SwiftVets.com

[GenrXr]

To these liberals the price of human life is a ticket to the top.

Let us refresh the recent news cycle.

On May 16, we learn New Zealand double amputee reached the summit of Everest. A feel good Reuters report on how Mr. Inglis lost both his legs in a previous climb his wife is quoted, “He’s dreamed of this all his life, probably. He’s over the moon.”

On May 25 Associated Press reports as many as 40 climbers are thought to have passed David Sharp as he lie dying near the summit. “New Zealander Mark Inglis, who became the first double amputee to reach the mountain’s summit on prosthetic legs, told Television New Zealand that his party stopped during its May 15 summit push and found Sharp close to death. A member of the party tried to give Sharp oxygen and sent out a radio distress call before continuing to the Summit, he said.”

What about the Sherpa? How many Sherpa were there and why did none of the groups allow for their Sherpa to assist Mr. Sharp down the mountain regardless of his condition. To ask these questions one would be committing to hard news reporting and tackling a question about the morality of these climbers.

On May 27 BBC News informs us ‘Dead’ Everest man safe at camp.

Great, David Sharp made it out ok. But, the article goes on to report “Lincoln Hall, 50 were left behind by his Sherpa’s on Thursday after he began hallucinating and refused to move. But he was found alive on Friday and rescuers have now accompanied him down to a camp at about 6,400m.”

So David Sharp is still dead on the mountain and we have another story of a climber being left for dead and this time by Sherpa. Again, where is the hard news reporting? Sherpa do not make moral decisions on the mountain side. They answer to their employer and do as told, yet this article implies the Sherpa acted independently of their employer and made the decision to abandon one of their customers.

Don Osman, who was arguably one of America’s greatest ‘free’ rock climbers was invited several times to summit Everest and declined by saying he was not an accomplished mountaineer and would feel unworthy of being there.1

Jon Krakauer who made the summit during the 1996 Everest disaster when 8 people died in one day authored the book ‘Into Thin Air’ and writes “It was clear to me, nevertheless, that none of us in Hall’s group had a prayer of climbing Everest without considerable assistance from Hall, his guides, and his Sherpas.”2 He goes on to write about the incompetence of many of the other groups and discusses in particular one Japanese lady who had no clue how to put her ice boots on.

To be fair there were many hero’s who risked their lives to save others on that fateful day in 1996, yet this seems to be the exception on Everest as liberals who place more value on ribbons and awards then the rescue of stranded climbers. There seems to be a new code of the mountain and that is the selfish climb, a narcissist pursuit to the top, regardless of all others on the mountain. This leads to abuse of the Sherpa who are required to take on increased loads for the same amount of money and unnecessary risk to life for the Sherpa final ascent climbers as they hump novices to the summit. Do the climbers care? Of course not. Liberals could care less about others as they quest for their ribbons and awards.

And Mr. Inglis, I hope you and your wife are really proud of your accomplishment. A moment where you could really shine and show the strength of human character, yet chose instead the ticket to the top.


1 Andrew Todhunter, ‘Fall of the Phantom Lord’ 1998
2 Jon Krakauer, ‘Into Thin Air’ 1997 p.97
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"An activist is the person who cleans up the water, not the one claiming its dirty."
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing." Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Founder of Conservative Philosophy