0:09

In Tibet, they call it

0:11

Chomolungma, which translates

0:13

to, goddess mother of the world.

0:18

In Nepal, they call it

0:20

Sagamarta, peak of heaven.

0:25

In the Western world, most know it

0:27

as Mount Everest, the world's

0:29

tallest mountain above sea level, standing

0:32

at just over 29,000 feet high. Roughly,

0:39

the equivalent of 20 Empire

0:41

State buildings stacked one on top

0:43

of the other. It

0:47

stands without parallel, as our most

0:49

iconic symbol of humid endeavor. Since

0:54

Tenzin Norgay and Srebrena Hillary

0:57

reached its summit in 1953, thousands more have

1:01

completed the grueling climb, and hundreds have

1:03

died trying. Most

1:07

remain where they fell, turning

1:09

the mountain into a giant glacial

1:11

graveyard. Back

1:16

in the morning of May 25, 2006, 50-year-old

1:20

Lincoln Hall became one of the

1:22

lucky few thousand to successfully make

1:24

it to the top. Hall

1:29

was ecstatic. After

1:33

a short moment to take in the view, Lincoln

1:36

began to make his way down. An

1:40

hour or so later, around 28,000 feet, his

1:44

breathing became labored under his oxygen mask.

1:47

His footsteps grew heavy. He

1:51

became disorientated. At

1:54

that height, it is too high to land

1:56

a helicopter. It's too high

1:58

to carry someone. Lincoln's

2:01

Sherpa companions stayed with him for

2:04

nine hours, trying everything they

2:06

could to force them to keep going.

2:09

Each had been working for 18 hours at over

2:12

27,000 feet high. They

2:16

were running out of oxygen, food, and

2:19

water. With

2:22

night falling, they had no choice but

2:24

to leave Lincoln or

2:26

risk dying themselves. This

2:31

is Everest. These

2:33

are the risks. At

2:39

7.20 pm, as

2:42

the temperature dropped to negative 15 degrees,

2:45

Lincoln lay down on the snow and

2:47

fell unconscious. There

2:50

was nothing that could be done. The

2:54

Sherpas took his oxygen, food

2:56

and water, and solemnly made

2:58

their way back down, leaving

3:01

Lincoln alone the

3:03

highest man in the world. A

3:08

short time later, his wife and

3:11

children at home in Australia received

3:13

a phone call to

3:16

tell them that Lincoln would not

3:18

be coming home. I'm

3:25

Donnie Dust, United States Marine Corps

3:27

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5:12

few hours after Lincoln Hall was

5:14

declared dead, another team of climbers arrived

5:16

at Camp 3 at

5:21

Mount Everest. At 27,000 feet high, Camp

5:23

3 is the last

5:25

major resting point before climbers

5:27

begin the final, arduous push

5:29

to the summit. Among

5:32

the group was 26-year-old Miles Osborne.

5:36

For Miles, who was aiming to become

5:38

one of the youngest British climbers ever

5:40

to make it to the top, it

5:43

was the culmination of years of planning,

5:45

training, and saving up. probably

6:00

in about 2003. He

6:03

climbed back with an American who he

6:05

himself had been looking at going to

6:08

Everest. And he made this statement, which

6:10

really resonated with me, which was that

6:12

he felt that having climbed

6:14

Denali, he had all of the equipment

6:16

and he had the know-how to go

6:18

to Everest, should he want to.

6:23

For the next 18 months, Miles

6:25

dedicates his entire life to

6:28

making it a reality. I

6:31

worked several jobs and I just saved

6:33

everything that I had. Quite

6:36

simply, everything for a year and a half was

6:38

aimed at achieving that goal.

6:42

I was outside with a heavy

6:44

backpack, hiking up and down hills

6:46

for hours at a time. Miles

6:49

decides to tackle the mountain from the north

6:51

side, mainly because it's

6:53

the cheapest option. I

6:56

selected an expedition which was led

6:58

by an American called Dan Miser,

7:02

a tremendously skilled

7:04

mountaineer with extraordinary

7:06

experience. I

7:08

suppose this was probably a full

7:11

service expedition, but run on

7:14

bare bones would be the best way I could put it. Miles

7:22

arrives at Mount Everest's north side

7:24

base camp in early April 2006.

