Wednesday 31 May 2006

Woman climber's death verified, The Australian, 31 May, 2006.

Woman climber's death verified: [1 All-round Country Edition]

John Stapleton, James Madden, Additional reporting: Liam Cochrane. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 31 May 2006: 3.
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BACK-from-the-dead mountaineer Lincoln Hall celebrated an emotional reunion with his wife in Kathmandu last night as it was confirmed his friend and colleague Sue Fear had died climbing a peak in Nepal.
"For an hour and a half he tried all he could to pull Sue out but there was no success ... and there was no response from Sue at all, no sound, no movement, leaving [Bishnu] to conclude that she must have been rendered unconscious by the fall."
As Bishnu detached himself from the rope to try to arrange a better pulley system, the crevasse edge collapsed further, taking the anchor and the rope with Fear on the end of it. "Looking down all he could see was darkness and there was no response from Sue."

BACK-from-the-dead mountaineer Lincoln Hall celebrated an emotional reunion with his wife in Kathmandu last night as it was confirmed his friend and colleague Sue Fear had died climbing a peak in Nepal.
What should have been a joyous moment for Hall was bitter-sweet, as he tried to come to terms with the news that Fear had lost her life attempting to scale thetreacherous Mount Manaslu. She fell into a crevasse on Sunday soon after reaching the mountain's summit.
Hall was barely able to speak upon arriving in the Nepalese capital and made no comment about her death. But he did reveal that during the 12 hours he spent alone on Mount Everest last week, he remained conscious.
Fear's death was announced last night in a statement by World Expeditions, where she worked as a guide and consultant.
The 43-year-old was roped to her climbing partner Bishnu Sherpa, and was leading the way down when she broke through a snow crust and plunged into a crevasse, the statement said.
An exhausted Bishnu, who was brought down to base camp from the mountain by a rescue team of six sherpas, yesterday gave his account of the accident to one of Fear's colleagues in Kathmandu.
"For an hour and a half he tried all he could to pull Sue out but there was no success ... and there was no response from Sue at all, no sound, no movement, leaving Bishnu to conclude that she must have been rendered unconscious by the fall."
As Bishnu detached himself from the rope to try to arrange a better pulley system, the crevasse edge collapsed further, taking the anchor and the rope with Fear on the end of it. "Looking down all he could see was darkness and there was no response from Sue."
After consulting with a number of experienced mountaineers at base camp, the rescue team that had been preparing to search for Fear last night decided there was no hope of finding the Sydney woman alive.
It was Fear's wish that if she died on the mountain that her body remained buried there.
Her brothers, Grahame and John Fear, said their sister had broken many barriers for females in the male-dominated world of climbing. "You could never tell Sue `you can't do that' -- she would just find a way so she could," they said.
"Not only is our loss enormous but Australia has lost its first lady of mountaineering."
Fear's death cast a pall over the survival and rescue of Hall. After braving dire overnight conditions last week at 8600m on a windswept ridge on the side of Mount Everest, Hall endured a journey to lower altitudes on a yak.
The 50-year-old father of two was met at the Chinese Nepalese border by Australian ambassador Graeme Lade, before making his way to Kathmandu for treatment.
Hall was later joined by his wife Barbara Scanlan.
Hall's friend Simon Balderstone said:"He's got frostbite, lost the tips of four fingers on his left hand, tips of four fingers on the right and a little bit of thumb. He's got a chest infection. Apart from that he's in amazing shape."

Also published on news.com.au

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Monday 29 May 2006

I'm well and truly alive, says back-from-dead climber, The Australian, 29 May, 2006.

