The DAVID SHARP Everest Tragedy - Was He IGNORED & Left For Dead... Or UNPREPARED & Reckless??

In almost any situation in the real world where some one is in trouble and needs help, the right thing to do is help them. This is an automatic instinct for most people. If a player gets injured in a baseball game, the trainer comes running out and every one watching is concerned for the player’s well-being. However, there is one place in the world that is so inhospitable, so brutal in its environment, that just making sure that you yourself survive oftentimes takes priority over helping others. This place, of course, is Mt. Everest and there has been many incidents of climbers in serious trouble who needed help, but no one was able to save them.

David Sharp

One of these climbers was named David Sharp and what happened to him sparked outrage throughout the climbing community. Did over 40 climbers walk right by him as he sat dying, noticing him but opting not to help him so they could continue their quest towards the summit? Or, is there are another explanation as to why nobody was able to save him?

David Sharp was born on February 15th, 1972 in Harpenden, England, near London. One of his favorite pasttimes from a young age was mountain-climbing and he climbed the 1,000 foot Roseberry Topping in North Yorkshire. Later, he joined the mountaineering club at the University of Nottingham, where he graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1993. Sharp was not just a mountaineer but an all-around lover of exploration and took a 6-month sabbatical to backpack through South American and Asia. During his early adult years, he worked for a global security company but also climbed many of the world’s tallest mountains. Sharp was a mountaineer who refused to use supplemental oxygen to assist him in reaching the summits of the world’s tallest mountains. He also preferred to climb alone without guides or assistance of any kind.

In 2002, he took on Cho Oyu, the 6th tallest mountain in the world and successfully summited. He was a part of a small team during this climb led by British climber Richard Dougan. Dougan was impressed with Sharp and invited him to climb Everest the following year.

David Sharp accepted the invitation and attempted to climb Mt. Everest for the first time in 2003. He reportedly acclimatized well and proved to be a strong climber, but was forced to turn back before reaching the summit due to frostbite. In fact, the frostbite was so severe, he lost some of his toes. For most people, losing their toes would instantly end their high altitude mountaineering career. Of course, David Sharp – and all who attempt to climb Mt. Everest for that matter – are not most people.

In 2004, Sharp attempted to climb the north side of the mountain, but again was forced to turn back before reaching the summit. He was experiencing exhaustion and, once again, frostbite. This time it was more severe on his fingers. Other climbers tried to convince him to use supplemental oxygen, but this was something Sharp was not interested in.

Just from studying the various climbers who have insisted on climbing alone or without supplemental oxygen or both, it is a recurring theme that victory is almost impossible. Even for the strongest climbers in the world – even for Sherpas, who live in high altitude year around – attempting to summit Mt. Everest without supplemental oxygen is beyond risky, and trying it alone is almost suicidal. Nevertheless, many climbers ignore this fact – and they ignore the clear message from the mountain – stop trying it that way or you won’t get off alive. Take Nobakazu Kuriki, who went back to Everest time and time after time, always without guides or oxygen, even after losing 9 of 10 fingers, only to fail each time until eventually dying on the mountain. David Sharp was now 0 for 2, but was determined to try again and in 2006, he returned to Everest, this time to climb completely alone – without even a Sherpa to assist him He brought only a small amount of supplemental oxygen to use in an emergency, but, of course, did not plan to use any.

There were other independent climbers as well as teams who would be climbing at the same time as Sharp, so he wasn’t technically completely alone. Still, this wasn’t part of an actual team - there wasn’t a leader – and effectively, Sharp was on his own. No one had any responsibility to keep track of him, watch over him or even help him if he needed it. Sharp did not even want to bring a radio to call for help if he got in trouble. Sharp once again would be attempting to climb the northside of the mountain. This was the more technically difficult side and includes the three steps on the Northeast Ridge. They are three steep rock barriers, the first two of which are extremely difficult to climb. This is the same route that George Mallory and Sandy Irvine likely took during their summit attempt in 1924. Just like Mallory and Irvine, nobody knows if Sharp actually made the summit, because he never made it off the mountain. However, it’s likely he did make it, but much later than he should have. There was no guide to give him a turnaround time, no one on the radio to encourage him to turn around – he was completely on his own. During his descent, it became dark and he was forced to bivouac under a rocky overhang near the first step known as Green Boots Cave, named after Green Boots, an unidentified climber whose body was used as a landmark for climbers from 1996 to 2014, when it was finally moved. He is most commonly believed to be Indian Climer Tsewang Paljor, who was wearing green boots the day he disappeared. David Sharp sat under the overhang, with no supplemental oxygen left, arms clasped around his legs, slowly dying. He had serious frostbite and parts of his body were completely frozen.

It is around this time when supposedly over 40 climbers waltzed right by without giving the dying man a second glance. In reality, there were climbers who attempted to check on Sharp, but there was little to nothing they could do. A Turkish Team were likely the first to come across him around midnight, while ascending for a summit attempt. They tried to tell him to get moving but reportedly, he waved them on, indicating he was alright.

