Climber Left To Die After Reaching Top Of Mount Everest

By Andy McSmith, The Independent

At one o'clock in the afternoon, the British climber Peter Kinloch was on the roof of the world, in bright sunlight, taking photographs of the Himalayas below, "elated, cheery and bubbly".

But Mount Everest is now his grave, because only minutes later, he suddenly went blind and had to be abandoned to die from the cold.

As the team descended, Mr Kinloch's guides noticed that he seemed to lose co-ordination. He would slip and stumble, then resume walking normally. After an hour, he made a surprising request to the team leader, David O'Brien, to be shown how to get down the ladders. At first he said he was having difficulty seeing, then he admitted that he could not see anything.

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Comments

[ernestv]

08:22 AM on 06/06/2010

And yet again... Because it was there... how stupid can you be...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-06-06-rainier-avalance-missing_N.htm

[jimthefireman]

11:49 PM on 06/03/2010

Another tragedy where someone pushed themselves to, and past the limit of their own survival. There is little point in arguing with people ignorant of the conditions of climbing in extremes of altitude and weather. Both have incredibly debilitating effects on human beings. Anyone in the "death zone" is dying and they can feel it. Some die faster and some die slower and with careful preparation, good teamwork and a bit of luck you can get up to the summit and back below the death zone before you die. I believe on Everest that one in ten will not make it, that is, they will die before they can return their human body to a zone where it can continue to live. To carry someone else as well is usually simply impossible.
I salute him for trying and I admire beyond measure those who tried at the risk of their own lives to save him. True heroism is when one coldly and deliberately goes into or remains in harms way in an effort to save others. Society often rewards it when it is successful and conveniently forgets actions that were just as hard and dangerous when it is not successful.
Most people who have faced traumatic death themselves and seen other die around them learn over time not to form opinions based on part of the story, and not to expect any but the very wise to understand human limitations in such circumstances without having experienced it themselves.

[netzwerg]

05:22 AM on 06/04/2010

"I believe on Everest that one in ten will not make it..."

So far 4109 people reached summit, 211 people died. So the "death rate" is about 5% (or 1 in 20).

[netzwerg]

08:15 AM on 06/04/2010

But Everest is considered an "easier" mountain. Compared to Nanga Parbat (8125m): 326 people summited, 68 died. Death rate: 21% (or 1 in 5).

K2 (8611m): 298 people summited, 78 died. Death rate: 26% (or 1 in 4).

[Catothemuchyounger]

10:24 PM on 06/03/2010

Was it not just a couple weeks ago that many of us were getting blasted on here for criticizing the parents of that teenager who had summited?

It is a very dangerous thing, to go to the top of these mountains. No one should permit a child to do so.

[AirViceMarshalPark]

12:05 AM on 06/04/2010

You seem to have been quite wrong about that.

[Catothemuchyounger]

07:49 PM on 06/04/2010

How was I wrong? Because this kind of thing did not happen to him? And what was the assurance of that? Or that nothing else would go wrong? He was very experienced, we were informed. Great. So was the guy who is the subject of this piece.

[Randy Shepherd]

01:33 PM on 06/03/2010

one of the most traggic things i have ever read. i can't immagine the emotional pain of how it felt to be left alone, knowing you would die in a few hours, or the pain knowing you were leaving someone for that fate. it was the right thing to do, but that would rip me apart.

[omobob]

07:07 PM on 06/03/2010

It is, unfortunately neither the right or wrong thing to do, it is the only thing to do. there is no rescue from the death zone without endangering the lives of anyone attempting a rescue. Nepal hands out way to many permits for the number of climbers who can make it to the top. The commercialization of Chumalungma, Mother Earth Goddess, has only increased the the death toll of climbers trying to "beat the window" only to find a traffic jam of deadly proportions. deaths will continue until some sort of climbing schedule and regulations for mt. procedures can be enforced.

[Tenore]

12:56 PM on 06/03/2010

There is a short opera dealing with this very dilemma, Der Jasager by Berthold Brecht and Kurt Weill (1930). When a boy undertakes a very dangerous journey across the mountains, he is told that, should he become unable to continue, it would put his companions in peril if they stay and take care of him. So they would abandon him there, but only if he agrees by saying "Yes." The boy becomes unable to go further, and agrees to be left behind so the others can survive. Although in this version they don't just abandon him, they toss him off a cliff, singing "He said yes!." (And this same musical theme can be heard in the modern musical, "You're in Urinetown!")

See http://www.guidetomusicaltheatre.com/shows_j/jasager.html .

[LogicalMathMan]

12:40 PM on 06/03/2010

The sherpas are members of an indigenous population who pride themselves on the level of service they provide prospective mountaineers. Most sherpas who do not become climbers join the Gurkha Bridgade - the elite force that is used by the Indian military and were used by the Brits during their occupation.

To have a sherpa concede that not much can be done to save a life is an expression of the futility of the horrific conditions that confront climbers in the rarefied Himalayan atmosphere.

RIP!