I'm well and truly alive, says back-from-dead climber: [1 All-round Country Edition]

Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 29 May 2006: 3.
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More than a dozen sherpas and members of three expeditions, co- ordinated by the 7Summits group, were involved in Hall's rescue. Thirty-six bottles of oxygen at $US310 ($409) a bottle were used.
Tom Sjogren, founder of online site Explorer's Web said the rescue of [Hall] was helping to expunge the shame over [David Sharp]'s lonely death. "It is an absolutely amazing story," he said. "It will be a classic story that will be told for ages among climbers. What is extra amazing and of great consequence to theclimbing community is the timing."
Family spokesman Simon Balderstone said the rescue effort was a tribute to the many sherpas, climbers and expedition leaders combining to save Hall. "It is testimony to the respect in which he is held and the character of these people," he said. "The only thing more amazing than the rescue is that Lincoln survived the night out at 8600m."
BACK among the living, after being given up for dead on a windswept ridge on Mount Everest, Australian mountaineer Lincoln Hall celebrated yesterday with a bowl of hot porridge, a cup of tea and some reflection on the events of the previous few days.
"I was closer to death than I thought," Hall said from an advanced base camp at 6400m.
"I am well and truly alive now. The most important thing is my family and getting down," he said through friend and fellow mountaineer Jamie McGuinness.
Apart from breakfast, Hall spent yesterday morning warming himself in the sun and preparing for a 22km trek down to base camp on the back of a yak.
From there, he is expected to be transported by jeep to Kathmandu, then flown back to Australia to join his family at his home in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.
On Thursday, Hall achieved his lifelong ambition of reaching the summit of Mount Everest. Shortly afterwards he began hallucinating, suffering severe altitude sickness.
His expedition leader declared him dead at 7.20pm on Thursday night. But next morning he was found alive by US expedition leader Dan Mazur. "I imagine you are surprised to see me here," Hall told his saviour.
More than a dozen sherpas and members of three expeditions, co- ordinated by the 7Summits group, were involved in Hall's rescue. Thirty-six bottles of oxygen at $US310 ($409) a bottle were used.
Having made mountaineering history as one of the few people to have survived a night outside at such altitudes, Hall's journey down the mountain included a night in a makeshift field hospital at 7000m, where he was treated by 7Summits Club team doctor, frostbite expert Andrey Selivanov. He was kept on oxygen in a heated tent.
From there he was taken to the advanced base camp, where he was well enough to walk into the camp on Saturday evening.
Speaking from the camp yesterday morning, McGuinness said Hall was suffering from a bad chest infection and frostbite in his hands, but he could see his friend slowly returning to himself.
"I can see Lincoln's brain working," he said. "He doesn't want to say too much now. He understands he basically died and came back to life. He understands that. He understands he was very lucky. He has a sharp sense of humour and he has it back. He is feeling quite good."
The high number of deaths on Mount Everest, including an incident this month where 40 climbers passed by dying Briton David Sharp without rendering assistance, has raised serious moral and ethical issues in the climbing community.
Tom Sjogren, founder of online site Explorer's Web said the rescue of Hall was helping to expunge the shame over Sharp's lonely death. "It is an absolutely amazing story," he said. "It will be a classic story that will be told for ages among climbers. What is extra amazing and of great consequence to the climbing community is the timing."
Family spokesman Simon Balderstone said the rescue effort was a tribute to the many sherpas, climbers and expedition leaders combining to save Hall. "It is testimony to the respect in which he is held and the character of these people," he said. "The only thing more amazing than the rescue is that Lincoln survived the night out at 8600m."
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Saturday 27 May 2006

Aussie Everest climber comes back from the 'dead', Weekend Australian, 27 May, 2006. Page One.

Aussie Everest climber comes back from the `dead': [1 All-round Country Edition]

