Lincoln Hall should have been another tragedy. After failing to reach the summit, Hall became very sick, delusional and exhausted. His team of Sherpas tried for nine hours to bring him safely down to camp, finally leaving him when he lay on the snow, completely unresponsive (the Sherpas were snow-blind and nearly dead themselves when they returned to camp, having been above 28,000 feet for more than twenty-two hours). By some miracle, Hall was found the next morning -– alive but crazy and badly frostbitten — by a team of ascending climbers.
A climber himself, author Nick Heil first wrote about the devastating 2006 Everest season for Men’s Journal. After the article was published, however, it was evident that there was much more to the story, and this book is the product of his investigation. While not quite as compelling as Into Thin Air (Heil was not a first person observer/participant as Jon Krakauer had been in 1996), Dark Summit is a fascinating and horrifying book.
I do not in any way share the compulsion these high altitude mountaineers have to struggle and suffer so in reaching such great heights. I do not understand why it is worth nearly killing yourself to stand for twenty minutes at the top of the world. At the end of Dark Summit, the author confesses that he doesn’t understand it either, but his own compulsion to bring the stories of the people who survived and who perished on Everest in one of its harshest seasons, is well worth reading.
Article comments
1 - Kevin Eagan
What a compelling read. I never knew that climbing Mt. Everest was this dangerous, but I guess I should have known. One question: why do they suspect that Thomas Weber climbed Mt. Everest to kill himself? Seems like an odd way to go, but then again, if you're already delusional enough to want to kill yourself, why not add 28,000 feet and 1/3 the oxygen to add to your delusion? It may make it more fun, I guess?
2 - friend.mouse
Oh - you'll just have to read it! But it has something to do with the fact that he seems to have lied about several facets of his background and, when they checked his tent after he died, had suspiciously little gear left behind.
3 - Natalie Bennett
This article has been selected for syndication to Boston.com. Nice work!