Re: a follow up to WTF kind of people does this. Mt. Everest
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You should read 'Into Thin Air' by Jon Krakauer, which details a trip fraught with tragedy the year the IMAX film was shot of an ascent.
It will give you some insight into the mindset of the climbers who are able to step across corpses and ignore the dying.
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There were two documentaries on cable (either National Geographic, Public Television or the Science Channel) that discussed a similar issues.
One covered a climbing party ran into trouble near the summit. Many climbers didn't help at all, but the National Geographic team gave up their attempt to reach the summit and put together a rescue mission. They risked their lives and I think they were able to save two of the climbers.
In the other documentary, a group made it to the summit but one of the members couldn't keep up. On their way back down they passed this member and let him continue to the top even though he was in physical/mental trouble and there wasn't enough time left for him to safely reach the summit and return to camp. He died on his way back down.
Seems like climbing Everest has changed from a sport into an activity for a bunch of rich people who have an "each-man-for-himself" mentality.
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