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Everest climber skips summit, rescues friend; A Heart-Warming Tale
Topic Started: May 25 2012, 08:29 PM (221 Views)
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Let's have a good story to start out Memorial Day weekend!

Everest climber skips summit, rescues friend

An Israeli who rescued a distressed climber on Mount Everest instead of pushing onward to the summit said Friday that the man he helped, an American of Turkish origin, is like a brother to him.

Nadav Ben-Yehuda, who was climbing with a Sherpa guide, came across Aydin Irmak near the summit last weekend. In that chaotic period, four climbers died on their way down from the summit amid a traffic jam of more than 200 people who were rushing to reach the world's highest peak as the weather deteriorated.

In a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Ben-Yehuda, 24, appeared proud that Irmak, 46, had made it to the summit, noting that he is one of a small number of "Turkish" climbers to reach the top. Irmak left Turkey for New York more than two decades ago, but remains proud of his Turkish heritage. The friendship stands in contrast to the political tension between Turkey and Israel, which were once firm allies.

"Aydin, wake up! Wake up!" Ben-Yehuda recalled saying when he found his friend in the darkness. The American, he said, had been returning from the summit but collapsed in the extreme conditions, without an oxygen supply, a flashlight and a rucksack. Ben-Yehuda, who developed a friendship with Irmak before the climb, had delayed his own ascent by a day in hopes of avoiding the bottleneck of climbers heading for the top.

There have been periodic tales of people bypassing stricken climbers as they seek to fulfill a lifelong dream and reach the summit of Everest, but Ben-Yehuda said his decision to abandon his goal of reaching the top and help Irmak was "automatic," even though it took him several minutes to recognize his pale, gaunt friend.

"I just told myself, `This is crazy.' It just blew my mind," Ben-Yehuda said. "I didn't realize he was up there the whole time. Everybody thought he had already descended."

The Israeli carried Irmak for hours to a camp at lower elevation. Both suffered frostbite and some of their fingers were at risk of amputation. Ben-Yehuda lost 20 kilograms (44 pounds) in his time on the mountain, and Irmak lost 12 kilograms (26 pounds), said Hanan Goder, Israel's ambassador in Nepal. Goder had dinner with the pair after their ordeal.

"They really have to recover mentally and physically," Goder said. "They call each other, `my brother.' After the event that they had together, their souls are really linked together now."...snipped

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/05/25/international/i024637D33.DTL&tsp=1
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Well, it is good that this man saved his friend. It's a nice story, but 4 other people died because they ran out of oxygen. And there's another traffic jam up there today.

Sorry to be a wet blanket on this one. Mountain climbing, especially in search of the Everest experience, just seems to me to be a very egocentric obsession.
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Baldo
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May 25 2012, 10:57 PM
Well, it is good that this man saved his friend. It's a nice story, but 4 other people died because they ran out of oxygen. And there's another traffic jam up there today.

Sorry to be a wet blanket on this one. Mountain climbing, especially in search of the Everest experience, just seems to me to be a very egocentric obsession.
I agree that climbing Mt. Everest isn't my goal in life. Too many have died doing what has already been done many times over. I will just watch Neo Geo instead.

However it is good to see that friendship & compassion ruled over personal achievement. That is one summit we all should continue to climb.
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kbp

It does seem like a challenege to conquer for those that have something similar to a death wish, to flirt with it and beat it.
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