dangling. But, being the hero he is, Peak climbed sideways towards the rope that was hanging there, grabbed it, and swung down to Sun-Jo, saving him just as his crampon was slipping. There were other things like avalanches that happened, but the most killer thing was the so called death zone. In it, you have to get in and out in under 18 hours, or else you will meet certain death. Oxygen or not, there’s only a certain time limit you can survive it. Of course Peak made it out in time, but he did not, in fact, reach the summit, which was actually rather

Even though it is an exceedingly risky climb, he chose to attempt to conquer the mountain. Knowing the weather conditions could be unpredictable, he had to trust that his group of climbers would make the correct decisions. It takes courage to leave your fate to other people. His mother was very worried about him, she even said “People die up there Peak. You might die up there.” (Pg. 179) Peak could have died of HAPE, which stands for High-altitude pulmonary edema, meaning your lungs could not withhold the strain from the high altitudes, he could have been buried under snow from an avalanche, or killed from some other type of storm. Either way this would not stop Peak from following his

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

Being responsible is a huge factor in guiding a mountain climbing team. There are a lot people on each team, and some are more experienced then others, so it takes a lot of coordination and cooperation from everyone. Rob Hall, because of his experience, knew he was responsible for making sure that everyone on his team was prepared for the summit of Everest. With that knowledge Rob Hall utilized his organization skills and "he'd fine-tuned a remarkably effective acclimatization plan" (p.74) that would enable all members of the team to adapt to the scarcity of oxygen in the atmosphere. Along with making sure he had an arrangement for how to acclimatize his team he also managed to consult "with the leaders of all the expeditions planning to climb Everest in the spring," and they agreed on which team "would be responsible for establishing and maintaining a route through the icefall" (p.80). Rob Hall had a very heavy load that he was responsible for as a guide in 1996 and he demonstrated how reliable he was in the way he took care of business using his ability to plan ahead and stay organized.

“‘With so many incompetent people on the mountain,’ Rob said with a frown one evening in late April, ‘I think it’s pretty unlikely that we’ll get through this season without something bad happening up high,’” (Krakauer 104).

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

One of the most important qualities that an elite climber must have is leadership. The elite climbers and guides must be able to meet a number of new people that are strangers to each other and build some sense of a team. Krakauer does not have a strong background in leading groups or building comradery, which is key for a climb like Everest. Krakauer says himself, “In climbing, having confidence in your partners is no small concern” (40). He also mentions how the actions of one climber can “affect the welfare of the entire team” (40). The type of group he climbed with on

One of the worst decisions made was choosing poorly educated and experienced guides, George and Jacob Donner. In the book Great Misadventures: Bad Ideas That Led to Big Disasters, written Peggy Saari she talks about the Donner Party's and how it is one of the greatest failures in American history. Saari stated “neither brother had any mountaineering or

Several expeditions set out to take on Mt. Everest In 1996. Jon Krakauer is assigned by Outside Magazine to write about the journey through Mt. Everest. It is Krakauer's lifelong dream to climb Mt. Everest. He has climbed many times before not never at such a high altitude. His team was led by Rob Hall, one of the most respected climbers of that time. His team is made up of many different people with

The first reason why Krakauer is responsible for the crew’s death is because he recruited them. Krakauer knew who he was recruiting, some experienced and some who relied heavily on the guide’s help. “I want you all to remember we have absolutely no chance of getting to the summit of Everest without their help.” (Krakauer 4:43). This shows how weak each member is without the help of a professional guide. While Krakauer knows the death rate on the trek to the top of Everest is high, he knew deep down it’d be a bad idea to bring inexperienced climbers onto this dangerous mountain.” Ever since 1922, when seven Sherpas were killed in an avalanche during the second British expedition, a disproportionate number of Sherpas have died on Everest—fifty-three all told.” ( Krakauer 4.17). This quote proves how dangerous Everest is even for experienced and

Have you ever wondered what kind of hardships come with climbing the tallest mountain in the world before? Expectantly, the book Peak by Roland Smith and the movie Everest have a lot of similarities with some exceptionally prominent differences. From personal conflict and character conflict to the general aspect of climbing Mt. Everest, the book and the movie explore all different types of similarities and differences. Being similar, in both the movie and the book, the mountain always decides. The morals were constant and everyone experiences the same deal in similar ways. One significant difference came between Peak, the main character in the book, and Rob(5th summit attempt), the main character in the movie.

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.