Guy From Olympia Everest Hero

Despite the huge industry built up around lifting rich Baby Boomers to the top of Mt. Everest, it's still a very dangerous trip. A lot of people die - This season fifteen have died attempting to make the summit, which seems like an incredible number. Last week the character of a bunch of the climbers who didn't die was being impugned because an English climber was said to be abandoned near the summit without oxygen or sherpas while hopefull summiters traipsed past him. Seattlest can't pretend to know what the situation is on the top of Everest. It'd be easy to say something like "no climber will risk the summit he paid good money for to help some jackass off the mountain," but the truth is that offering aid in that situation could put your own life at risk and on Everest "alive" isn't necessarily alive.

From Everest News:

Several dead bodies from 2006 would be in the path, but in what condition would the bodies from the night before be found? You see when you are "dead" on Everest, "dead" is a matter of condition in some cases. Maybe we can talk more about that in a few days...

That's messed up. Then this week, the Australian climber Lincoln Hall was declared dead because his condition near the summit seemed to indicate that he couldn't or wouldn't be brought down, yet he was physically functioning on some level and even talking. He was "dead." Everest Dead. Then a group of climbers, including a man from Olympia, came to his assistance, forgoing their shot at the summit. That's the difference between dead and alive up there. Whether someone will bother to give up their summit. There have been a lot of news stories heralding the mountain community for saving Lincoln Hall, but the mountain industry seems like it leaves people up there for dead as a matter of routine. This time Dan Mazur of Olympia and his climbing partners brought in a sherpa army that ended up saving Lincoln Hall's life.