What Went Wrong During the Ill-Fated1996 Everest Expedition

It’s one of the most dangerous endeavors a human being can attempt – and for decades, the odds of dying while attempting to climb the tallest mountain in the world was around 1 in 4. However, by the mid-90’s, with advancements in knowledge, equipment and safety gear, the climbing of Mt. Everest became more commercialized. Mountaineering experts such as Scott Fischer and Rob Hall created their businesses – Mountain Madness for Fischer and Adventure Consultants for Hall - in which they, along with a team of guides, could lead a group of climbers hopefully to the summit and back down the mountain with no fatalities. In May of 1996, the mountain had other ideas.

Rob Hall

During this time, there were three expeditions simultaneously attempting to summit Mt. Everest. They consisted of a government-funded Taiwanese group, Scott Fischer’s team and Rob Hall’s team. Both Fischer and Hall’s teams consisted of themselves, 2 other guides, 8 sherpas and 8 clients. The Sherpas are locals skilled in mountaineering whose assistance is vital for any chance of success. Both teams had a public figure as part of their expedition – journalists Jon Krakauer of Outside Magazine was on Hall’s team and Sandy Hill-Pittman was with Fischer.

Climbing a mountain as high as Everest is not as simple as simply climbing until you get to the top. Climbers must slowly acclimate by spending time at Base Camp, then climbing up to various higher Camps before descending in order to rest and recover. As they move up the mountain, their body’s slowly adapt to the altitude, allowing them to go higher, eventually arriving at Camp 4, at an elevation of about 26,000 feet. It is around this altitude where climbers enter the Death Zone. Their bodies will slowly die as the brain and lungs starve for oxygen. From Camp 4, climbers wait for a window of opportunity in which the weather allows them to quickly get to the top of mountain and then back down before their body fails them completely. For this reason, a turnaround time is usually set in stone – for example, if you are not within a few steps of the summit by a certain time, you must turn around. In this case, the turn around time set by Rob Hall was 2 PM.

It was around midnight on May 10th, 1996 when Scott Fischer and Rob Hall’s teams, which were working together at this point, decided to go for the summit. From there, tragedy struck and several climbers ended up caught in a blizzard while attempting to descend. In the end, eight died and one, Beck Weathers, who was left for dead multiple times, miraculously survived but not without the loss of his hands and nose. Both Fischer and Hall also passed away and their bodies remain on Mt. Everest today. So, what exactly when wrong on that fateful day and could it have been avoided? Is there one thing that can be pointed to that caused this disaster?

Beck Weathers

In general, so many things can go wrong while climbing Everest that it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise when a disaster like this occurs. However, in this case, these were two teams led by experienced mountaineers who understood all the dangers and risks involved. Their primary job was not to get every client to the top of the mountain, but to make an attempt at the summit and still get every home safely. It has been said only the mountain decides who shall summit – not the climbers.

Indeed, several things went wrong during this climb and it is difficult to point to one thing. One of the major causes of death on Everest is a simple Catch 22 – in order to climb to the summit of Mt. Everest, one must have an incredible amount of determination and willpower. You have to be a person with a never give up attitude who can tolerate immense suffering to achieve the ultimate goal. However, these attributes are exactly what kills people, because if you’re too determined, you’re likely to die. If the conditions and situation calls for it, climbers must be willing to turn back and essentially give up. Imagine creating this goal, training and preparing for years, saving up tens of thousands of dollars to pay for the opportunity, putting yourself through horrible pain and suffering for months, just to turn back a few hundred feet from the summit.

Impressively, a few climbers did make this tough but vital decision, and they survived the disaster. A few others did not. The first major issue that came up during the final summit attempt on May 10th occurred before the storm even hit. Each team had sent a sherpa to the Hillary Step, a 40 foot high vertical rock face just below the summit, in order to fix ropes. This would save valuable time so that the ropes were already fixed in place when the climbers arrived. Unfortunately, the sherpas failed to set the ropes. The reason why could have to do with a competitive nature in which each team wanted to summit as many climbers as possible to “defeat” the opposing team. The sherpa in charge of setting the ropes for Mountain Madness, Lopsang Jangbu, spent at least an hour, possibly up to five hours according to some witnesses, short-roping Sandy Hill-Pittman in an effort to get her to the summit. This prevented him from being able to help the other sherpa set ropes at the Hillary Step.

