Perceptions, by Gerry Warner

Op-Ed Commentary

The picture is appalling!

Seen in newspapers, smart phones, the Internet and screens around the world this week, it shows a long, sinuous line of climbers snaking their way up a knife edge ridge of jumbled boulders and ice blocks to what surely must be Nirvana.

And truth to say three of the world’s greatest rivers and several great religions have sprung from this chaotic kingdom of ice and snow and many have died from trying to scale its rocky ramparts of gneiss and granite and penetrate the frigid stratosphere at almost 30,000 feet.

But despite the surreal ambience of this ghastly, almost religious scene, these pilgrims in their brightly coloured space suits of Gore-Tex and synthetic fibre aren’t heading for the celestial light of Nirvana or Heaven. Each tortured breath is carrying them closer to the summit of  Chomolungma, “Goddess Mother of the World” or Mount Everest as we lesser mortals know it. And to use a bad cliché, this climbing season they’re dying like flies.

At the time of this writing, 11 would-be conquerors of the Earth’s highest mountain have died and the climbing season isn’t over yet. Over-crowding is the most obvious cause of the carnage, but it’s not as simple as that.

Arctic-like winter storms with hurricane-force winds and 40 below temperatures can strike Everest at any time making hiking timing decisions a life and death matter. But there are even more factors than this why men – and they are mostly men – take insane risks to climb a pile of rocks above 25,000 feet where the altitude, almost constant winds and lack of oxygen has been labeled “the death zone.”

Undoubtedly the best answer to the “why” question so far was uttered by the legendary British climber George Leigh Mallory (pictured top left), who on a lecture tour of the US between his three Everest attempts answered the inevitable question from a woman in the audience by saying, “because it’s there.” Those three simple words in simple, unadorned English speak volumes. No one has really topped them since.

But Mallory, a personal hero of this writer, died on his third Everest attempt and his skeletal body wasn’t found until May 1, 1999 and the body of his climbing partner, Andrew Irvine, has never been found. After many more Everest attempts (and deaths) the great New Zealand beekeeper Sir Edmund Hillary (pictured mid left), another personal hero of mine, finally climbed the killer mountain May 27, 1953.

You might glean some insight from Hillary’s first comment to his comrades when he returned to base camp: “We knocked the bastard off.” Note the “we” because Hillary didn’t climb alone. He climbed with the great Sherpa climber and guide Tenzing Norgay (pictured bottom left). Also note the epithet “bastard” Hillary used for Everest. Can there be any doubt that a noble sense of anger motivates many who climb Everest. But respect too for such a formidable foe.

The same can be said of Mallory, who survived the trenches of the First World War. It was said of him and most of his team on Everest, who also served in the trenches, that the horrific and senseless brutality of trench warfare, left them so traumatized that civilized living no longer interested them and they needed to keep fighting so they waged “war” on a mountain.

Whatever the case, Everest climbing is a lot different today. Climbers are seldom soldiers anymore. They are more likely to be ego-centric travellers looking for personal glory and the ultimate “selfie” they can send to their Facebook friends. Why else would they pay $50,000 or more for a permit to participate in the annual Himalayan circus known as climbing Everest?

Why else would they line up like lemmings on a ridge, which could lead to a 10,000 ft. fall and certain death? And why would they literally step over the frozen dead bodies of their comrades in their lust to reach the top?

Human beings are a strange species.

– Gerry Warner is a retired journalist and hiker, who trekked into Everest base camp back when things were far less crazy.

Article Share