In 1996, Beck Weathers was knocked down by a snowstorm on Everest and was abandoned by his teammates, who even called Weathers' wife to inform her that he had passed away.
In the spring of 1996, Weathers, a 50-year-old pathologist from Texas, USA, joined a climbing group eager to conquer Everest.
Weathers was an avid climber and had successfully climbed many dangerous mountains. However, Everest was always his greatest challenge. He was willing to devote all his energy to this climb. After all, Weathers had nothing to lose. His marriage was deteriorating because he spent more time in the mountains than with his family. When he set out on Everest on May 10, 1996, Weathers did not know that his wife had decided to divorce him upon his return.
Beck Weathers (center) after returning from the top of Everest. Photo: ATI
Beck Weathers was one of eight clients being led up Everest by three guides from Adventure Consultants. The group was led by veteran climber Rob Hall, a New Zealander who has summited Everest five times.
The climbers set out early in the morning. The weather was good, visibility was clear, and the team was optimistic. It was cold, but the first 12 to 14 hours of climbing were relatively easy. However, it was not long before Weathers and his team realized how brutal the mountain could be.
Shortly before heading to Nepal to climb Everest, Weathers had undergone surgery to correct his nearsightedness. Radial keratotomy, a precursor to LASIK, helped him see better. But the altitude warped his recovering cornea, leaving Weathers nearly blind by nightfall.
Recognizing Weathers's vision problem, Hall refused to allow him to continue climbing, asking him to stay at the rest stop while the others continued on. They would pick him up on the way back.
Weathers reluctantly agreed. When his comrades left, he remained where he was. Several other groups passing by offered him a place in their group, but he declined, waiting for Hall as promised.
But Hall never returned.
Near the summit, one of the team members was too weak to continue. Not wanting to abandon his teammates, Hall chose to wait, but eventually succumbed to the cold and died on the mountainside. To this day, Hall's body remains frozen on Everest. Another guide on the team also died.
Nearly 10 hours passed before Weathers realized something was wrong, but he had no choice but to wait until someone passed by.
Later that evening, a returning climber told Weathers that Hall was trapped. Although he knew he should go down with the climber, Weathers decided to wait for his group.
Not long after, Mike Groom, Hall’s deputy, and his team returned to Weathers. Groom had climbed Everest before and knew the route. But with nightfall approaching and fatigue building, the climbers decided to pitch tents and set off at dawn.
But a storm began to form on the mountaintop, covering the entire area in snow and reducing visibility to near zero before they reached the campsite.
Weathers lost a glove and began to feel the effects of altitude and freezing temperatures. He became increasingly incoherent, his teammates describing him as “out of his mind.” As the group huddled together for warmth, Weathers suddenly stood up in the wind, raising his frozen right hand. He began shouting, saying he had “found the solution.” Then suddenly, a gust of wind blew him backward into the snow.
During the night, a Russian guide from another climbing team rescued the rest of Weathers' team, but they believed Weathers was too weak to be saved. According to tradition, those who die on Everest are left where they fall, and Weathers was one of them.
The next morning, after the storm had passed, Stuart Hutchison, a Canadian doctor on Weathers' team, returned to find Weathers and another woman left behind. After peeling the bandages from her body, the doctor determined that there was nothing more that could be done.
He made a similar assessment of Weathers. Weathers's face was covered in ice, his coat was open to the waist, and his limbs were stiff. The doctor described him as "breathing but near death" and that he would not survive until he got off the mountain. Weathers was left behind for the second time.
But Weathers was still alive, his body still fighting death. As if by a miracle, Weathers woke up from his hypothermic coma.
"When I first woke up, I felt like I was in a dream, not yet clearly aware of where I was. At that moment, I suddenly felt comfortable, warm, and at ease, like I was lying in bed, not really uncomfortable," he recalled.
But Weathers was immediately brought back to reality as he examined his limbs. His right arm sounded like wood on wood when he tapped it on the ground.
Despite his fear, he managed to descend the mountain on legs that felt like porcelain and had lost almost all feeling. When Weathers reached the lower camp, the people there were stunned. Although his face was blackened by frostbite and his limbs would probably never be the same again, Weathers was still able to talk.
After the Canadian doctor abandoned him on the mountain, Weathers’s wife was told that her husband had died on the trip. But he returned, standing before them, broken but alive. Within hours, technicians at the Everest dispatch center notified authorities to airlift him to a hospital.
Beck Weathers in 2015. Photo: LA Times
Weathers had to have his right arm, fingers on his left hand and nose amputated. Plastic surgeons then reconstructed his nose from skin from his neck and ear cartilage. Weathers no longer climbs. His wife decided not to divorce him but to stay by his side to care for him.
Ultimately, the near-death experience saved Weathers' marriage. Although his body was affected, Weathers claimed in his 2015 book that his spirit had never been at peace since his near-death experience.
Vu Hoang (According to ATI )
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