Mark Inglis raising money for Everest rescues

Mark Inglis raising money for Everest rescues

IMAGE: They left him dying, accusing him of being cheap and inexperienced. But David Sharp, an unguided climber, had climbed 8000ers before. On his third Everest attempt, he collapsed only one hour from camp. Close to 40 climbers passed him by, most from a large commercial expedition. Although he moved, sat up and talked on several occasions - no rescue was attempted. Image of David Sharp courtesy of Project-himalaya.com.

11:50 am EST Feb 01, 2007

(MountEverest.net) David Sharp was in a bad shape at 28,000 feet when climbers on summit push began to reach him shortly before midnight - one after the other, even unclipping from the rope to get by. Double amputee Mark Inglis told news sources that he radioed his expedition leader Russell Brice who told him to continue his climb, "he said, look mate, you can't do anything. You know, he's been there X number of hours, been there without oxygen, you know, he's effectively dead." Instead, David had only been there since that late afternoon, and would live another day before perishing.

Money the solution?

David might have been rescued, no one really knows as no one really tried - the victim was accused to have been cheap and inexperienced. One month later, expedition leader Brice made a press release denying knowledge and his guides backed off from their statements, including Mark Inglis, "I was sure that I heard radio traffic at the time, I also thought I had called myself and received a reply, but...I may be mistaken," Inglis told news media, saying his "recollection is unclear."

The Discovery Channel aired an uncritical series about the resourceful commercial expedition and leader Russell Brice offered Chinese officials a rescue service on Everest’s north side, at a cost of around $500 per climber, amounting to around $100,000 in total.

The story continues

Yesterday, in a press release headlined "Once again Kiwi ingenuity will conquer the world's highest mountain," it was announced that Mark Inglis and Peter Hillary (whose father Edmund Hillary was highly critical of the David Sharp incident) "lend their support" for an Everest rescue trust.

The trust is asking for donations to support Everest rescues, and a website that will provide news and information.

High altitude rescues are not easy and it's not clear how exactly the trust money will be spent. The trust website promises a wild mix of services such as Everest clean-up, school projects, Sherpas to be educated as flight operators, and internet at the Khumbu medical clinic. The big bait however is a local chopper company, TGR Helicorp Ltd, who says it will try to build a high altitude rescue helicopter for the Trust. Currently, there is an unpiloted version, the Alpine Wasp: "The company will be donating the Alpine Wasp to the Everest Rescue Trust after it has undergone testing and systems evaluation in the harsh mountain environment of the Mt Cook region of New Zealand during 2007," states the press release.

Mt Cook is 4,196 m/13,766 ft high.

Mark Inglis, Goodwill Ambassador for the project commented the trust, "I'm excited to be a part of a project that will benefit the Nepalese people in so many ways. It's terrible to see porters and Sherpas without the proper equipment in the high mountains and as well as helping the locals who have already lost limbs to frostbite, the Trust is planning to equip them properly too, free of charge. I think that's great."

More importantly however, it's unclear how the trust will handle cases like David Sharp, where lack of will and lack of transparency - rather than lack of means - were the most criticized issues.

The press release doesn't mention if the trust has contacted Eurocopter. On May 14th, 2005 at 7h08 local time, a serial Ecureuil/AStar AS 350 B3 piloted by Didier Delsalle, landed at 8,850 meters (29,035ft) on the top of Mount Everest. On 28 November 2006, the Association Aéronautique et Astronautique de France (AAAF) awarded its "Prix Réussite" to Eurocopter, in recognition of the landing. Former winners of this prize were the Concorde team and the Airbus Flight Tests team.

"I will be even happier if one day, with the benefits of these flights tests results; one of our helicopters can rescue someone in the 8000 meters region from a deep pulmonary or brain edema. This day, it will really be a great day and a great victory for me!' Didier Delsalle said after his record flight.