This critical mistake caused a bottleneck of climbers waiting for the ropes to be set. Showing incredibly good judgment, three climbers, Stuart Hutchison, Lou Kasischke and John Taske, all part of Rob Hall’s team, turned around when they saw the situation, returning to Camp 4 and giving up their summit attempt. All three survived. They were not told to turn around by leader Rob Hall, who allowed the summit attempt to continue well past the 2 O’Clock turnaround time.

This decision was especially critical when it came to Postal Worker Doug Hansen, who had attempted Everest once before, but was turned around by Hall just short of the summit. According to many sources including Beck Weather’s book, Left For Dead, Hansen was a wreck on the way down during that previous expedition. Oftentimes, it’s an over the top amount of willpower and dedication that gets some one to the top of the mountain despite the body being physically drained. Once this goal has been met or abandoned, the mind and body will both fail on the way down.

Despite knowing this, Doug Hansen somehow convinced Rob Hall to let him continue the summit attempt despite the time being nearly 4 PM. Unsurprisingly, Hansen completely collapsed shortly after reaching the summit. It was around this time, while many climbers were still descending from their summit, that the storm hit. Rob Hall could have still saved himself but refused to leave Hansen, staying on the south summit with him while waiting for help. Mountain Madness guides Neal Beidleman and Anatoli Boukreev helped rescue many climbers and the entire Mountain Madness team, other than their leader Scott Fischer, survived. Fischer, who expended extra energy accompanying a sick climber back to base camp earlier, was not well even before the summit attempt, and collapsed from exhaustion, dying on the mountain.

Scott Fischer

Meanwhile, Adventure Consultants guide Andy Harris was able to reach Rob Hall, but tragically, he could not find his way back to Camp 4 and was never found. Hall and Hansen both died as well. So did Yasuko Namba, a Japanese climber who was caught in the blizzard on the way down. With this expedition, she completed her goal of climbing the 7 summits – the tallest mountain on each continent.

So, who or what is exactly to blame for this tragedy? The obvious answer would be that there are several factors – many of which I pointed out already. It’s very easy to point to Lopsang Jambu, who failed to fix ropes in an effort to help ensure Sandy Hill-Pittman would summit. Had the ropes been fixed as planned, the delay and many deaths would have been avoided. Even if Doug Hansen still summited as late as he did and even if Scott Fischer collapsed on the way down, there would have been more able bodies to help in the rescue efforts. Instead, nearly every one who reached Camp 4 was completely exhausted from spending too much time on the summit attempt.

But why did Lopsang care so much that Sandy Hill-Pittman summited? It was likely that Scott Fischer wanted the entire team to summit and Lopsang knew this. As for Fischer himself, he certainly couldn’t be the one member of the team not to, which is why he continued despite being deathly ill. Why did Doug Hansen insist on continuing well passed the turnaround time and why did Rob Hall allow this? This is what the problem boils down to. What went wrong that day on Mt. Everest was not just a horrible blizzard or a failure to fix ropes. It was the idea of reaching the summit at all costs. Not accepting failure no matter what is an attitude built into just about any climber willing to make a serious attempt at standing on the top of the world. And this competitive nature applied to the team leaders and their desire to get as many of their clients to the top as possible. It didn’t help that each had a journalist as part of their team who would write about the events afterwards.

Anatoli Boukreev

As soon as Rob Hall saw that bottleneck and lack of fixed ropes at the Hillary Step, he had the option of ordering every one to immediately descent, knowing that there was no way they could reach the top by 2 PM. Obviously, this would have been the right decision, as the three climbers who turned around made it back to Camp before the storm and before darkness set in. Yausko Namba may have failed to make her 7th summit goal during that particular expedition, but sometimes you have to live to see, and try again, another day. Scott Fischer was likely not even in good enough condition to attempt a summit himself, much less lead one. Perhaps the right decision would have been to stay at Camp 4, put one of the guides in charge of leading clients during the final assault, and ensure that everything went smooth through communication with his guides and sherpas. It seems that while one needs to have a fighting spirit, a strong will and an ability to persist though pain in order to climb a mountain like Everest, one also has to know when to put that ego in check and listen to the mountain. Being so determined and unwilling to give up is what went wrong on that horrible day in 1996. Both Rob Hall and Scott Fischer were incredible mountaineers and wonderful people, but those that impressed me the most from that expedition were the few that turned around when they knew deep down that it was what they had to do. 

For more detailed information on this expedition, I recommend the books Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, Left for Dead by Beck Weathers and the Climb by Anatoli Boukrev. All three are available in audio form with the Audible App.