Cleo Weidlich reached the summit of 28,169-foot (8,586-meter) Kangchenjunga on the morning of May 20, becoming the first American woman to climb the world's third highest mountain. After summitting, however, Weidlich almost died on the descent, which led to this year's most bizarre mountaineering story.
On her descent, Weidlich began losing her vision and also injured her right knee by rupturing the parallel ligament at 27,890 feet. She was able to descend to her highest camp at 24,600 feet with three Sherpas. Cleo complained the next morning of pressure on her eyes, which coupled with irrational behavior and refusing to use oxygen or take drugs indicated that she suffered from cerebral edema. She started descending with the Sherpas.
As she descended, expedition leader Mingma Sherpa used her satellite phone to request a helicopter evacuation but it was determined that Cleo needed to get down to Camp 3 at 22,950 feet. She was then given a shot of dexamethasone to help the cerebral edema. Irish climber Anselm Murphy, who had been aiding her, descended to Camp 3 to find a landing site.
Anselm wrote on his blog, "I was extremely slow when I arrived, which I attributed primarily to dehydration so I borrowed a stove from Pawel Michalski and started melting ice.... As I as doing this the weather changed and visibility became very poor, so the helicopter rescue was definitely off for that day." Almost 30 climbers, who had summitted the previous day, departed Camp 3, including several Sherpas who "seemed primarily concerned with clearing the camp of gear - tents, oxygen, other equipment."
Murphy and Ted Atkins stayed behind to help Cleo but were worried that the Sherpas would leave nothing to aid their efforts. The Sherpas were taking partially used oxygen bottles down, which Murphy and Atkins thought were essential for Cleo's survival. Murphy reports, "We met with strong resistance from the Sherpas when we requested they leave behind some oxygen."
And then the circumstances began to get very strange. The pair found a Sherpa with a full bottle of oxygen and asked to use it, offering a full bottle at Camp 2 in exchange. Murphy writes, "Unbelievably, and with a woman's life in danger, he refused to let us have the oxygen unless we paid him $400 (normal price $280). Even more unbelievably, it later transpired that this was not even his oxygen to sell as he claimed, but belonged to his client, who had already descended. With no choice, Ted and I agreed to pay him at basecamp."
When Murphy and Atkins were the only climbers left at Camp 3, one of Cleo's Sherpas arrived and said that they had put up a tent 300 feet above the camp, thinking it was a better spot for a helicopter evacuation. He came down to get food and gas canisters for melting snow, which it turns out was never done. He also reluctantly carried oxygen up to Cleo but returned two hours later, saying that she refused to use it, a claim she later disputed.
The next morning Murphy and Atkins climbed to Cleo's tent, finding two Sherpas outside and one inside the tent. "I squeezed into the tent, which was empty of all gear, and found Cleo sitting there. She said the young Sherpa had been telling her that she was going to get them all killed. He seemed to be scared and have cracked. Cleo told me she had not been given food or water so I provided her with what little I had on me." Atkins gave her another shot of dexamethasone and descended back to Camp 3 to pack while Murphy and the Sherpas helped her down. Murphy wrote, "I was not convinced the Sherpas were taking the best care of her."
As they prepared to descend, a rescue helicopter flew by but was unable to land after circling a couple times. It then disappeared. Murphy wrote, "My heart sank and I felt like I was going to cry. To think that everything is going to be OK, then have it fall apart in a matter of minutes was unbelievably depressing."
The group started down, with Cleo following Murphy's tracks in the snow. She was able to use her figure-8 descender to make three rappels down a serac or glacial ice cliff to Camp 3. The Sherpas were eager to continue descending so Atkins and Murphy asked them to take Cleo with them while they packed up all of their gear. The pair began descending an hour and a half later with massive loads.
Murphy writes about the next strange incident: "After I had been descending for only about five minutes, I got to a snow slope that was not equipped with any fixed rope. If you fell on this slope and were not able to arrest the fall, you would slide off the edge of a serac and plummet to the glacier below. In the distance below me I saw a figure laying motionless in the snow. As I got closer I was shocked to see that it was Cleo. She was face down in the snow, facing downhill. I climbed down to her and found she was unconscious. How the hell has this happened?"
