Most of you know how I feel about outdoor adventures. You don’t get killed by grizzly bears in your living room. And you don’t fall to your death from a 500-foot cliff when you’re having coffee in your kitchen. Oh. What’s that, you say? The view? Well, the “alive” view of my backyard is pretty good the next morning while the adventure person is dead in some jagged gully in Arizona.
Okay, enough of that. I’m not a thrill-seeking, risk-taking adventurer. Call me a homebody. And you’d be right.
But, understandably, this is a trait found in millions of people. The travel industry is huge for those who wish to climb a mountain or parasail the ocean. One of the biggest attractions in the world is the quest to climb Mount Everest. All of this begs the question, how many people climb that mountain yearly? Around 800 climbers try to summit Everest annually. But wait, there’s more. The Sagarmatha National Park is visited by approximately 100,000 people every year. Each day around 500 people make their way to the Everest Base Camp. So. As George Mallory once said, “Because it is there.”
So. Back in May, a party was trying to make the climb, and one of the climbers, a woman, fell into trouble.
A Chinese climber named Liu Qunying was discovered unconscious in Mount Everest’s “Death Zone.” Okay. That right there should tell you something. Don’t go to places where there is a spot called the “Death Zone.” Anyway, it is a dangerous stretch of mountain with frigid temperatures and low oxygen.
Earlier, Liu had reached Everest’s summit and begun the descent. It was then that she and her own Sherpa got separated. While she was alone, Liu’s equipment got stuck on a rope at 27,000 feet.
By the time another climber, Fan Jiangtao, and his Sherpa, Lakpu Gelu Sherpa, found her, “Liu’s face was covered in ice, one of her hands was black from frostbite, and she had run out of oxygen.” (According to Insider Magazine.)
So. The guys that found her — Fan and Lakpa — made the decision to abandon their ascent and rescue the stranded Liu. Well. This isn’t like driving down to the United Dairy Farmer and buying a pint of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. The task proved to be highly difficult. Hours passed. Fan and Lakpa grew exhausted, and with Liu unconscious, they had only managed to carry her around 650 feet. Then, night hit.
The next day, by a stroke of luck, Fan and Lakpa encountered another pair of climbers, a teammate of Fan’s, Xie Ruxiang, and his Sherpa, Pem Chiri Sherpa, who were ascending the mountain. Pem — this newest Sherpa — was the strongest. Everyone agreed. So they asked for his help in bringing Liu the rest of the way down Everest.
Then, Xie (the main climber guy), noting the severe danger, made a decision. He told Pem that the woman, Liu, would pay him a standard $10,000 fee if he helped rescue her. According to the South China Morning Post, Sherpa guides typically charge a fee of $8,000 to $10,000 to guide mountaineers to Everest’s summit through severe weather.
Sherpa Pem agreed to help, and together, the four transported the still-unconscious Liu to Camp 4, with the bulk of the work being done by Pem.
Okay. So there it is. She got lucky. These guys found her, and she is only alive — and not some popcicle planted somewhere on Everest — because this guy Pem put her on his back and carried her down the most dangerous mountain in the world. He risked his own life to save her. Actually, all four of them did.
So now. This Chinese woman, Liu Qunying is alive and well and living her good life somewhere. And she is refusing to pay the Sherpa, Pem, who saved her a standard rescue fee.
I’ll just say it. Shame on her. She should have paid the man who rescued her life. Heck. All four of them. And? She dang well better not set foot on another mountain ever. If she couldn’t afford to pay the guy, she didn’t have any business being on Everest in the first place. Because if you go out on a quest like that? You better be ready to handle anything that comes your way, including facing death because you were a failed climber.
This story really got my goat. I really get unloaded when I see news stories about rescue crews going in and saving some adventurer because of stupidity.
And to the thrill-seeker? If you are going to talk the talk, you better be able to walk the walk.
Now me? I’m heading to my kitchen. And. I’m taking my chances with toasting an onion bagel and frying some eggs. I’m prepared to deal with the outcome.
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You don’t need to climb a mountain to know that it’s high.”
― Paulo Coelho, Aleph
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“Because it’s there.”
― George Mallory
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“Those who travel to mountain-tops are half in love with themselves, and half in love with oblivion.”
― Robert Macfarlane, Mountains of the Mind
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“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
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