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Everest hero slams modern climbers 27-May-2006 At 9:43:14 PM tmarsh

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The fact that Lincoln Hall has been found alive after having been pronounced 'dead' by members of his own expedition makes me wonder just how 'dead' the poor English climber - David Sharp - was when he was written off by the 40 or so people who walked past him. Perhaps pronouncements of death should be left to the doctors back at advanced base camp rather than being left to guides with $300,000 worth of paying clinets short-roped to them.

I have no doubt that 8500 meters is an incredibly harsh place to be trying to make any kind of moral or ethical decision, particularly when your own life is in peril. But the fact that people have paid a small fortune to be up there, or are responsible for said paying customers can only further swing the moral compass off course.

Perhaps Edmund Hllary's comments are naive and are relics of another era. But if they are, they are still relevant in that they show you what the attitude at altitude might be like had Everest not become a key performance indicator for cashed up yuppies.