She had been abandoned by the Sherpas. "If we had not found her, I believe she would have died."
Murphy revived her and cleared her oxygen mask which was partially blocked with snow and doubled the flow rate. "After a couple of minutes she was calmed down and in a better state." Atkins and Murphy then struggled to get Weidlich down steep avalanche-prone snow slopes to Camp 2, arriving in a snowstorm to find that all the tents and gear had been removed by Sherpas. They did, however, find one of Cleo's Sherpas there, "not moving and acting a bit strangely."
"I repeatedly asked him why he had left Cleo, and initially he simply would not answer the question. Eventually he said that Cleo told him to leave. When later questioned about this, Cleo says she has no recollection of telling them to leave. Again, I believe it is possible that this happened, and that being sick Cleo can't remember. Even if this is the case, it I think it is a very poor excuse. These people were paid to help Cleo and should not have left her alone. She was sick with cerebral edema, had poor vision and an injured leg. If she told them to go they should have ignored her and stayed."
The trio spent the night at Camp 2 at 6,400 meters, eating a candy bar each and a handful of peanuts. Cleo felt much better at the lower altitude. The next morning, two Sherpas brought up sandwiches "and the news that a helicopter was on its way." It arrived an hour later and transported Cleo to safety. This should be the end of what is already a disheartening story but one last strange episode remains.
After descending to Base Camp, Murphy told the other climbers there what had happened on the mountain. Romanian climber Alex Gavan, from another expedition, "was particularly outraged by what had happened." Alex loudly complained about the events and at dinner that night the "profiteering Sherpa who had sold Ted and I the oxygen bottle politely asked Alex for a word with him." He led Alex to the kitchen tent where most of the other Sherpas were and, writes Murphy, "started to angrily question Alex about why he had been saying that he should not get a bonus... The young Sherpa and the profiteering one then both started to attack Alex, hitting him in the head. Alex's climbing partner, Pawel Michalski, had sensed something was wrong and had gone to investigate. When he saw this happening he picked up an axe that was lying outside the kitchen tent and went to help Alex. When the Sherpas saw the axe it caused a massive uproar that everyone in the dining tent (including me) heard. Everyone rushed over to see what was going on and this broke up the melee."
Mingma Sherpa, the head Sherpa, smoothed things over and explained to Murphy that the Sherpas "were very angry about the existence of my picture of Cleo abandoned in the snow" amd that the Sherpas "believe that Cleo and I 'staged' the photo. This accusation obviously angers and upsets me."
The good news is that Cleo has recovered her eyesight and will have repairs made on her knee when she returns to California. It will be interesting to see what comes of this psycho-drama on Kangchenjunga.
Photographs above: (Top) Cleo Weidlich lying unconscious in the snow after being abandoned by her Sherpas. (Bottom) Kangchenjunga is the third highest mountain in the world. Photographs courtesy Anselm Murphy and Getty Images.
Comments
This is only one compelling reason why expedition-style climbing needs to be abolished in favour of light, alpine-style ascents without support by Sherpas.
I have no desire to ever pay someone to carry my equipment up the mountain for me. As far as I’m concerned, if you and your partner(s) aren’t physically, mentally and experiencially in a position to safely pursue your objective, you should choose something less demanding.
For me this is a matter of being personally responsible for my own actions (including the choosing of my mountaineering companions) in addition to the sensation of feeling of competence, independence and satisfaction I get from pursuing and achieving a goal on my own terms. If you’re paying someone, be it a guide or a porter sherpa, you’re relying on a stranger to make up for your own shortcomings.
This may very well mean that I never summit a K2 or an Everest because I’ll never be the caliber of climber that can expect to summit those peaks without the help of a professional helper. I’m okay with that. Everest has become such a tourist attraction for those garbage rich enough to pay someone to hold their hand up the mountain that it is literally strewn with litter (8 tons of trash removed at one attempt of cleaning it, for instance). The climbers I know pack out every ounce of refuse they bring in, bodily or otherwise.