7:28

Here he meets up with Dan Miser and

7:31

the rest of the 11 or so climbers in

7:33

Miser's group, who are all hoping

7:35

to make it to the summit that year. Arriving

7:40

at Everest base camp for the first time is

7:42

a striking experience.

7:45

You know, a couple of hundred tents there. It's

7:49

a vast, screey field. It's

7:52

the only large flat area

7:54

close by. It's

7:57

a vast and windy place. and

8:00

looming high, over everything

8:03

is the vast peak of Everest.

8:07

You are constantly within its view, irrespective

8:09

of what you're doing at any time

8:11

of day. It

8:13

looks dead vertical, it

8:16

has aggressive, steep edges,

8:18

it has frightening

8:20

bands of rock on the north

8:22

face. It's a

8:24

tremendously imposing mountain. It

8:27

feels like it's the only thing in

8:30

your world at that point. For

8:33

the next six weeks, Miles

8:35

and the rest of Missouri's clients

8:38

go through a grueling regime of daily

8:40

hikes. Each

8:43

ascent moves them a little bit

8:45

higher up the mountain before returning

8:48

them to base camp to rest. It's

8:51

crucial to help your body acclimate

8:53

to the extreme altitude. If

8:56

you were to have any chance of making it

8:58

to the summit. We

9:00

would have rested for a few days and then we would have headed

9:02

up to the North Col, which is the first

9:04

camp on Everest. Initially

9:07

you might just hike up there one day and

9:09

then come back down and rest for another day

9:11

or two. The next time you go up you

9:13

might sleep there and then perhaps head

9:15

a little bit higher up to camp two and

9:17

then come back down. So

9:20

it's this constant trying to get your

9:22

body used to the altitude but not

9:24

spend so much time at 7000 plus

9:27

meters that your body starts to break

9:29

down. You become

9:31

weaker and start

9:34

struggling through left of sleep. It's

9:40

exhausting work, but for the

9:42

most part it's a lot of hanging

9:44

around. Everest

9:47

base camp is in large part

9:50

people trying to kill time. They're

9:52

eating as much as possible to keep their

9:54

strength up, walking around to keep their legs

9:57

moving, but they are counting down the

9:59

days in between. between the different trips

10:01

that they will take up the mountain.

10:04

It's pregnant with excitement, but also

10:06

boredom as people wait to

10:09

be able to move out of this place. Strangely,

10:12

this can often be the most

10:14

testing time for climbers. Everest

10:18

is mentally difficult because of the

10:20

enormous amount of time that you

10:22

have to spend waiting. You're

10:25

at base camp for probably the better part of two

10:27

months. 80% of

10:29

that time you are waiting and sitting

10:31

around and resting. That can be

10:33

challenging for a lot of people. You

10:35

spend all of this time training and

10:37

getting in shape and planning, and

10:40

then you have to spend a few weeks doing almost nothing. It's

10:48

a lot of time to think about the

10:50

ascent. A

10:52

lot of time also to dwell

10:54

on all the things that might go

10:56

wrong. In

10:59

particular, whether your body

11:01

will handle the altitude or not.

11:05

For most people that I climbed with, none

11:08

of us had been to that sort of altitude before,

11:10

so there's that unknown that you don't quite know how

11:13

you're going to handle that. It

11:16

didn't help that there had already been an unusually

11:18

high amount of deaths on the mountain

11:20

that year. So

11:25

there are a lot of rumors. We

11:29

knew about a Sherpa who had

11:31

died early in April fixing ropes.

11:34

We had heard rumors of other

11:37

people. There was

11:39

a sense that perhaps there

11:41

was more death than one would typically

11:44

anticipate in any given season.

11:48

In spite of all that, Miles

11:51

is raring to go. For

12:00

me, it was all about wanting to

12:02

move, wanting to get higher, wanting to progress,

12:04

wanting to move forward. Like

12:07

most people at the camp, what worries

12:09

Miles the most isn't the fear

12:11

of what might happen on the mountain, but

12:14

the possibility that he might not even

12:16

get the chance to reach the top.

