Do people have the right to put themselves at risk?

Mount Everest is one of the tallest mountains in the world and many people over the past 60 years have tried to climb it, some losing their lives in the process. There are over 150 dead bodies that are still on the mountain today. Alan Arnette, who is a mountaineer who has climbed everest four times said, “The body of one climber who died in 1996 still lies next to the trail on the north side and is used as a landmark identified by the green boots he is still wearing.” (Moreau 25) Despite the risk of climbing Everest people continue to attempt the climb, forcing rescue services to get involved. This is a waste of rescue service resources as they have to go on rescue missions the could’ve avoided.

People put themselves in dangerous situations making more rangers risk their lives to save them. In one instance a ranger was preparing a group of climbers who got stuck in a crevasse on Mt. Rainier. “As Hall, 34, was preparing some of the climbers for helicopter evacuation at 4:59 p.m., he fell down the mountain’s northeast side from the 13,700-foot level” (Ranger killed). On the Grossglockner (Austria’s tallest mountain) a rescue helicopter went out and as the patient was put on, the weight was imbalanced and the helicopter fell just a few feet from the cliff’s edge. "Amazingly, the pilot, flight rescuer and the patient were all unharmed in the crash - and the paramedic on board suffered only minor injuries. If the helicopter crashed just a few feet away, it could have tumbled hundreds of feet down a steep cliff” (Dramatic moment). This is not fair for the rescue services to risk their lives for people who knowingly put themselves in danger.

In addition to putting rangers in harm's way, rescue operations are very expensive. Nick Heil, a Senior Editor of the Outside magazine, stated that helicopters are privately owned and cost quite a bit of money. “I mean, these machines, the B3s, cost about $2 million apiece, and they're quite expensive to operate” (Heil 24). At Austria’s tallest mountain, Grossglockner, a man made it to the top of the mountain only to have a heart attack when he got there. As the rescuers put the patient on the helicopter a huge gust of wind reaching 40 miles per hour spun them out of control and they crashed. Luckily, no one was killed in the crash but the damage to the helicopter was very costly. Roy Knaus, flight operator and owner of the rescue helicopter said that, “such rescue missions are never without risks” (Dramatic moment). There is just too many things to risk in these rescue missions.

As well as the risks for the rescuers and the helicopters, there are still many risks for the climbers themselves. Nick Heil explained that some inexperienced climbers might feel a false sense of security as they start to climb the mountaintop, having the safety net of a helicopter ready if they need it. Even though most expert climbers will be quick to push aside the fact of the safety net’s influence, it is difficult to think they haven’t thought of the rescue helicopter’s (Heil 23). Another risk for climbers is that climbing season is very short, at most 2 months long, and many people want to climb the mountains during that time. This can causes many people getting stuck in the same spot, and it can sometimes be deadly. This also applies to the rescuers because as more people get stuck in the ‘death zone’ and use up their supplies of oxygen, more rescue teams have to be on the job ready to go save someone at extremely high altitudes. “They may have faced bad weather, and they have struggled up the icy slopes of the ‘death zone.’ This is the part of the climb above 26,247 feet, where the final camp before the summit is located. A person cannot survive in this zone for more than two days because of the lack of oxygen and the extreme temperatures” (Moreau 26). I understand many of the reasons why these people would want to climb Everest, the world’s tallest mountain. But they must understand the huge amount of risk their are putting on top of themselves, and that the worth of climbing the mountain is insignificant compared your own safety.

People may argue rescue services choose this job and that it comes with many risks, including dangerous helicopter rescues. While this is true, they should not have to go on unnecessary missions instead of going on missions that are serious. The rescuers have to go on missions that cannot be avoided, rather than going on missions that should’ve been avoided. More people have started to take on hard tasks where they can possibly die, and make the rescuers come and risk their lives. Nick Heil explains how many helicopters there would be at Mount Everest at any given time, “What I'm hearing now is that at the peak of the climbing season, you might see as many as four or five helicopter flights into Everest base camp in a given day” (23). This increase of people wanting to conquer Everest has let to having more helicopter rescue teams flying around making sure everyone is safe, endangering themselves in the process.

Works Cited

Dramatic moment a rescue helicopter trying to save a mountaineer having a heart attack

crashes near the snowy summit of Austria's highest mountain just feet away from cliff edge.

Daily Mail, 3 August 2017. Web. 14 November 2017.

Heil, Nick. Helicopter Rescues Increasing On Everest. Interviewed by Robert Siegel. 23

May 2012. Print.

Moreau, Guy. “Why Everest?” Performance Assessment, 2017. pp. 25-27. Print

“Ranger killed on Mount Rainier.” Seattle Times, 22 June 2012, p. 28-29. Print