Left for Dead on Mount Everest and Walking Back Down

A scene depicting Beck Weathers surviving exposure high on Mount Everest during the 1996 disaster. (Digital Illustration: GoBeyondLocal)

Left for Dead on Mount Everest and Walking Back Down

Beck Weathers was lying in the snow high on Mount Everest when the people around him decided he was dead.

He had reached the upper mountain with the 1996 expedition, but severe vision problems had already forced him to stop short of the summit. A storm was moving across the peak as climbers struggled to get back down.

Weathers spent the night exposed in the storm. By the following day, the people who reached him judged his condition beyond rescue.

His wife received news that he had died.

High on Everest, Weathers was still alive.

Earlier that day, Weathers had been climbing towards the summit with the Adventure Consultants expedition. He had undergone radial keratotomy eye surgery before the climb, and the high altitude severely affected his vision. Around 8,400 metres, he could barely see well enough to continue.

He stopped his summit attempt and waited for the others to return.

The mountain was already becoming dangerous. A major storm swept across Everest on May 10, 1996, and eight climbers died during the disaster. Visibility collapsed, wind intensified and climbers struggled to move between the high camps.

Weathers was caught in the storm above the South Col.

He spent the night in the open. Cold entered his clothing as the hours passed, and the conditions pushed his body towards hypothermia. At some point, he lost consciousness.

By the time other climbers encountered him, Weathers looked like a dead man. A doctor confirmed his death, according to accounts of the disaster. He was left on the mountain.

The decision reached people far below. His wife, Margaret, was informed that he had died.

Weathers lay in the snow for roughly sixteen hours.

At high altitude, the body has little room for error. Weathers had severe frostbite, and his exposed face had been damaged by the cold and sun. His hands were freezing. His body temperature had fallen into a hypothermic coma.

His condition gave the rescuers who saw him little reason to expect movement.

Inside the storm, Weathers regained consciousness.

He could barely see. His gloves were gone. Ice covered parts of his body. The wind gave him one useful clue: it was moving across the Col, and he knew the direction led towards Camp 4.

He started walking.

The first people to see him thought they were looking at an apparition. Weathers staggered towards camp with his arms held away from his body. Todd Burleson saw him approaching and helped guide him into a tent.

Oxygen was administered.

Weathers began to revive.

His survival had created a new problem. The cold had damaged his hands, arms and face, while his body was still recovering from the hours spent unconscious in the snow. He had to get lower on the mountain.

The following day, rescuers began escorting him down from Camp 4. Weathers walked with them.

At the Yellow Band above the Lhotse Face, Robert Schauer and Ed Viesturs took over part of the descent. Weathers continued down the mountain with the group.

He reached Camp 3, where another group was waiting.

The descent continued towards Camp 2. Weathers was severely injured, yet he kept moving with the people helping him. By the time the group reached Camp 2, plans were already in place for an air evacuation.

A helicopter would have to reach him at an altitude where such a rescue was exceptionally difficult.

The aircraft arrived.

Weathers was lifted from the mountain and flown towards safety. The rescue became one of the highest helicopter evacuations ever carried out.

At a hospital, doctors treated the damage caused by frostbite and exposure. The injuries were severe enough that Weathers eventually lost both hands and part of his nose.