12:20

There is no accounting for how the weather

12:22

might shift on any given day, and no

12:24

guide is willing to risk the life of

12:27

their clients if the weather decides not to

12:29

play ball. They

12:31

will simply call off the climb and

12:34

order everyone back down the mountain. The

12:40

one all-encompassing concern that I remember is

12:42

just wanting to have the opportunity to

12:45

go to the summit. It

12:47

didn't worry me quite so much if I had

12:49

failed in doing that, but to

12:51

have gone to that much work and money

12:53

and expense, and then having

12:55

the weather misbehave and prevent you from

12:57

even having a chance to go to

12:59

the top. That was

13:02

a far more frightening concern for

13:04

me at that time. After

13:08

six long weeks of waiting, Miles

13:10

and the rest of Missouri's clients get

13:12

the green light to begin the long

13:14

ascent to the summit. From

13:18

here they make their way steadily, first

13:20

to advance base camp at 21,000 feet, then on

13:24

to camp one at 23,000 feet, then camp two at 25,000

13:26

feet, and

13:29

camp three at just over 27,000

13:36

feet. Each

13:43

camp is roughly five hours climb from the

13:45

next, followed by a night of rest

13:47

before continuing on to the next one. At

13:54

camp three, you enter the depth zone,

13:58

the height at which most climbers require oxygen

14:00

to advance any further. You

14:05

are above 8,000 meters, your body

14:07

is starting to die. It's

14:09

not a place you want to spend any time. Dan

14:14

Mazur's climbers travel in two groups.

14:17

The first had already made it to the top

14:19

and were on their way back down when

14:22

Miles and his group arrive at

14:24

Camp 3 in mid-May. Camp

14:30

3 is, even to call it

14:32

a camp, is a bit of an exaggeration. It's

14:35

a series of tents thrown on any

14:38

piece of land that is roughly flat.

14:41

You're not trying to sleep there, you are just trying

14:43

to rest there for a couple of hours. The

14:47

plan is to get what rest

14:49

they can before pushing onto the

14:52

summit, a final 8-12 hour

14:55

hike. Due

14:57

to the altitude and difficulty of the route,

15:00

which includes near vertical climbs and

15:02

a narrow rocky path flanked on

15:04

both sides by sheer 8,000 foot

15:07

drops, the last section is

15:09

by far the hardest part of the

15:11

entire ascent. But

15:14

then, the weather changes. Climb

15:18

leader Dan Mazur delivers the

15:20

sickening news that it will

15:22

be too windy to make it up to the summit. He

15:26

calls off the ascent and

15:28

orders the climbers to return to base camp.

15:35

That was astonishingly disappointing. The

15:38

weather had been stable, it had suddenly turned

15:40

the day that we wanted to go to

15:42

the summit. This was

15:44

what I had feared most. This

15:47

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15:49

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17:37

at base camp, most of the

17:39

climbers and miles as group make

17:41

the decision to return home, but

17:45

miles can't bring himself to do it.

17:49

Together with fellow climber

17:51

Andrew brash, he resolves

17:53

to give it one final go. Me

17:57

and Andrew brash are the two clients

17:59

who decided. that we've spent too much

18:01

time, too much money, we've tried too hard

18:03

to get here. While

18:05

we're here, why not give it another go? Andrew

18:08

and I decided that we were gonna rest for a day or

18:10

two and then head back up the mountain in late May. About

18:14

a week later, after five

18:16

straight days of climbing, Miles

18:18

is back at camp three. It

18:21

is May 25th. The

18:24

same day, unknown to them,

18:27

climber Lincoln Hall had been declared

18:29

dead and left on the mountain.

18:33

We get inside a tent, melt some

18:35

snow for water. We rest,

18:38

we eat as much as possible. Now,

18:42

only four remain. Dan

18:45

Mazur, myself, Andrew

18:48

Brash, a Canadian climber and pretty

18:50

experienced, and Jangbu Sherpa,

18:53

who was assisting. Dan

18:55

had been to the summit of Everest multiple

18:57

times. Dan's a very

18:59

laid back, very funny guy,

19:02

very smart, very well read guy. Andrew

19:05

was a teacher, similarly

19:07

erudite, with a fairly serious

19:09

climbing resume that involved some

19:12

impressive technical roots on high

19:14

Himalayan peaks. Jangbu

19:17

Sherpa had worked with Dan for

19:19

perhaps 10 or 15 years, soft

19:22

spoken, friendly, and

19:24

like many Sherpas, tremendously reliable and

19:27

committed to the work. He

19:29

and Dan had, I think, a deep level of

19:31

trust with one another. The

19:36

team has the place to

19:38

themselves. I

19:40

think we were perhaps the only team anywhere

19:42

above camp one. Everybody else had either gone

19:44

to the summit and gone home or

19:47

has simply had enough and left. From

19:50

here, it will be a straight,

19:52

uninterrupted shot to the summit. With

19:55

the weather looking good, it's hard not

19:57

to feel excited. planning

20:00

the 18 months of tireless

20:02

work to save money and

20:04

the grueling 40 days of

20:06

acclimating. All of it is going

20:08

to pay off. At

20:11

shortly before midnight, Dan Mazur

20:13

tells the team to get their gear

20:15

together. They're going to

20:17

the top. We

20:20

came out of our tents. It

20:22

was an astonishingly calm evening.

