Rob Hall
I thought that this post would be appropriate if it was about Rob Hall because in the chapters we read you learn a lot about Hall's personality. Rob was born January 14th in 1961, growing up in New Zealand he was instantly attracted and exposed to mountain climbing. In 1988 Rob Hall met his climbing partner and best friend Gary Ball. Soon after they met they decided that they were going to climb the seven summits, but they were going to do it in seven months or less. They started with Mount Everest in May of 1990 and climbed their final peak, Vinson Massif, in December just hours before the deadline. Following their success both me saw that there was no way to continue to get sponsorships so they quit professional climbing and opened Adventure Consultants. The first year of the companies opening they successfully guided 6 people to the top of Everest. Tragically in 1993 during a high altitude climb Gary Ball developed cerebral edema and passed away. Hall continued to run the company following Ball's death and since the opening of Adventure Consultants had successfully guided 39 climbers to the top of Everest. Unfortunately for all the great things that Hall accomplished, to the outside world he was best known for the 1996 disaster on Everest that we are reading about in Into Thin Air. To the climbing community he was a well respected man for his climbing abilities but also for his decision making in times of hardship.
In the three chapters that I read you can see that Rob Hall is more concerned with his team getting down safely rather than himself. Base camp keeps radioing to Hall telling him to leave Doug Hansen and descend on his own but Rob will not do that. Also the book talks about how not very many people can survive a night in the open on Everest, but Hall did. While he was confused and cold he seemed fairly normal up until his last words to his wife where he assured her not to worry so much. My take on this disaster is somebody didn't follow their job. If the whole team had turned around at the designated time they may have been able to reach camp 4 before the storm became "hurricane like". I think Hall is partially to blame because he wanted Hansen to summit so badly that he actually put him on his back and carried him to the top. This string of unfortunate events was severely unlucky for Mountain Madness and Adventure Consultants because I honestly believe that they could have made it out alive if everyone had stuck to the plan.
I think this is Shane's post so Shane, I like the fact that you focused on Rob Hall for this. I think the book makes it clear that he was a character of the highest kind. Although the fact that he waited for Doug to summit may have been the reason for his ultimate death, he showed compassion to the very end. Even the fact that he urged Doug on to try again shows his character. he understood the importance of conquering Everest not only for his clients, but those that he considered to be his friends. Even at the very end of his life he continued to put others before himself. He remains as calm as he possibly could in his situation when he has his last conversation with his wife on the phone. He does this all to prevent her from worrying. Rob Hall was clearly a fine man and I think Krakauer illustrates this in Into Thin Air.
ReplyDelete-Jordan
Shane, like you and Jordan both mentioned, I believe that Hall's death was ultimately caused by his mistake of mixing personal interest with business. Had he treated the summit more professionally, and stuck to the turn-around time, it is likely that the casualties would have been minimized. However, he took personal interest in Hansen reaching the top, and did not want to turn him around for a second time. This is interesting to me because it seems out of character for Hall, who was known for his strict strategies of getting up and down the mountain safely. The whole calamity was definitely a little confusing, but Hall's death was extremely unfortunate.
ReplyDelete-Amanda