As an American living in a developing country, it doesn’t surprise me that sherpas would take advantage of an emergency situation. They are likely supporting family and extended family in a part of the world where human life is significantly less valuable than it is in the West. Carrying heavy equipment for demanding clients in a demanding environment is not likely to engender compassion towards the client. The man probably just saw it as an opportunity to not have to risk his life again at his dangerous job for a while. Is that immoral? Absolutely. Is it something that could be avoided by people refraining from paying their way up the mountain? Absolutely.
This story really irritates me. This is a classic story of an entitled garbage rich American doing something they SHOULDN’T be doing and in effect risking everyone else lives in the process and then wining and crying about it when other people don’t want to get themselves killed.
Rich Everest tourists take advantage of these Sherpas ALL the time. They expect the Sherpa to hold their hand and carry them up the hill. And then they expect the Sherpas to sacrifice THEIR lives to keep these incompetent tourists alive.
Because Rich Entitled American lives are soooo much more valuable then the poor 3rd class Sherpa lives. *roll eyes*
I totally defend what the Sherpas did in this instance. When you go to Everest don’t expect to be babied. It’s a all men for themselfs up there.
It’s a known fact that when you go down on the mountain you can’t expect people to carry you down. When that happens EVERYONE could die including you. It’s selfish.
When you sign up for Everest You should know what risks you are taking, and expect that, yes, you could die. It should be your responsibility to take care of yourself and your responsibility to accept the risks that you signed up for. Yes including DEATH.
No one forced her to go to Everest. Why should she force other people to risk their lives for her incompetence? It was HER choice. Live with it.
Oh and when it come to his oxygen tank. Why should the Sherpa have to give her his tank?
And I think 400$ is a fair price when you consider the base cost of the tank and then the cost of his labor of hauling the tank up the mountain in the first place. And it’s not like the rich American can’t afford it!
proud of Your behaviour, and that Polish guy, too.
Just an American from California agreeing with Splvoe’s comment and adding to the last sentence, …it was HER choice. Live with it. Or Die with it. Additionally it is no one’s duty to die with someone that has no motivation or drive to survive a high altitude ordeal such as this!!
Altitude messes with everyone’s heads. The thing that most ruffles my feathers about this story is the fact that it really paints a ‘white man vs Sherpa’ story, and doesnt offer other possible explanations for this behavior, such as Sherpas themselves having altitude sickness.
Nice one, Benny. Here’s an idea — we all start climbing alpine style, no support, and the Sherpas can find something else to do, like weave rugs for 5 cents a day. Some people sell everything they have to climb in the Himalaya. This “rich white American” drivel is worn out, brosefs. Not buying it. Those Sherpas who risked this woman’s life should be banned from this great mountain. The first comment is spot on… name sounds familiar, not sure why. Bolzano grappa salesman? No, that’s not it.. hmmm.
Sherpalve, with regards to your comments about the oxygen tank:
“Why should the Sherpa have to give her his tank?”
He was not using the oxygen, he was just carrying it down. A woman needed it to survive, so obviously the decent thing to do would be to let her use it.
Secondly, as the story says, he was offered a replacement bottle from the next camp down, (where he was headed) so he would not have lost anything.
Thirdly, as stated, the price he asked was much more than it’s true value.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, this bottle as it turns out did not even belong to him so he had no right to attempt to sell it and keep the money for himself.
The old days of Sherpas loyally serving the (mem)sahibs is long gone. Now it is all about money and how to milk the maximum amount out of the clients. Did you know that guides in Nepal actually hurry their clients up too fast, because they get 15-20% commissions from the helicopter rescues? The health and life of the client is of no consequence, easy money from one rescue equaling more than the local annual salary is enough incentive to forget all ethics.
sherpas are not the most intelligent persons. greed is a driving force among many of them. that greed and selfishness is a product of poverty in napal and their culture. if sherpa guides do not care for their clients , let them go back to very phesant lives in the villages.
climbing has been the only factor raising living standards in many nepal villages,
be appreciative, not greedy and uncaring.. cheersa! ron…….
