The Summit
Mar. 25th, 2014 10:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ivyficLast night I decided to give myself insomnia by watching The Summit, a documentary about the day in 2008 on which 11 people died trying to reach the summit of K2. I read the wikipedia page on it first so that I knew which people died, otherwise it would have been excruciating to watch.
A couple of things about this.
- I'm not so sure about the documentary's journalistic ethics, as it decided to fuck with me by mixing actually video footage taken by people on the trip (cause of course they brought cameras with them on a once in a lifetime climb) and reenactments. It was entirely unclear what was real and what wasn't. You would think, well, the stuff where the dead people are being played by actors would be a pretty clear indication that it's a reenactment, but everyone's in snowsuits and ski goggles and face masks, so no, it is in no way clear. Some of the stuff I'm sure was reenactment cause no way they were taking the time to film when they were near death, but other of the stuff, I still have no idea.
- It boggles my mind not just that people want to climb K2 but that so many people want to climb K2 that it causes a traffic jam that then strands people under a hanging ice shelf which then picks them off with a series of avalanches. I mean, the problem with this particular disaster was too many cooks in the kitchen and no one taking full responsibility for the safety of the team. How you could continue climbing a summit that kills 1 IN 4 PEOPLE that attempt it when the sherpas are disorganized and the lines were set by people you don't trust I will never understand.
- There is apparently a code amongst high altitude mountaineers that if one person is near death, and saving them would risk your own life, you don't save them. So the documentary ends up being an oblique look at the ethics of this. For example--the first death was an accidental fall when someone tried to pass someone else on the line. After this fall, there were a few minutes of discussion, then everyone just went on climbing. (As one survivor said--you pass people who've died in car accidents all the time and don't stop driving.)
But on the other hand, four people went up from the camp to render aid, only to discover the fallen hiker was dead. They then decided to try to get the body down to the camp. During this, one of the rescuers fell, and everyone shouted at him to let go of the rope or he'd take them all down. He did and shot down the side of the mountain "like a rocket," to his death.
So the story over and over again in this sequence is--the rescuers died. There's controversy over exactly what happened, but the people who survived are the ones who passed other climbers in distress and said, I can't help you, I have to keep going or I'll die. Several of the ones who died are believed to have spent hours trying to help fellow climbers.
- Another issue that is only obliquely addressed by the doc is the moral quandary of sherpas/high altitude porters.
Talking to the European/American climbers, they represent everyone on the mountain as a team. Talking to the sherpas...? No. On the one hand you have people who have spent $40-60k on this trip and are doing it for fun/fulfillment/whatever. On the other hand you have locals with far fewer economic opportunities who are doing this for a living. Now, above 8,000 meters is called the "death zone" because the human body will literally die just from that altitude alone if it's up there too long. Taking that risk with yourself is one thing. Paying someone else to take that risk?
In the sequence of events, a lot of blame is put on the sherpas. See, they were supposed to work through the night (!!!) laying the fixed lines up through the most dangerous section so that the paying climbers could wake up and just follow the lines up and have their moment on the summit. Easy-peasy--or as easy as climbing K2 could ever be. These lines were apparently laid out much too late, and laid out badly. But in talking about it, no one actually talked about the ethics of sending these people out there to free climb in the middle of the night to lay out safety lines so the rest of the climbers could ascend "safely."
Also, when things started to go wrong, the people at the camp could see three Korean climbers unmoving on the face of the mountain. The head of the Korean team tried to get a rescue together. All the paying climbers said FUCK THAT. The lines are gone, there have been several avalanches, we're already exhausted, and they're not even moving (cause the only way off the mountain was under your own power--it would be impossible to carry someone down). So the Korean team leaders ordered the sherpas up. As one sherpa said, they pay you and then think they own your life. The sherpas went up. Two of them were killed for their trouble, as were all the people they tried to rescue.
I am both fascinated and repelled by stories such as this. I am morbidly fascinated at the same time that I think that these climbers voided their right to my pity by voluntarily taking those risks. I mean, like I said, one in four people who have attempted the summit of K2 have died for their trouble. So if you do that and the mountain kills you, this is really not such a surprise.
And listening to the climbers talk--I mean, they call people who climb Everest tourists. K2 is for the real mountaineers. If that's your attitude... The doc focused mostly on one of the climbers that died, Ger McDonnell. This guy had attempted K2 previously and been struck by falling rocks and almost died. On his Everest ascent, he almost died rescuing the team leader. Look, if you're going to come within a hair's breadth of dying multiple times and still go back, eventually the mountain is going to win.
Another climber, who lost her husband on this climb, talked about how the two of them had previously hiked K2 "to get to know the mountain," not attempting the summit. The last trip they spent three months on the mountain. This attempt was also three months. So part of me was watching like, who are these people? Who has months of their life and tens of thousands of dollars lying around to just spend "getting to know the mountain"? Are there, like, sponsorships or grants I don't know about? The whole thing just defies my understanding.