20:25

It was the perfect weather.

20:28

And there was nobody else who could impact us. They

20:35

switch on their headlamps and begin

20:37

to climb. There's

20:44

something unusual about climbing or hiking at

20:47

night with a headlamp. It's that

20:49

you tend to stare at your feet. You tend

20:52

to be at home with your own thoughts. You

20:54

tend to look inward versus outward. At

20:57

this elevation, the amount of oxygen

20:59

in the air is 30% that at sea level.

21:03

Even with the benefit of oxygen takes, moving

21:06

up the mountain is slow, an

21:09

exhausting process. Putting

21:11

one foot in front of the other as

21:13

you slowly inch your way closer

21:15

to the summit. Breathing

21:18

four times, move your left foot. Breathe four

21:20

more times, move your right foot. I

21:23

found myself focusing more on what was directly

21:25

in front of me. Checking

21:27

my footing, making sure that my

21:29

crampons were in the right place.

21:32

I remember the wind consistently

21:35

being in my ears, punctuated

21:38

by the crunch of crampons as

21:41

you move them through the ice.

21:44

I was aware that I was in a

21:46

place of astonishing beauty that I would likely

21:48

never see again, but never quite able to

21:50

appreciate it. After

21:53

five hours of climbing, Miles'

21:55

group arrive at the North Ridge.

22:00

and a half feet above sea level, the

22:03

highest people in the world. As

22:06

all climbers know, this is

22:08

the most dangerous part of the climb. The

22:11

evidence is littered all around

22:13

you. When

22:16

we attained the North Ridge, you

22:19

immediately passed by a cave

22:22

which has perennially been known as

22:24

Green Boots Cave because

22:26

there is a body in there

22:28

which has boots, queen

22:30

boots. You're not quite stepping

22:32

over the body but you are

22:34

certainly stepping around it. My

22:37

abiding memory of coming across

22:39

these bodies was of detached

22:41

interest but I could

22:43

not escape the sense in

22:46

this early morning twilight, five

22:49

o'clock in the morning as the summer started

22:51

to rise and these bodies were clad in

22:53

this ethereal sort of darkness.

22:57

I could not escape the sense that one of them was

22:59

going to sit up and look at me. Eventually,

23:03

the sun rises high enough to light

23:05

the way. At that

23:08

point, you can start to look around

23:10

and you have this enormous face falling

23:12

away to your left, the

23:14

north face of Everest is on your right and

23:17

you're walking along the path that is

23:19

perhaps a meter or two wide. There's

23:22

very little looking around because the terrain

23:25

is quite steep. It

23:27

is approaching 7am in the morning, roughly

23:30

12 hours since Lincoln

23:32

Hall was declared dead. The

23:36

sun started coming up, it

23:38

started to be light. You had

23:41

this beautiful morning glow on

23:43

the upper slopes of Everest. I

23:47

could see the summit two or three hours away. I

23:49

felt strong, had plenty of oxygen. My

23:52

team was strong. The weather was

23:54

perfect. The sun was coming up. Nothing

23:58

can get in the way of a us going to the

24:00

summit. And

24:03

the moment that I had that thought, I

24:06

saw this flash of orange. And

24:09

orange is a bizarre color to see at high

24:12

altitude. Miles

24:14

thinks he is looking at a tent, but

24:17

there is simply no way anyone

24:19

would be camping this high up. He

24:23

wonders if he's hallucinating. The

24:26

only folks out there, we hadn't seen other headlamps.

