Ah, Mount Everest. Prize of the "Land of Snows" and beguiler of an exponentially increasing number of adventure seekers following the siren call of their own particular muse.
Yet, it's not the majesty of the peak that has taken center stage over the last decade or so, but rather the sometimes soulless antics— viewed by many as a warped morality play— of corrupt outfitters and an increasing number of part-time climbers willing to pay up to $60,000 for a little glory. The 2006 climbing season, in which 11 people died during what constituted Everest's second deadliest stretch ever, did little to dispel the image.
One death, that of 34-year-old British engineer David Sharp, sparked particular outrage. Lying in an alcove near the mountain's 29,035-foot summit after his climb went terribly wrong, Sharp perished as upwards of 40 climbers passed by him. Worldwide debate over the circumstances and ethics of the incident ensued.
Santa Fe writer Nick Heil's new book, "Dark Summit: The True Story of Everest's Most Controversial Season," due out Thursday, takes a look at the contemporary environment around Everest through the prism of 2006 and Sharp's death. Focusing mainly on the action taking place on the mountain's Tibetan north side, Heil also examines the unexpected survival of Lincoln Hall, an Australian who climbed down Everest a day after also being left for dead near the summit, as well as the mysterious death of German climber Thomas Weber.
Of that disastrous period, Heil said in a recent interview, "There wasn't a storm. There wasn't this sort of force of nature that had suddenly ambushed everybody who was up there. It was very much a story about human behavior and the kind of politics and money and ethics that are involved in how to do mountaineering on a crowded place like Everest."
With the 2008 climbing season yet to begin, the peak has again captured the world's attention. The Chinese government, amidst turmoil in Tibet, has closed off the north side of Everest in advance of the arrival of the Olympic torch. The Nepalese, under pressure from the Chinese, have also temporarily closed access to the south side of the mountain.
Everest has the power to captivate even the most disinterested couch potato— possibly, Heil suggests, because the nature of the sometimes-horrifying events that regularly unfold there reveal some fundamental aspects of human behavior.
"What this raises is this uncomfortable possibility that we're not all out for each other's welfare. That we're actually pretty competitive and we're actually looking out for number one first," Heil said. "And what does that mean when it comes to living in an organized society where we're dependent on each other, if not for our lives, certainly for our prosperity and welfare and the way we want to live our lives?"
Snowballing story
"Dark Summit" grew out of an article that Heil, a former editor at Outside, wrote for the August 2006 issue of Men's Journal magazine. Called upon in the spring of that year to concoct a "quick and dirty news brief" about the almost-concluded disastrous season, Heil found his story quickly growing in scope.
As an initial wave of reporting yielded an increasing wealth of information about both Sharp and the just-rescued Hall, Heil realized he was looking at the biggest story to come out of Everest since the disastrous events of 1996 when 15 people died on the mountain's slopes, chronicled by Jon Krakauer in his book "Into Thin Air."
Over the course of writing the Men's Journal story, Heil interviewed 2006 Everest summiter and Santa Fe resident Slate Stern as well as New Zealander Russell Brice. Brice, who owns Himalayan Experience, had been at the center of the Sharp controversy following reports he ordered his climbers to leave the dying Brit near the mountain's summit.
Wary at first, Brice eventually opened up to Heil. As a phone conversation meant to last a few minutes expanded into an hour, Heil said he realized he was hearing something much different than had been in news reports.
"Days after I had finished (the Men's Journal article), I was like, 'I want to tell this whole story,' '' Heil said. "I had gotten this preliminary access to Brice, and because I established that little flickering of a rapport with him, I was like, 'This is the guy. If I could get him to talk to me at greater length about this, this is the story. This is the guy who has seen everything.' ''
He added, "I was getting pissed that the Everest story was getting spun in a way that didn't encompass the opinions, ideas and input of the guy who had been there the longest and done the most on the mountain. Brice is arguably, more than any other Westerner, the single most experienced person on the north side of the mountain."
Brice— the star of the Discovery Channel reality series "Everest: Beyond the Limit"— would become the central character of "Dark Summit." Heil observed firsthand, at Brice's home in France and on Everest itself, the complex psychology of a man both depended upon and reviled by those on the world's highest peak.
"Say what you will about his personality— he can be a very grumpy, incendiary, belligerent bastard at times. But I think his commitment to getting relative amateurs up and down that peak with as high a degree of safety as can be provided is really genuine," Heil said.
Context is everything
In "Dark Summit," Heil notes that several members of Brice's team did provide some aid to Sharp, leaving only when they felt the nearly catatonic man was headed toward certain death. Topographical complications near the area where Sharp collapsed, as well as the difficulty of any sort of activity at such a high altitude, complicated matters.
"The idea that you can throw somebody over your shoulder or that two guys can rig up a litter and drag somebody down, it's just not feasible. It's never been done," Heil said.
"If you can't walk under your own power, you're going to die," he said. A major factor in Lincoln Hall's rescue, Heil noted, was that the Australian was able to move himself down the mountain, albeit with much prodding.
While talking with the Journal, Heil also questioned the assumption that decisions made on Everest, including those pertaining to the well-being of others, involve mainly ego or arrogance.
"You're so physiologically compromised by the time you get up to the summit of that peak that you're operating out of the little reptilian core of your brain," Heil said. "This is not the part of your brain that is processing higher functioning, like right or wrong or what's the appropriate course of action. This is the part of your brain that's involved with self-preservation.
"Stopping to help somebody at 28,000 feet is not like stopping to help somebody at sea level," he said. "The sheer act of interrupting forward process is a direct threat to your life. If you cannot keep one foot moving in front of the other, if you sit down and wait, or fall asleep— which is a really powerful drive up there— you gotta keep going or you're going to be in big trouble."
These factors, along with the fact that Sharp had decided to climb with minimal supplies and no guide, may mean his death shouldn't necessarily have been considered controversial, although the incident may point to larger problems on Everest, Heil argued.
"The reason a story like this resonates is because it's such a dramatic situation," Heil said. "It's easy for people to follow the dramatic action of it because it's this incredible place and it's a cliff-hanging story. The central idea, the theme that weaves through it, is this idea of self-examination and a kind of deeper questioning of why you're doing what you're doing.
"If people connect the dots between this tale, this kind of dramatic high-mountain incident, and their own lives, if those questions kind of come back for them, then, I think, mission accomplished," he said of his book.
Book Talk and Signing
Outside magazine correspondent Nick Heil, author of "Dark Summit," and Australian Lincoln Hall, author of "Dead Lucky," will share their thoughts on the deadly 2006 climbing season on Mount Everest during a presentation May 24 from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the Santa Fe Armory for the Arts at 1050 Old Pecos Trail.
The talk is free and will be followed by a book signing and light refreshments. It is sponsored by Outside magazine, Collected Works Bookstore, Sangre de Cristo Mountainworks and Stern Law Firm.
Call the Armory at 984-1370 for more information.
