'I saw myself at the top...but until you get up there..I can't put it into words...you don't know how TOUGH it is...when you are up that high and your body gives out...I reached my personal summit..that was the top of my Everest.' Brett Merrell, Everest: Beyond the Limit
Brett Merrell is a fire-fighter from Los Angeles, he wants to pay tribute to those comrades who died on 9/11 by placing a flag at the summit of Everest. This is Brett's second attempt, last time he mortgaged his house and sold his Harley Davidson, due to altitude sickness he spent 8 days without sleep at an early camp and had to turn around. This year a benefactor has put up the $40,000 fee. For these reasons, Brett faces immense personal pressure to reach the summit this time.
In 1995, Doug Hansen, a postal worker, had to turn back just a few hundred feet from the summit. In 1996, Hansen joins another expedition headed by experienced Everest guide Rob Hall. Hall had ascended Everest more times than any other non-Sherpa. Before they set off, Hall tells his group of climbers, including Hansen, that if they cannot make the summit by 2pm they must turn around.
On May 10th, Hansen is still climbing towards the summit at 3pm, Hall insists that he turn around but Hansen refuses despite the fact that a deadly storm is brewing. By 9pm Hansen is dead from exposure and lack of oxygen. Hall, who had stayed with him, is now in trouble as well - he cannot descend using the fixed ropes as his hands and feet are badly frostbitten. Later in the afternoon, he asks Base Camp, to patch him through to his wife Jan Arnold, in New Zealand. He reassures her that he is reasonably comfortable and tells her, "Sleep well my sweetheart. Please don't worry too much." His body was found on May 23 by mountaineers from the IMAX expedition.
Mount Everest is the highest point on earth, standing 29,028 feet (8,848 metres) high - five and a half miles above sea level.
The temperature at the summit averages about -33 °F (-36 °C) and can drop as low as -76°F (-60 °C).
Climbers of Everest face many dangers including crevasses, falling rocks and ice, avalanches, sudden storms, ferocious winds up to 125 mph, extreme temperatures, weight loss/dehydration and oxygen deprivation.
When subject to heights above 17,000 feet, the body struggles to process food, preferring to literally consume itself for energy.
Fatal accidents on Everest are 80 % more likely on descent, despite it being less physically demanding.
We are not always as strong as we think we are, sometimes we will face situations that we cannot control. What we can control are the choices we make at these times. Our choices affect other people. Sometimes it is better to admit defeat and live to fight another day. Sometimes we have to learn through failure.
'Most Bible characters met with failure and survived...They came to know the God of the second, chance, and sometimes the third and fourth.' Oswald Sanders, Spiritual Leadership.
Source by Claire Vorster