24:29

We knew that there weren't other climbers on the mountain,

24:31

so to see a flash of orange there was very,

24:33

very strange. The others

24:35

have seen it too, but

24:37

there is little point discussing it. You're

24:41

at 8400 meters, no

24:43

one's wasting breath, shouting at each other or

24:45

having a conversation. And

24:48

so they push on. As

24:55

they near the flash of orange, Miles

24:57

soon realizes with astonishment that

25:00

it isn't a tent he is seeing, but

25:03

a man. It's

25:07

this utterly bizarre scene in that we

25:09

don't imagine that anyone can be there. There

25:11

was nobody in high camp, so we know

25:13

nobody is past us in the night. We

25:17

couldn't quite conceive of how there might

25:19

be a person here. We

25:23

had no idea where he had come from. We

25:25

didn't even know if he had come from the north or

25:27

the south side of Everest. The

25:30

man is alone, with no

25:32

sleeping bag, no food or

25:34

water, and no oxygen.

25:38

Despite being at 28,000 feet, 2,000 feet

25:41

high in the death zone, the

25:43

man appears to be just casually sitting on

25:46

the edge of a 10,000 foot

25:48

drop while trying

25:50

to take all of his clothes off. whether

26:00

high altitude was having some sort of effect

26:02

on my mind, because it

26:04

becomes clear this is a man, but he

26:06

is in the process of stripping off his

26:08

clothing as quickly and as much as he

26:10

can. He has a fleece

26:12

that he has opened. He has

26:15

his shirt opened underneath that. He's

26:18

messing around with his sunglasses. As

26:21

we walk closer, he looks up and

26:23

he says, I bet you're surprised to

26:26

see me here. It

26:30

was a correct statement. I

26:32

was. I was very surprised

26:34

to see him there. Despite

26:40

the man's strangely lucid statement,

26:43

it's clear he's removing his

26:45

clothes because he is completely

26:47

delirious. This is

26:49

something that can affect people in very late

26:52

stages of hypothermia. They come to

26:54

believe that they are actually warm and

26:56

they start shedding layers of clothing. It's

26:59

a really, really bad sign. It

27:01

was very clear that we were dealing with somebody who was in

27:04

severe trouble. Dan

27:06

Mazur immediately pulls the man

27:09

away from the ledge and tries

27:11

to talk to him. He

27:13

asks him what he's doing there, but

27:16

the man seems not to know. They

27:19

ask him what his name is. Suddenly,

27:23

a look of surprise

27:25

comes over the man's face as

27:27

though it had only just come to him then. Yes,

27:33

I do know my name. It's

27:35

Lincoln Hall. Incredibly,

27:39

despite being declared dead 12 hours

27:41

before, spending

27:44

an entire night on Everest without

27:46

oxygen, a sleeping bag,

27:48

food or water, Lincoln

27:51

Hall is alive. He

27:53

was astonishingly weak. He had pretty serious

27:56

frostbite on his fingers. He

28:00

hadn't been wearing gloves, but I don't think it

28:03

looked like he had frostbite on the tips of his nose

28:05

and possibly his ears as well. Lincoln

28:08

is shivering badly too and

28:11

keeps saying something about being on a boat

28:13

ride, as if his

28:15

mind is somewhere else completely. Out

28:18

of nowhere, Lincoln announces, I have

28:21

to get off the boat, then suddenly

28:23

launches himself toward the edge of the

28:25

cliff. He

28:27

is inches from toppling over the edge, when

28:30

Dan Mazur hurriedly grabs him and

28:32

pulls him back from the precipice.

28:36

In his delirious state, Lincoln fights

28:38

back, but is eventually subdued

28:41

by Mazur. With

28:43

the help of the others, Mazur succeeds

28:45

in tying Lincoln to the ice to

28:47

stop him from hurting himself. They

28:50

anchor him to the mountain with a snow

28:53

picket that Dan hammers into the ice. He

28:56

was trying to pull himself off that face. He

28:59

had achieved that. He of course would

29:02

have certainly died. Lincoln

29:05

had the strength of about an eight-year-old child

29:07

at that point and possibly the mental acuity

29:09

of one for that stage as well. He

29:12

was not in any position to be untying

29:14

a picket and detaching

29:17

himself from the anchor that Dan had built. Or

29:22

after the break. In-laws

29:26

love them or hate them, you are pretty much stuck

29:28

with them. And when you are a

29:31

ruler in the Middle Ages, that can be a serious

29:33

problem. It might even land you

29:35

dead. I am Dan Jones

29:37

and on season four of This is History,

29:39

I am telling the story of England's weirdest

29:41

King, Henry III. He is

29:43

in way over his head and he

29:46

is surrounded by bloodthirsty relatives with their

29:48

eyes on his throne. To listen, search

29:50

This is History and follow wherever you

29:52

get your podcasts. And

30:00

I'm Leah Prezident. And this is

30:02

Crunchyroll Presents, The Anime Effect.