John Stapleton, D.D. McNicoll, Additional reporting: Tracy Ong, James Madden. Weekend Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 27 May 2006: 1.
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Just days after fellow Australian climber Bob Killip was among a party criticised by Everest's first conqueror, Edmund Hillary, for leaving an injured climber on the mountain, Hall was abandoned by two sherpas after becoming disoriented and falling to the ground during his descent from the world's highest mountain summit.
"This morning (US climber) Dan Mazur on a summit push discovered the still alive Lincoln Hall at the second step and gave him hot tea and oxygen and he was able to use the radio to call his expedition," Mazur's expedition director, Duncan Chessell, said.
Earlier this week British climber David Sharp was left to die on the mountain when Killip's team -- which included Kiwi double amputee Mark Inglis -- did not have the capacity or resources to carry him out. "When we discovered David on the way down, we did everything we could to get him up on his feet but his legs were frozen from the knees down and his arms frozen from the elbows down," Killip toldThe Australian yesterday.
A DRAMATIC rescue operation was under way last night for veteran Australian climber Lincoln Hall, who was left for dead after finally conquering Mount Everest.
Just days after fellow Australian climber Bob Killip was among a party criticised by Everest's first conqueror, Edmund Hillary, for leaving an injured climber on the mountain, Hall was abandoned by two sherpas after becoming disoriented and falling to the ground during his descent from the world's highest mountain summit.
Initial reports from Hall's team leader, Russian Alexander Abramov, said the sherpas had managed to lower the Australian from 8700m to 8600m over nine hours, "but at 19.20 (Thursday) he was pronounced dead".
"The probable reason: brain cerebral edema, pulmonary edema (an acute form of altitude sickness)," the website EverestNews.com yesterday reported Abramov as saying.
Abramov then ordered the sherpas, who were beginning to suffer from snow blindness, to go down the mountain, leaving Hall where he was.
Friends had started to mourn the 50-year-old's death yesterday, but in the early evening a report on the website MountEverest.net said "Lincoln Hall is still alive".
"This morning (US climber) Dan Mazur on a summit push discovered the still alive Lincoln Hall at the second step and gave him hot tea and oxygen and he was able to use the radio to call his expedition," Mazur's expedition director, Duncan Chessell, said.
Abramov was reported to be sending a dozen sherpas with oxygen and a stretcher to rescue Hall, and a Russian team were said to be bringing him down slowly. "With every step down, he gains strength and a chance to live."
Continued -- Page 2
From Page 1
But Mr Chessell told The Weekend Australian last night that Hall, married to Barbara Scanlan and with two teenage sons, Dylan and Dorje, was still in grave danger given his circumstances.
"It's premature to write a story (that) he's dead and premature to write a story he's been saved," he said.
Mr Chessell said people had survived after being left for dead on the world's highest peak, most notably amateur American climber Beck Weathers in 1996.
Another climber had seen Weathers buried up to his waist in snow at 8200m and assumed he was dead.
He woke up the next morning and despite horrendous frostbite and temporary blindness, walked off the mountain.
But Glen Nash, who worked alongside Hall at the Australian School of Mountaineering in Katoomba west of Sydney, said while his friend of 25 years was "a fighter, I've been to Everest twice and I know that if you're missing overnight, they just write you off".
"Surviving a night on the mountain is basically unheard of. If they do get him down, then he has come back from the dead," Mr Nash said.
Earlier this week British climber David Sharp was left to die on the mountain when Killip's team -- which included Kiwi double amputee Mark Inglis -- did not have the capacity or resources to carry him out. "When we discovered David on the way down, we did everything we could to get him up on his feet but his legs were frozen from the knees down and his arms frozen from the elbows down," Killip toldThe Australian yesterday.
"That's why David was totally unretrievable. He had been in those conditions for 24 hours and was frozen. If you can't get to your feet, you can't get down."
For Hall, his Everest climb began as a chance for redemption.
He had been close once before, in 1984 as part of the first all- Australian team to make the climb. While some in the group reachedthe summit, frostbite caused him to fall just a few hundred metres short.
In his book on the expedition, White Limbo, he wrote of his bitter disappointment that he would never see the summit panorama. But he said no view was worth the price.
This time, however, he would not be denied.
The rest of his Australian group, including cinematographer Michael Dillon, veteran climber Richard Harris and his 15-year-old son Christopher -- who was attempting to become the youngest person to scale the world's highest peak -- had turned around days earlier, with Christopher suffering severe respiratory problems.
But Hall pressed on up the north side of the mountain from Tibet, accompanied by two Sherpas. Elated calls from his portable radio to friends on Thursday morning at 9am confirmed he joined the elite in his craft to have stood at the top of the world.
There have already been 14 deaths on Everest this year, with sight-impaired German Thomas Weber passing away on Thursday just 50m from the top, in Hall's sight as he reached the peak.
Weber's heroic struggle to reach the summit despite his disabilities had inspired people around the world.
Just before Hall made the final tilt for the top, Weber completely lost his sight in the difficult conditions and was forced to abandon his attempt.
Shortly after noon, as Hall lay hallucinating on the snow, Weber collapsed. "I have died," he said, before losing consciousness.
Close friend and Australian Himalayan Foundation chairman Simon Balderstone was devastated by the news, and last night said reports Hall were still alive remain unconfirmed.
"He was getting slower and slower as he headed down. He was becoming irrational. He could go no further. Two sherpas stayed with him and he died there," Balderstone said yesterday.
"We think he went into a coma and died.
"What he did, he reminds us all to follow our dreams and take the calculated risk. His was a noble endeavour he conducted with great integrity.
"He had this ongoing dream, this inspiration, to climb the mountain. He had taken this opportunity and made it."
The first Australian to climb Mount Everest Tim Macartney-Snape, who had been one of those Hall had watched reach the summit in 1984, described Hall as a "very passionate climber".
"He was a very accomplished climber, with a terrific sense of humour," Mr Macartney-Snape said.
"He was a good person to be on an expedition with, he was very tough but could see the funny side of things.
"That is what you want in an expedition partner."
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Race to rescue Aussie Everest climber left for dead, Weekend Australian, 27 May, 2006. Page One.

