Always to win it seems. Even on top of the world..... :(
Climbers of Everest set bad example
Posted: 5/28/2006
Siobhan McAndrew
We like to blame Hollywood for being a bad influence. The public loves to lash out at Britney Spears for being a bad parent.
We all shake our heads at celebrity couples who treat marriage and relationships as if happily ever after is until next week when a new flavor comes out.
We get upset when a pop superstar during a Super Bowl halftime show has a wardrobe malfunction, and we get disgusted when another famous person proves to a new generation of young people that not eating means you too might achieve the shallow life of Lindsay Lohan.
But sometimes, it's the real life stories, not the airbrushed ones, that send the wrong message.
Recent examples include headlines about the convictions of those top Enron executives who still deny any wrongdoing and Internet predators who continue to set up meetings with decoy teenagers after seeing TV shows where fellow sickos are caught.
This week the blame should be cast on those who climbed the highest peak.
The amazing story of a group of men, including double amputee Mark Inglis, who made it to the top of Mount Everest after 40 days should have been about hope and courage.
The climb up 29,035 feet is remarkable especially for Inglis, 47, who lost both legs just below the knee to frostbite climbing Mount Cook in 1982.
Inglis, from New Zealand, was the first amputee to make it to the top of Mount Everest.
Inglis reached the peak of a mountain that has taken the lives of more than 190 people, including 14 this year, in 40 days.
And this isn't an easy trip. People train for years to climb the mountain that separates China and Nepal and can spend anywhere from $25,000 to $150,000 in fees, supplies and training costs.
But the success Inglis and his fellow climbers may now feel forever is clouded by the decision they made 1,000 feet from the top.
In subzero temperatures, with oxygen levels at one third that of sea level, Inglis
and 40 climbers passed by British climber David Sharpe, 34.
Sharpe had made it to the top and was descending. He had not packed the proper supplies and was dying on the side of the mountain.
Inglis and his group gave him some oxygen and radioed for help.
They were advised to continue on and that saving Sharpe was impossible.
Some reports say Sharpe was so far gone and so near death, he could only blink his eyes. Some say he just asked to be left to sleep.
I'd like to think most of us would have sacrificed 1,000 feet to sit for a few extra minutes with a dying man.
I know that's the story I would have rather read this week.
news.rgj.com
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""I'd like to think most of us would have sacrificed 1,000 feet to sit for a few extra minutes with a dying man.
I know that's the story I would have rather read this week."
Me too..
EDIT.. can't get link to work.. ??????? Oh well.. |