30:05

We're a new show breaking down the anime and pop

30:07

culture news you care about each and every week. I

30:10

can't think of a better studio to bring something like

30:12

this to life. Yeah, I agree. We're covering all the

30:14

classes. If I don't know a lot about Godzilla, which

30:16

I do, but I'm trying to pretend that I don't.

30:18

Hold it in. And our

30:21

current fave, Lucy must have his

30:23

do. And

30:25

we agree on some things, but

30:27

not on everything. I... I

30:29

remember, what was that? I mean,

30:31

what you're gonna say it, I'll circle back. Listen

30:34

to Crunchyroll Presents, The Anime Effect.

30:36

Every Friday, wherever you get your

30:38

podcasts. And watch full video

30:41

episodes on Crunchyroll or the Crunchyroll YouTube

30:43

channel. With

30:51

Lincoln secure, Miles and

30:53

the rest of the group do what

30:55

they can to improve his condition. They

30:58

get him back into his suit and

31:00

try to put his gloves and hat on. But

31:04

Lincoln just takes it all off again.

31:08

They give him oxygen and water, but

31:11

he seems completely uninterested. Eventually,

31:15

he calms enough to accept keeping

31:17

his clothes on. Just

31:20

then, two other climbers

31:22

approach from below. Perhaps

31:25

20 minutes after we had come

31:27

across Lincoln, two climbers,

31:30

both moving without oxygen, moving

31:32

pretty quickly as well. Whatever

31:35

the reason was, they muttered

31:37

a cursory greeting and

31:39

moved quickly on their way up past

31:42

us. They wouldn't have been nearest for

31:44

more than five or ten seconds. It

31:47

is a harsh lesson about just what

31:49

getting to the summit of Everest means

31:51

to some people. My

31:54

memory at the time was being

31:56

very surprised that they had not

31:58

stopped and... offered to assist.

32:02

I found it very difficult to comprehend

32:04

how that was the case. On

32:09

their own again, the group discusses

32:11

their options. At

32:15

this point there is still time to

32:17

get to the summit, but everything hinged

32:19

on Lincoln. At that

32:22

altitude it is simply too dangerous

32:24

to carry someone down. The

32:27

only way he would be getting off the mountain

32:30

was if he could somehow find the strength

32:32

to get back on his feet and walk

32:34

down. The sad

32:38

reality hits them all, that

32:40

if Lincoln doesn't get well enough they will

32:42

have to leave him here to die. There

32:50

wasn't much that we could do for him as

32:52

far as moving him. You

32:54

don't have the ability to lower them as

32:56

you would on the south side of Everest,

32:59

to use gravity to assist you. So

33:01

if somebody is not able to walk, they

33:04

probably aren't going to get off the

33:06

mountain. Our

33:08

thinking was to try to get

33:11

him warm, try to give him food and

33:13

warm fluid, and to try to get his

33:15

strength to a point that he would at

33:18

least be able to stand. Next,

33:21

Dan gets on the team's radio

33:23

and contacts the team's chef who

33:25

is down at Advanced Base Camp.

33:28

He tells him to wake up anyone who

33:31

knows Lincoln Hall. Eventually,

33:34

the message is relayed to

33:36

Alex Abramov, the man

33:38

who led Lincoln's expedition to the

33:40

summit. Abramov

33:43

is absolutely astonished to hear

33:45

that Lincoln is still alive.

33:48

He promises to see if he can

33:50

get someone to come up and help.

33:56

Then the radio's battery dies.

34:00

Miles and the others can only wait, doing

34:03

everything they can to help Lincoln

34:05

stay warm and safe on the

34:07

mountainside, in the hope that

34:09

help will arrive in time. Under

34:13

the bright, gigantic sky, Miles

34:15

can almost touch the summit. Only

34:18

two hours climb away. For

34:22

that first hour or two, I think Andrew

34:24

and I were probably still hopeful that there

34:27

may be some folks from his team lower

34:29

down on the mountains who might be able

34:31

to get that quite quickly to help him.

