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'No regrets' over saving climber
08/06/2006 13:30 - (SA)
Kathmandu - Just days after a British climber was left to die near the summit of Mount Everest, an American mountain guide abandoned his second bid to stand on top of the world to rescue a still-breathing mountaineer who had also been given up for dead.
Not only did Daniel Mazur fail to scale the world's highest peak from the northern side, but he also failed to get his two paying clients to the top.
"It was very disappointing for me to miss my chance at the summit, but even more that I could not get my job done," Mazur, of Olympia, Washington, told The Associated Press on his return to Nepal's capital, Katmandu on Thursday.
But Mazur had no regrets.
'How could you live with yourself?'
"Oh yeah, it was worth it. You can always go back to the summit but you only have one life to live," said Mazur, who scaled Everest once before, from the southern side, in 1991.
"If we had left the man to die that would have always been on my mind ... how could you live with yourself?"
Mazur, his two clients and a Sherpa guide were just two hours from the 8 850-metre peak on the morning of May 26 when they came across 50-year-old Australian Lincoln Hall, who had been left a day earlier by his own guides believing he was dead.
Rescue
"I was shocked to see a guy without gloves, hat, oxygen bottles or sleeping bag at sunrise at 8 600 metres height, just sitting up there," Mazur said.
Mazur said Hall's first words to him were: "I imagine you are surprised to see me here."
"Yeah, we are," Mazur replied.
Mazur said he knew Hall was OK because he was not crying for help and still had a sense of humour.
Mazur and his team spent the next four hours pulling Hall away from the slopes, giving him bottled oxygen, food and liquids.
They also radioed the base camp to tell Hall's surprised team that he was still alive.
Climbers carried on toward the summit
While Mazur's team was busy assisting Hall, two Italian climbers walked past them toward the summit. When asked to help they claimed they didn't understand English. On his return to base camp, Mazur discovered that they could speak the language after all.
"I don't know why they didn't want to stop to help," Mazur said. "I hope when I am there, in that state, and someone passes me ... I hope it is someone like me."
Too tired to attempt climb again
By the time some Sherpas showed up to help get Hall back to base camp, Mazur, his clients and his Sherpa were too exhausted to attempt the peak; they had no choice but to return without completing their climb.
"We all looked at the summit and then returned. We all agreed there was no choice," he said.
"It was disappointing because my job is to get people to the top and we returned without making it to the summit. People save up money, take time off and do a lot of planning for their trip," Mazur said.
- AP
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