Race to rescue Aussie Everest climber left for dead: [8 NSW Metro Edition]

Tracy Ong, John Stapleton, Additional reporting: D.D. McNicoll, James Madden. Weekend Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 27 May 2006: 1.
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Just days after fellow Australian climber Bob Killip was among a party criticised by Everest's first conqueror, Edmund Hillary, for leaving an injured climber on the mountain, Hall was abandoned by two sherpas after becoming disoriented and falling to the ground during his descent from the world's highest summit.
Friends had started to mourn the 50-year-old's death yesterday, but in the early evening a report on the website MountEverest.net said: "Lincoln Hall is still alive". "This morning (US climber) Dan Mazur on a summit push discovered the still alive Lincoln Hall at thesecond step and gave him hot tea and oxygen and he was able to use the radio to call his expedition," Mazur's expedition director, Duncan Chessell, said.
British climber David Sharp was left to die on the mountain this week when Killip's team -- which included Kiwi double amputee Mark Inglis -- did not have the capacity or resources to carry him out. "When we discovered David on the way down, we did everything we could to get him up on his feet but his legs were frozen from the knees down and his arms frozen from the elbows down," Killip toldThe Australian yesterday.

A DRAMATIC rescue operation was under way last night for veteran Australian climber Lincoln Hall, who was left for dead after finally conquering Mount Everest.
Just days after fellow Australian climber Bob Killip was among a party criticised by Everest's first conqueror, Edmund Hillary, for leaving an injured climber on the mountain, Hall was abandoned by two sherpas after becoming disoriented and falling to the ground during his descent from the world's highest summit.
Initial reports from Hall's team leader, Russian Alexander Abramov, said the sherpas lowered the Australian from 8700m to 8600m over nine hours, "but at 19.20 (Thursday) he was pronounced dead".
"The probable reason: brain cerebral edema, pulmonary edema (an acute form of altitude sickness)," the website EverestNews.com yesterday reported Abramov as saying.
Abramov then ordered the sherpas, who were beginning to suffer from snow blindness, to go down the mountain, leaving Hall where he was.
Friends had started to mourn the 50-year-old's death yesterday, but in the early evening a report on the website MountEverest.net said: "Lincoln Hall is still alive". "This morning (US climber) Dan Mazur on a summit push discovered the still alive Lincoln Hall at thesecond step and gave him hot tea and oxygen and he was able to use the radio to call his expedition," Mazur's expedition director, Duncan Chessell, said.
Chessell told ABC TV last night that Hall was in a "perilous condition" and might not make the night. He was still at 8300m and two to three days away from base camp at 5380m.
However, in a posting on his website at 9.15pm (AEST), Abramov said it was hoped Hall would be at a specially
Continued -- Page 2
From Page 1
set-up field hospital at North Col at 7000m by early today, and would begin at dawn the descent to advance camp, at 6000m.
Abramov said Mazur had found Hall "motionless", but showing "weak attributes of life" at 8700m.
Three sherpas sent by Abramov reached Hall by 11am local time (3pm AEST) administering liquid, oxygen and medicine before moving him down ahead of a rescue group of 13 sherpas from North Col.
"Lincoln has a rest, drinks tea. He in consciousness. However, not completely understands what happens ... (but) could not move independently," Abramov said. "If weather will allow, rescue will proceed all night."
Chessell told The Weekend Australian last night that Hall, married to Barbara Scanlan and with two teenage sons, Dylan and Dorje, was still in grave danger.