34:34

For Miles and Andrew, it's

34:37

now or never. We

34:40

were at the very back end of the weather window

34:42

that we needed to be able to go to the

34:44

top. We had already been

34:46

to 8,000 meters twice within

34:48

the past week. Base

34:51

camp was closing up for the season and

34:53

our time on that expedition was over. That

34:56

was most certainly the last shot that we would have at that

34:58

point. As

35:01

the clock ticks on, their window

35:03

from making it to the summit

35:05

steadily closes. As

35:08

the clock wound on to 10, 11 o'clock,

35:10

it became clear that there was going to

35:12

be no opportunity to go to the summit

35:14

because the weather tended to get bad early

35:17

in the afternoon. There

35:19

isn't for a moment any question about

35:21

what the priority is. While

35:25

watching his chances slip away, second

35:27

by second, so close to

35:29

the top of the world, it's

35:31

hard to take for Miles. I

35:35

distinctly remember an overwhelming

35:38

sense of enormous disappointment

35:41

because this is something that

35:44

you have worked for and trained for. In

35:47

that moment, it was very hard

35:49

to see a bigger picture that in

35:51

fact the summit is completely

35:53

irrelevant when a man's life is

35:55

on the line. I

35:57

think at that exact moment I did not have that.

36:00

Eventually,

36:03

after five hours of keeping Lincoln alive,

36:06

Miles spots two climbers approaching from

36:08

below. Two

36:11

Sherpas, colleagues of Alex

36:13

Abramov. We

36:18

spent probably five hours with

36:20

Lincoln and we were thrilled

36:23

to see a rescue team

36:25

of Sherpas moving very rapidly up

36:27

from high camp. I

36:30

believe they may have come from Camp 1, possibly

36:32

Camp 2. They were the

36:34

only way realistically that Lincoln was going to

36:37

get off the mountain. Once

36:40

this team was there, and

36:42

these folks are of course far

36:44

stronger than anyone on our team and far

36:47

more capable of moving Lincoln off the mountain,

36:50

at that stage, I had no

36:52

doubt that he would get down at that point. With

36:56

Lincoln now in the capable hands of

36:58

the Sherpas, it's time

37:00

for Miles to leave. There

37:03

was no reason for us to remain there. It

37:06

was too late in the day to go to the summit. We

37:09

certainly couldn't offer any assistance to

37:11

these quite extraordinary Sherpas beyond what

37:14

they could do on their own. So at that point,

37:16

we headed down to Camp 3 and then ended up

37:18

going all the way down to the Advanced Base Camp

37:20

that night. With

37:23

each step, the summit recedes

37:25

further and further behind them

37:28

until eventually it disappears into

37:30

the clouds. I

37:33

remember very distinctly my thoughts turned

37:35

inward and I remember this

37:38

extraordinary feeling of disappointment

37:41

and of failure for not

37:44

making it to the top of this mountain. That

37:47

was a goal that I had been so focused on. To

37:52

be able to go to all the fundraising

37:54

and working multiple jobs and earning money to

37:56

get there and then all of the training

37:58

and being on the mountain for two months

38:00

in order to be able to achieve all of those

38:02

things. This is something

38:04

that I had

38:06

become quite fixated on. You

38:08

go to the summit or you don't, and not

38:11

a lot of gray areas in between that. It

38:14

was something that was tremendously

38:16

consuming. It was really

38:21

quite a devastating feeling

38:23

to have been so close and not gone

38:25

to the summit. For

38:28

a few days there, I did

38:30

not have the perspective of understanding

38:32

that, in fact,

38:34

the summit was entirely

38:36

irrelevant. The fact that Lincoln survived

38:38

was the important thing. I

38:41

remember passing a tourist who was

38:44

hiking up above base camp a

38:46

little bit. We were just about

38:48

the only people left on the mountain at that

38:50

point. He looked at me and he was a

38:52

Chinese tourist. He said, summit. He smiled and he

38:54

put his thumbs up. It was a question. I

38:57

said, no. He just looked really disappointed and he looked

38:59

down at the ground and he kept walking. That

39:02

image stuck with me because it was how

39:04

I felt at that time. It was that

39:07

nothing else mattered but with the fact that I had not gone

39:09

to the top of this mountain. It

39:12

took me days to get to that perspective to

39:14

realize that, in fact, the summit was entirely irrelevant.

