'Dead' climber heads to safety
Evelyn Yamine
NEWS.com.au, Australia
_________________
Sitting half undressed with his legs dangling over a deadly precipice, Australian climber Lincoln Hall told the mountaineer who saved him from Mt Everest: "I imagine you are surprised to see me here?"
As a seriously-ill Hall began his descent to safety on the back of a yak yesterday, the first details emerged of his rescue after he spent a night alone in the mountain's "death zone".
After being abandoned by fellow climbers who believed he was dead, American climber Dan Mazur stumbled across Hall as he made his own ascent to the summit on Friday.
Barely alive and disoriented from cerebral oedema, an acute form of altitude sickness, Hall was found with his legs over a sheer drop "half undressed and without a hat".
Mazur abandoned his own summit attempt to help Hall, sharing his hot tea and oxygen, after alerting Hall's expedition leader, who sent eight sherpas to rescue him.
Despite severe frostbite and a chest infection, Hall, 50, was able to walk into advanced base camp, at 6500m, later that day.
Hall's ordeal began when he became ill after reaching the peak of the world's highest mountain on Thursday. With weather conditions worsening, the two sherpas trying to lead him to safety went snow blind.
Believing Hall was already dead, they were forced to abandon him to save their own lives.
Miraculously he survived some of the worst conditions on the planet.
May 29, 2006
Evelyn Yamine
NEWS.com.au, Australia
_________________
Sitting half undressed with his legs dangling over a deadly precipice, Australian climber Lincoln Hall told the mountaineer who saved him from Mt Everest: "I imagine you are surprised to see me here?"
As a seriously-ill Hall began his descent to safety on the back of a yak yesterday, the first details emerged of his rescue after he spent a night alone in the mountain's "death zone".
After being abandoned by fellow climbers who believed he was dead, American climber Dan Mazur stumbled across Hall as he made his own ascent to the summit on Friday.
Barely alive and disoriented from cerebral oedema, an acute form of altitude sickness, Hall was found with his legs over a sheer drop "half undressed and without a hat".
Mazur abandoned his own summit attempt to help Hall, sharing his hot tea and oxygen, after alerting Hall's expedition leader, who sent eight sherpas to rescue him.
Despite severe frostbite and a chest infection, Hall, 50, was able to walk into advanced base camp, at 6500m, later that day.
Hall's ordeal began when he became ill after reaching the peak of the world's highest mountain on Thursday. With weather conditions worsening, the two sherpas trying to lead him to safety went snow blind.
Believing Hall was already dead, they were forced to abandon him to save their own lives.
Miraculously he survived some of the worst conditions on the planet.
May 29, 2006