"It's premature to write a story he's dead and premature to write a story he's been saved."
Chessell said people had survived after being left for dead on the world's highest peak, most notably American climber Beck Weathers in 1996.
Another climber saw Weathers up to his waist in snow at 8200m and assumed he was dead. He woke up next morning and, despite horrendous frostbite and temporary blindness, walked off the mountain.
But Glen Nash, who worked alongside Hall at the Australian School of Mountaineering in Katoomba, west of Sydney, said that while his friend of 25 years was "a fighter, I've been to Everest twice and I know that if you're missing overnight, they just write you off".
"Surviving a night on the mountain is basically unheard of. If they do get him down, then he has come back from the dead."
British climber David Sharp was left to die on the mountain this week when Killip's team -- which included Kiwi double amputee Mark Inglis -- did not have the capacity or resources to carry him out. "When we discovered David on the way down, we did everything we could to get him up on his feet but his legs were frozen from the knees down and his arms frozen from the elbows down," Killip toldThe Australian yesterday.
"That's why David was totally unretrievable. He had been in those conditions for 24 hours and was frozen. If you can't get to your feet, you can't get down."
For Hall, the Everest climb began as a chance for redemption. He had been close once before, in 1984 as part of the first all-Australian team to make the climb. While some in the group reached the summit, frostbite caused him to fall a few hundred metres short.
In his book on the expedition, White Limbo, he wrote of his disappointment that he would never see the summit panorama. But he said no view was worth the price.
This time, however, he would not be denied. The rest of his Australian group, including cinematographer Michael Dillon, veteran climber Richard Harris and his 15-year-old son Christopher -- attempting to become the youngest person to scale the peak -- had turned around days earlier, with Christopher suffering severe respiratory problems.
But Hall pressed on up the north side of the mountain, accompanied by two sherpas. Elated calls from his radio to friends on Thursday at 9am confirmed he had stood at the top of the world.
There have been 14 deaths on Everest this year, with sight- impaired German Thomas Weber dying on Thursday just 50m from the top, in Hall's sight as he reached the peak.
Just before Hall made the final tilt for the top, Weber completely lost his sight in the difficult conditions and was forced to abandon his attempt.
Shortly after noon Weber collapsed. "I have died," he said, before losing consciousness.
Close friend and Australian Himalayan Foundation chairman Simon Balderstone said last night that reports Hall was still alive remained unconfirmed.
"He was getting slower and slower as he headed down. He was becoming irrational. He could go no further. Two sherpas stayed with him and he died there," he said. "We think he went into a coma and died.
"He reminds us all to follow our dreams and take the calculated risk. His was a noble endeavour and he conducted it with great integrity. He had this ongoing dream, this inspiration, to climb the mountain."
The first Australian to climb Mount Everest, Tim Macartney- Snape, who was one of those Hall watched reach the summit in 1984, described Hall as a "very passionate climber".
"He was a very accomplished climber ... with a terrific sense of humour," Macartney-Snape said. "He was a good person to be on an expedition with -- he was very tough but could see the funny side of things.
"That is what you want in an expedition partner."


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