Plot

On 15 May, 2006, double amputee Mark Inglis reached the summit of Mt Everest. It was a remarkable achievement and Inglis was feted by press and public alike. But only a few days later he was plunged into a storm of controversy when it was learned that he had passed an incapacitated climber, Englishman David Sharp, leaving him to a lonely end high in the Death Zone.—Gus Roxburgh

The death of Englishman David Sharp in May 2006 as he attempted to reach the summit of Mt Everest for the 3rd time thrust the debate surrounding commercial high altitude guiding firmly back onto the front pages of the worlds newspapers. Not since the 1996 Everest disaster recounted in Jon Krakauers book Into Thin Air had the morality and ethics of climbing in the Death Zone above 8,000 metres been questioned so loudly. Before the climbers involved had even returned to their Base Camp, the claims that blind summit fever caused them to turn their backs heartlessly on a stricken comrade were being levelled by the media.

Mark Inglis, who had passed Sharp on the way up the mountain becoming the first double amputee to reach the summit, has claimed that he and other mountaineers tried to assist but, that after enduring a night of minus 30 degree temperatures without shelter or oxygen, there was little that could be done to save Sharp.

The first person to climb Everest in 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary, entered the fray criticising Inglis and his team and saying they should have abandoned their climb and tried to save him. According to Hillary I think it is the responsibility of every human being. Human life is far more important than just getting to the top of the mountain. Hillary said he would have abandoned his own pioneering climb to save another climber.

To the casual observer it appears brutally callous that fellow mountaineers would not stop to help a climber who had been caught out and subsequently collapsed after spending a night in the Death Zone. Speaking for a past generation of mountaineers, Sir Edmund was appalled that Sharp was apparently left to perish.

The worlds media latched onto these comments giving Mark Inglis and his fellow climbers little opportunity to defend themselves. But Inglis has his own story to tell. So too does his climbing companion, veteran Himalayan guide and cameraman Mark Whetu. Whetu lost his toes and nearly his own life trying to rescue his friend Mike Rheinburger from the summit of Everest over a decade before. Facing a similar situation this year on Everest, Inglis and Whetu knew a rescue attempt so high on the mountain would have endangered the lives of others.

So who is right?

In Dying for Everest we hear their stories and witness the strange effect Everest has on the rules of survival. And at the end, we are able to judge for ourselves the morality of climbing in the Death Zone.