Everest - Recount of a survivors tale

Frostbitten and Snow Blind, Beck Weathers Survives Everest Disaster! 

By Chelsea s and Maya

On 10th May 1996, Everest encountered its worst disaster in Everest mountaineering history claiming eight lives, three of them professional  guides. Beck Weathers could of well been number 9 as his fellow climbers presumed him dead, but miraculously he wandered into high camp after spending 22 hours in sub zero temperatures.

Beck Weathers joined Rob Halls climbing team Adventure Consultants and payed $ 85,000 to buy the summit of Everest. Beck Weathers dreamt of climbing Everest but he knew he couldn’t summit alone. Leaving high camp at midnight, Beck Weathers began climbing to the summit of Everest. He climbed for seven hours before informing  Rob Hall, his climbing guide that he had problem with his eyes due to an eye operation he had 3 months ago. Rob Hall instructed Beck Weathers to stay where he was and that he would climb back down and lead him back to high camp. Unfortunately, Rob Hall ended up fighting for his own life on the summit in sub zero temperatures and was not heard from for the next 24 hours. Beck Weathers was now truly alone. After falling in the snow, Weathers drifted into a hypothermic coma for the next 12 hours. A Russian climber - Anotoli Boukereeu climbed up the mountain and saw a face he didn’t recognize as it was covered in a three inch slab of ice. Boukereev chipped the ice from Beck Weather's face and believed he was dead so he left him.

Weathers recalls,“ I thought I was in a dream at first, lying in my bed but when I rolled over and saw my frozen right hand in front of my face that brought me round to reality.  I didn’t feel cold or uncomfortable. When I finally woke up, I knew I was in deep trouble and no one was coming to help me so I thought I better do something.”

Once the Russian climber had chipped the ice off his face, a light had lit on in his brain and he floated back to consciousness.  Weathers then got himself up and started walking. 90 minutes after waking up from his hypothermic coma, he came across some unusually  blue shiny rocks ahead of him. What he didn’t realize, was that the big blue rocks were the tents in high camp. After surviving a night in the tents, which many of the climbers didn’t expect him to survive, they started descending to camp 1. With help from other climbers from other climbing teams, they placed his feet in foot holes and short roped him down to Khumbu icefall, an enormous glacier of mile deep crevasses and 12 story high ice blocks. Time was crucial as Beck's weak hands needed to be warmed slowly so they could thaw out and then treated. 

Luckily his wife arranged a helicopter air lift to get Beck Weathers down from Everest and into Kathmandu hospital. It was an extremely dangerous operation because helicopters can lose the ability to lift at 20,000 feet. A Nepalese army pilot risked his life to fly the helicopter over the icefall. Beck Weathers at his own decision, let a climber who was in worse condition go first. The second time the helicopter came back for Beck Weathers, it took three times before it would lift off. It was the second highest helicopter rescue in history. 

Beck Weathers in the helicopter emotionally recalled “ I was glad to be alive. The tears in my eyes are with great joy that I would soon be able to see my family. I thanked the climbers for leading me back down the mountain and for saving my life.”

Beck Weathers was given a second chance to live. His body now bears the permanent scars of his ordeal. He lost his right hand and the fingers of his left hand to frostbite. He has had eight major operations and several minor ones. At the age of 52, he is a partner in Medical City Pathologists in Dallas. To preform his job now, he uses modified equipment and an assistant for help.