A couple of things about this.
- I'm not so sure about the documentary's journalistic ethics, as it decided to fuck with me by mixing actually video footage taken by people on the trip (cause of course they brought cameras with them on a once in a lifetime climb) and reenactments. It was entirely unclear what was real and what wasn't. You would think, well, the stuff where the dead people are being played by actors would be a pretty clear indication that it's a reenactment, but everyone's in snowsuits and ski goggles and face masks, so no, it is in no way clear. Some of the stuff I'm sure was reenactment cause no way they were taking the time to film when they were near death, but other of the stuff, I still have no idea.
- It boggles my mind not just that people want to climb K2 but that so many people want to climb K2 that it causes a traffic jam that then strands people under a hanging ice shelf which then picks them off with a series of avalanches. I mean, the problem with this particular disaster was too many cooks in the kitchen and no one taking full responsibility for the safety of the team. How you could continue climbing a summit that kills 1 IN 4 PEOPLE that attempt it when the sherpas are disorganized and the lines were set by people you don't trust I will never understand.
- There is apparently a code amongst high altitude mountaineers that if one person is near death, and saving them would risk your own life, you don't save them. So the documentary ends up being an oblique look at the ethics of this. For example--the first death was an accidental fall when someone tried to pass someone else on the line. After this fall, there were a few minutes of discussion, then everyone just went on climbing. (As one survivor said--you pass people who've died in car accidents all the time and don't stop driving.)
But on the other hand, four people went up from the camp to render aid, only to discover the fallen hiker was dead. They then decided to try to get the body down to the camp. During this, one of the rescuers fell, and everyone shouted at him to let go of the rope or he'd take them all down. He did and shot down the side of the mountain "like a rocket," to his death.
So the story over and over again in this sequence is--the rescuers died. There's controversy over exactly what happened, but the people who survived are the ones who passed other climbers in distress and said, I can't help you, I have to keep going or I'll die. Several of the ones who died are believed to have spent hours trying to help fellow climbers.
- Another issue that is only obliquely addressed by the doc is the moral quandary of sherpas/high altitude porters.
Talking to the European/American climbers, they represent everyone on the mountain as a team. Talking to the sherpas...? No. On the one hand you have people who have spent $40-60k on this trip and are doing it for fun/fulfillment/whatever. On the other hand you have locals with far fewer economic opportunities who are doing this for a living. Now, above 8,000 meters is called the "death zone" because the human body will literally die just from that altitude alone if it's up there too long. Taking that risk with yourself is one thing. Paying someone else to take that risk?
In the sequence of events, a lot of blame is put on the sherpas. See, they were supposed to work through the night (!!!) laying the fixed lines up through the most dangerous section so that the paying climbers could wake up and just follow the lines up and have their moment on the summit. Easy-peasy--or as easy as climbing K2 could ever be. These lines were apparently laid out much too late, and laid out badly. But in talking about it, no one actually talked about the ethics of sending these people out there to free climb in the middle of the night to lay out safety lines so the rest of the climbers could ascend "safely."
Also, when things started to go wrong, the people at the camp could see three Korean climbers unmoving on the face of the mountain. The head of the Korean team tried to get a rescue together. All the paying climbers said FUCK THAT. The lines are gone, there have been several avalanches, we're already exhausted, and they're not even moving (cause the only way off the mountain was under your own power--it would be impossible to carry someone down). So the Korean team leaders ordered the sherpas up. As one sherpa said, they pay you and then think they own your life. The sherpas went up. Two of them were killed for their trouble, as were all the people they tried to rescue.
I am both fascinated and repelled by stories such as this. I am morbidly fascinated at the same time that I think that these climbers voided their right to my pity by voluntarily taking those risks. I mean, like I said, one in four people who have attempted the summit of K2 have died for their trouble. So if you do that and the mountain kills you, this is really not such a surprise.
And listening to the climbers talk--I mean, they call people who climb Everest tourists. K2 is for the real mountaineers. If that's your attitude... The doc focused mostly on one of the climbers that died, Ger McDonnell. This guy had attempted K2 previously and been struck by falling rocks and almost died. On his Everest ascent, he almost died rescuing the team leader. Look, if you're going to come within a hair's breadth of dying multiple times and still go back, eventually the mountain is going to win.
Another climber, who lost her husband on this climb, talked about how the two of them had previously hiked K2 "to get to know the mountain," not attempting the summit. The last trip they spent three months on the mountain. This attempt was also three months. So part of me was watching like, who are these people? Who has months of their life and tens of thousands of dollars lying around to just spend "getting to know the mountain"? Are there, like, sponsorships or grants I don't know about? The whole thing just defies my understanding.