[netzwerg]

12:03 PM on 06/03/2010

For anyone interested, here is a report on his death and the circumstances, written by his team: http://www.everestnews.com/everest2010/summitclimbeverestnorth05292010.htm

[gyizi]

11:36 AM on 06/03/2010

mt forever rest is a good name. It is sad what happend but now people can realize, again, how dangerous it can be. tragic story.

[BobHamilton]

11:34 AM on 06/03/2010

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE READ THE WHOLE STORY before making insulting comments! And HuffPost needs to grow up and stop using sensationalist misleading headlines.

[KIVPossum]

02:21 PM on 06/03/2010

Get used to it, Bob. HP competes with Nat'l Enquired for tabloid headlines.

[Tao-Chan]

11:09 AM on 06/03/2010

The U.S. Marines would never "leave someone to die".
They would have brought him down under any circumstances, dead, alive or somewhere in between, but Marines would never do this.

[Jon60]

11:35 AM on 06/03/2010

There's more to it than the Marines "not leaving anyone behind" policy. There have been teams of climbers sent to recover bodies on Everest and they have been unable to do so. The extreme conditions generally make this impossible. I can't second guess the decision to leave someone behind after they'd become blind, but it's difficult enough to get one healthy person to the top and back, let alone someone who can't even see. It's tragic to be sure, but I don't think climbers would have left someone if there had been another option.

[netzwerg]

11:40 AM on 06/03/2010

How about reading the article before making nonsense comments?

"It took four hours for Mr O'Brien and a sherpa to help the stricken climber down to Mushroom Rock, barely 1,000ft below the summit. Two more sherpas arrived and for the next eight hours they all struggled to bring Mr Kinloch,28, down the mountain, administering drugs and oxygen. But they were now dangerously close to needing rescue themselves, and had to abandon him and struggled back into camp at 5.30am, exhausted and suffering from hypothermia and frostbite."

[Tao-Chan]

11:45 AM on 06/03/2010

I READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE.

[RobertFromMN]

04:55 AM on 06/04/2010

Apparently, he thinks they all should have died in the effort to save one.
And apparently he has never heard of the Mayaguez incident (Vietnam War) in which marines were indeed left behind to be killed by the Khmer Rouge. I believe the Philippines in WWII would also qualify.

[Sortaskibum]

11:03 AM on 06/03/2010

I wonder what caused him to go blind. Can lack of oxygen do that?

[netzwerg]

11:41 AM on 06/03/2010

just read the article.

[Sortaskibum]

12:03 PM on 06/03/2010

Ah, thanks, I didn't see the link to the rest of the article.

[omobob]

07:18 PM on 06/03/2010

as you climb the atmosphere is thinner causing your brain to swell. It is quite possible the swelling caused the blindness. Snow blindness ( not wearing protective goggles is another but the swelling of the brain is more likely. The only thing you can do for any altitude sickness is to descend quickly. But you have to descend on your own. I have heard of no rescues above advanced base camp. Not from Camp 3 or above.

[netzwerg]

05:29 AM on 06/04/2010

He most probably suffered from retinal haemorrhages – bleeding from the cells at the back of the eye – a relatively common complaint of mountain climbers.
High altitude causes the blood to thicken, increasing blood pressure, which can lead to the seepage of blood from cells into surrounding tissues.
Researchers have found that more than a quarter of climbers on an Everest expedition are affected by retinal haemorrhages. Normally, they are minor, with no noticeable effect on vision, and resolve themselves within weeks of a return to low altitudes.
But in Peter Kinloch's case it appears the effects were acute and extreme, causing total loss of vision, in these extreme altitudes and terrain almost a certain death sentence.

[lachihuahua]

10:46 AM on 06/03/2010

What a tragic story. My hope is that as he died he was comforted by the thought of his summit. (nn)

[omobob]

07:21 PM on 06/03/2010

Climbers are often found in different states of undress as the effects of freezing to death will cause them to remove gloves, hats and jackets. The last stages for some, seems to be delirium.

[madgrrl]

10:15 AM on 06/03/2010

Climbing Everest has become trendy lately with models and millioniares wanting bragging rights for "Climbing Everest!". Maybe when people climb they should go with the sobering idea that they might not make it back.

[dems08]

12:30 PM on 06/03/2010

That isn't what happened in this case. He was a seasoned mt. climber.

Read the article.

[madgrrl]

03:47 PM on 06/03/2010

Your right, he is a seasoned climber - but my point is - even for a seasoned climber - the conditions on Everest are so extreme that you should almost expect something like this as the norm rather than the exception. And what happened to him was so unexpected maybe this will bring awareness to what it means to climb Everest.

[madisonhack]

09:32 AM on 06/03/2010

To conquer Everest, or any mountain for that matter, you have to go all the way up, and come all the way down.

[lespool]

10:01 AM on 06/03/2010

Ya think?

[Jon60]

11:38 AM on 06/03/2010

That statement- in the context of this article- makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

[dobriyden]

09:17 AM on 06/03/2010

I hope they had the descency to terminate his life.

[madisonhack]

09:27 AM on 06/03/2010

Don't be stupid....they left him for the elements...which doesn't take long.

[Leigh49]

09:33 AM on 06/03/2010

That would be illegal. Freezing is not supposed to be a painful death. You just go to sleep.