39:18

In an incredible act of selfless endurance

39:21

from the Sherpas, Lincoln

39:23

Hall is cajoled and inched

39:25

back down the mountain, stumbling

39:27

step by step. A

39:30

few hours later, at camp three, he

39:33

is met by more Sherpas who join in

39:35

with helping him down. From

39:38

there, an exhausted and still delirious hall

39:40

is helped all the way back down

39:42

to camp one, where he is

39:44

treated by a doctor. Despite

39:48

showing signs of cerebral edema

39:50

and significant frostbite, incredibly,

39:53

he is found to be in relatively

39:55

good health. After

39:59

that, He is placed on the back of

40:01

a yak and carried the rest

40:03

of the way down. A

40:09

short time later, Lincoln's wife and

40:11

children receive a second phone call

40:13

to tell them that Lincoln was in

40:16

fact not dead at all. As

40:19

it transpired, one of Lincoln's

40:21

associates on the climb with him, Thomas

40:23

Weber, was not so

40:26

fortunate. He collapsed shortly

40:28

before Lincoln and died on the mountain.

40:30

11 climbers

40:33

died that year trying to summit

40:35

Mount Everest, the

40:37

second highest fatality rate in history

40:39

at that time. Having

40:46

made it to base camp the day before

40:48

Lincoln, after a night of rest, Miles

40:51

has no desire to hang around. As

40:54

soon as we got to base camp, we

40:57

quickly packed up and left. And headed

40:59

back to Nepal. For

41:02

the next few days, Miles and

41:05

the others from Dammazur's group let

41:07

off some steam in Nepal. Then

41:10

one night, he receives an

41:12

unexpected visitor. I

41:15

had spent a very late night at the casino with

41:17

one of the other climbers and we'd had a few

41:20

beers and we'd had some fun. Then

41:22

I got a knock on the door

41:25

at 7 am and they said, there's

41:27

a guy downstairs to see you. I

41:29

didn't know anyone in Kathmandu so I didn't really

41:31

understand what was going on. And

41:34

it was Lincoln. Came

41:37

over and he said, look, I wanted to try

41:39

and grab you before I left. So

41:41

I just wanted to say thank you. Despite

41:45

losing a toe and

41:47

six fingertips to frostbite, Lincoln

41:50

made a full recovery and continued

41:52

to climb. Two

41:55

years later, he published a book

41:57

about his experience. Miles

42:00

to join him for its release. It

42:04

was an honor to be there for his book

42:06

launch, to talk to the guy a

42:08

little bit more who I'd met that day on the mountain,

42:11

to find out and meet this person

42:13

with a irreverent and very sort of

42:15

dad jokey sense of humor. It

42:17

was a very important

42:20

reminder that some of the

42:22

decisions that we make in the

42:24

heat of the moment in challenging

42:27

circumstances are of

42:29

course decisions that have long term

42:31

repercussions on people and their families.

42:34

I met his family. It was

42:36

the moment that was extremely touching. It was

42:39

poignant. It's a pretty

42:41

extraordinary experience to meet the wife of somebody

42:43

who thinks that her husband had died and

42:45

you in some small way have played a

42:47

role in the fact that he's been able

42:49

to come back. I

42:52

stayed a little bit at his house down

42:54

the Blue Mountains. We hiked together. And

42:59

that was in fact the last time that I would

43:01

see him. In

43:08

2011, Hall was

43:10

diagnosed with mesothelioma, a

43:12

cancer commonly caused by asbestos. It

43:16

is thought Lincoln was unwittingly exposed to this

43:18

substance back when he was a child, helping

43:21

his father to build two cubby houses on

43:23

the property where he grew up. He

43:26

died the following year at age of 56. Today,

43:31

Miles continues to live and work

43:34

in America. And

43:36

though he also continues to climb,

43:38

he has no ambitions to return

43:40

to Everest. You've

43:54

been listening to Rescue with Donnie Dust. Rescue

43:57

is a Sony Music Entertainment production. Thanks

44:00

to all the contributors for sharing their story with

44:02

us. Rescue is produced by

44:04

Richard McClain Smith. The

44:06

executive producer is Louisa Field.

44:09

The junior producer is Martha Miller.

44:12

Scoring and sound design by Gulliver

44:14

Tickle. Music composed by

44:16

Eleni Hassabis. The production coordinator

44:19

is Lily Hamblee. The production

44:21

manager is Kat Moran.

44:24

Homes to Jez Nelson, Chris

44:26

Skinner, and Julia Stevenson. If

44:29

you like this podcast, then do

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check out other Sony podcasts.