That last comment is pure racist garbage. I know Sherpas and other Nepalis, and while many have had limited educational opportunity, you cannot question their intelligence. Furthermore, Sherpa culture is based on Buddhism, which puts compassion foremost, and if followed seriously, forms a code of ethics that is unmatched in the West. What we see here is an erosion of this culture, not a manifestation of it.
Having trekked in Nepal twice now, I’ve always been impressed with the dedication of the Sherpas to taking care of their clients when in need. Both of my trips involved medical/rescue situations where the abilities and dedication of the Sherpas was important
Which makes this situation very troubling to me. I haven’t read anything about the Sherpas with Cleo having altitude sickness during her rescue, nor have I seen anything that indicates they were at any risk beyond spending additional time at altitude. Their job is to escort their client and assist them whenever needed, without putting themselves at undue risk.
I agree with the statement that the Sherpas who abandoned Cleo should not be allowed to continue as climbing Sherpas in the future. If they aren’t there to assist their clients, than they shouldn’t be there at all.
I hope this isn’t a dilution of the strong religeous and work ethic this fine people have always had.
“When you sign up for Everest You should know what risks you are taking”……”No one forced her to go to Everest”…… What the heck are you people talking about? This was not Mt. Everest. (She climbed that successfully last year.) She is not an inexperienced, rich American who expects sherpas to carry her to the top of mountains. She is an experienced climber (which you would have known if you had taken two minutes to do a simple Google search!). Even the top climbers hire sherpas to help them and even the top climbers sometimes run into trouble. Oh that’s right…..they’re men so it’s ok. She’s a woman (and an American) so she must automatically be a rich snob. I’m sure you have read many books on climbing but that does not give you the right to berate a woman who has the guts to climb such insignificant hills as Manaslu, Everest, Lhotse, Aconcagua and others. Before you criticize, insult and attempt to belittle a person you should check your facts.
I met Cleo in Chamonix while she was climbing here in the Alps. I can’t believe what I’m reading here… Cleo is a highly experienced climber in rock, ice, snow and mixed terrain. Something must have gone terribly wrong on Kangchenjunga. The heli pilots, 3 Swiss pilots from Air Zermatt trained in high altitude rescue and wilderness medicine using a Fishtail heli were called and tried for two days to get to Cleo, said that on the first attempt they failed, then overnighted on nearby Taplejung, early in the morning tried again and were successful. They rescued her from C2 and gave an interview to the Basel newspaper upon their arrival home. They said they were very proud of her courage and toughness to descend a mountain this dangerous on her own and even snow blind she was not being carried down. She was only directed or guided down from C3 to C2 by the Irish men. She did her own rappels even though she was blind, and she downclimbed from the summit to C2 without being carried with lateral knee ligaments + ACL torn, and her meniscus destroyed! Can you guys envision being that tough????
I am glad she made it down in the end.
I have never been to high altitude but I dont see anything wrong with employing people as long as their wages and what is expected of them is fair. We all need to work. I have employed guides in the alps and instructors in the UK and these people have been glad of the work, its their job and they were good at it. I have learned alot from them and this has enabled me to use those skills independently.
I would hope that Sherpas will also be paid a fair rate and for that I would expect them to do their job to a reasnoble standard.
Selling something that does not belong to you is fraud.
If these sherpas did not behave in a reasnoble manner then the damage to their reputation may cost them more in the end.
The style in which an individual wishes to climb is up to them and it is not for others to dictate how they should do this, what is right for one is not right for another. As long as the style is reported honestly why does anyone in this world think they have the right to force their ways on others.
At the end of the day if an “Alpine style” was adopted and the “expedition style” abolished,then there would be far less “tourists” on these mountains getting themselves in to trouble.
Expedition style climbing is similar to “chipping”it allows less able climbers to make false claims to thier level of achievments.
If a guide or sherpa gets you up Everest then that is thier achievment not your own.