Why Did The Bad Samaritan Climb The Mountain?

Have you heard about this? Climbers going up Mt. Everest passed a man suffering from oxygen deprevation and just left him to die because they didn't want to be hindered in reaching the summit themselves. Hey, it costs a lot of money to mount Mt. Everest and you can't just throw that away. From the Globe and Mail:

The death of a Briton on Everest has roiled the mountaineering world and sparked accusations of inhumanity against the dozens of fellow climbers believed to have passed him as he struggled to survive.

David Sharp died, apparently of oxygen deficiency, while descending from the summit during a solo climb last week. More than 40 climbers are thought to have seen him as he lay dying, and almost all continued to the summit without offering assistance.

Yep, just walked right on by. Oh they've got plenty of excuses. It would be risking one's own life to stop and try to help. He was too far gone anyway, there was no point in wasting the effort. Oh me? I couldn't have helped him I'm far too inexperienced to have rendered assistance.

Toronto's Urszula Tokarska, who reached the top of Everest last summer said that it was "sad and disheartening," and "It doesn't reflect well on climbers, but we can't judge them..." Disheartening she said. Yeah, God forbid the mountain climbing enthusiasts get disheartened.

The President of the Alpine Club of Canada, Cam Roe, "would like to think" he would help in such a situation, but he's not sure, and "Those are very hard choices and it's not something to Monday-morning quarterback..." Wouldn't you just love to have to depend on him for something? Maybe he'd help, maybe he wouldn't.

Mark Inglis, a double-amputee from New Zealand, said his party stopped and radioed base camp before continuing to climb. Said Inglis, "I walked past David but only because there were far more experienced and effective people than myself to help him...," and "It was a phenomenally extreme environment; it was an incredibly cold day." A "cold day" is an understatement Mark.

Sir Edmund Hillary who reached the top in 1953, rebuked them all saying:

"Human life is far more important than just getting to the top of a mountain," the New Zealand native was quoted as saying in an interview with his country's press association. "It was wrong if there was a man suffering altitude problems and was huddled under a rock, just to lift your hat, say 'good morning' and pass on by."

There have been a number of occasions when people have been neglected and left to die and I don't regard this as a correct philosophy," he told the Otago Daily Times.

"I think the whole attitude toward climbing Mount Everest has become rather horrifying. The people just want to get to the top," he told the newspaper.

Hillary told New Zealand Press Association he would have abandoned his own pioneering climb to save another's life. "It was wrong if there was a man suffering altitude problems and was huddled under a rock, just to lift your hat, say 'good morning' and pass on by," he said. He said that his expedition, "would never for a moment have left one of the members or a group of members just lie there and die while they plugged on towards the summit.

I just can't imagine leaving someone to die just to continue on a mountain climbing expedition. It's just absolutely sickening.

Luke 10:30-37

[some quotes from Fox News]