Some time thereafter, more Turkish climbers along with two Sherpas encountered him, and tried to get him to move. They determined that he was dead or near death. He could not move on his own and there was absolutely nothing they could do for him, so they continued their climb. Another team that included double amputee Mark Inglis and guide Mark Woodward reported encountering him and trying to get him to move, but Sharp was nearly frozen in place. According to Woodward,

“There wasn’t even a flinch of his eyelids. I was just like, ‘Oh, this poor guy, he’s stuffed’ … We pretty much considered that he was, if not dead, then not far off it. We all looked at him and realized he was pretty close to death and continued on.”

Woodward said it was a difficult decision to make, but for his entire team to stop at that altitude to try to rescue a frozen body that appeared to be dead made no sense and would put the lives of each team member in jeopardy. Other climbers also attempted to help him or at least get him to move or speak, but were unable to do so. One of them, Maxine Chaya, the first Lebanese person to climb Everest, stayed with Sharp for nearly an hour, trying to administer oxygen and get him to move. He tried to radio for help but was told to continue on before he himself got into trouble.

New Zealand mountaineer Jamie McGuinness  said that there a Sherpa named Dawa who also stopped and tried to help Sharp, giving him oxygen and trying to get him to move for about any hour. He failed to get Sharp to even stand let alone walk. Even with multiple Sherpas, there was no way to carry a full grown man down the mountain, over the difficult terrain below, from that altitude. There was simple nothing any one could do.

Had Sharp began the expedition as part of one of the many teams who passed him as he sat dying, he likely would have survived. However, because he was completely alone, no one was there to help him until it was far too late. In fact, three other independent climbers also died around the same time as Sharp. One of them, Vitor Negrete, the first Brazilian to reach the summit without supplemental oxygen, had to turn back short of the summit but made it back to base camp alive, then decided to try again, going for the summit without any help of any kind – no sherpa, no radio, no oxygen. He made it to the summit but died during his descent.

Maxime Chaya

David Sharp died where he sat, and when word got out that several climbers walked by him and were unable or unwilling to save him, the press had a field day. The main story they put out there was that this day in age, most of the climbers only care about reaching the summit and pay their $40-60,000 to do so. Even Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to reach the summit, was appalled at what happened, saying

“They don’t give a damn for anybody else who may be in distress and it doesn’t impress me at all that they leave someone lying under a rock to die.”

Of course, in Hillary’s day, no one but expert mountaineers would be found near Mt. Everest. A team of professionals would attempt it, as a team, and as a team, they helped each other. Certainly, with the commercialization of the mountain by 2006, things had changed. By then and even more so now, there were many climbers who had no business being on a mountain like Everest, who paid tens of thousands of dollars to get to the top and get that photo to share on Facebook or more likely nowadays, Instagram.

Sir Edmund Hillary

However, it has to be noted that most climbers even now are part of a team – they likely have a guide and there are other members of the team who know their name, know their skills and hopefully can help ensure that they get off the mountain alive. In Sharp’s case, he insisted going at it alone, even refusing a friend’s offer to join his team. He spent the bare minimum just to be able to climb the mountain and brought along the bare minimum for survival, if that. Add this to the fact that the place where he ultimately died lays deep in the death zone of Mt. Everest – any other humans who passed him by were doing whatever they could to just put one foot in front of the other. The climbers who did take the time to check on Sharp and try to help him risked their own lives to do so out of zero obligation to him, proving that not every climber just walked right by. Unfortunately, by the time others realized he was in trouble, it was too late to do much about it.

Rescue on Mt. Everest is extremely difficult at best and near impossible in the Death Zone. Had Sharp been a part of a well organized team with sherpas, extra oxygen, radios, etc – he likely would have survived, because A) he would have been turned around before reaching the summit because of a turnaround time or his deteriorating condition and B) even if he got into trouble, this would’ve been recognized much earlier and he would have gotten help to get down the mountain while he could still physically help himself – before severe frostbite and frozen limbs.

Mark Inglis

At the end of the day, David Sharp took a massive risk attempting this mission alone, especially as some one who had never summited Everest. To do it with a bare bones pack without sufficient oxygen was downright suicidal. Certainly, Rest in Peace David Sharp who still remains on Everest, but blaming the other climbers who passed him by that day for his death, insinuating that all they cared about was reaching the top and not helping their fellow climber, may be disingenuous. As explained, several climbers did try to help him – but since he could not move and was practically frozen in place in the Death Zone, there was nothing anybody could do for him. It was his own reckless decisions that put him in that horrible position. This did not matter for other climbers like Mark Inglis, who faced major criticism in the aftermath for not doing more to save Sharp. His explanation made perfect sense -

He said that Sharp was ill-prepared, lacked proper gloves, did not bringing enough supplementary oxygen and was already doomed by the time of his ascent. “Trouble is,” he said, “at 8500 meters it's extremely difficult to keep yourself alive, let alone keep anyone else alive".

Even Sharp’s mother agreed with this, saying "Your responsibility is to save yourself – not to try to save anybody else.” Even with that said, climbers did try to save him, but he put himself in such a bad position, his death was all but guaranteed.