The Unforgiving Slopes of Mt.

Everest

Shelby Dellinger
Cassidy Gase
Krista Kindschi
Cameron Owen
Juan Salazar
Laura Waggoner
Since the dawn of time legendary feats have been defined not only by the individuals
who have strived for these goals, but by the teamwork exemplified by each member of every
status. The pillars, which have stood firm, behind every achievement and victory throughout the
centuries consist of comradery and belief in those around you. Without these pillars the Roman
Empire would have never been overthrown, America would still be a part of Great Britain, the
triple alliance of World War I would never have been defeated, the Third Reich would still be
committing global atrocities, and the Texas A&M Fightin Texas Aggies would have never
defeated Alabama in the 2012 football season. This holds true, also, for the 1996 Mount Everest
tragedy. Twenty- three individuals summited the Big E but the cost of triumph for a moment in
time was the lives of five individuals forever lost and abandoned in the treacherous, unforgiving
slopes of Mount Everest. This tragedy can be attributed to multiple issues and errors: issues that
the leaders and clients experienced, errors that the leaders alone conducted, and troubles that
alone harmed the clients.
The first of these issues that both the leaders and clients faced was a lack of trust and
teamwork. Journalist and member of the Adventure Consultants team, Jon Krakauer, expressed
his concerns about lack teamwork best by saying, In this godforsaken place, I felt disconnected
from the climbers around me. We were a team in name only, Id sadly come to realize. This
quote, in and of itself, reflects the lack of cohesion established between the team clients and
guides. In a deceitful terrain such as that of Mount Everest, reaching the ultimate goal and
summit required each individual to be willing to put their life in each others hands. Trust and
teamwork was essential in this case, because after all, if individuals could climb Mount Everest
on their own there would be no need for expedition teams or guides. Ultimately, the lapses in
trust and teamwork were predicting factors of failure and tragedy. More specific facets of
teamwork that lacked were staff validity and hierarchical sensitivity. Guides were hesitant to
give suggestions because of the fear of rejection by the team leaders and no other opinion was
welcome except for that of the leaders, which leads to the next major issue the teams faced.
Decisions made purely by authority can be detrimental in a team environment like in this
case where collaboration between all members should have been encouraged. Throughout the
article, most decisions were made by the authority figure or the one with the most expertise.
Hall, leader of Adventure consultants, emphasizes the importance of authority saying, My
word is absolute law, beyond appeal. If you dont like a particular decision I make, Id be happy
to discuss it with you afterward, but not while were up on the hill. Basing decisions off an
authority is often times one of the most important tiers of decision making; however, problems
can arise when a team neglects other factors of decision making, like intuition. Intuition is
defined by the book as emotionally charged judgments that arise through quick, nonconscious
and holistic associations and are generally most important in crisis situations. Boukreev, member
of the Mountain Madness climbing team, expresses that he indeed ignored his better judgment or
intuition when he says, After more than two decades of climbing I had developed certain
intuitions, and my feeling was that things were not rightI wanted very much for my feelings to
be heardMy voice was not as authoritative as I would have liked it, so I tried not to be
argumentative, choosing instead to downplay my intuitions. Unlike this case where Boukreev
chose to ignore his intuition out of fear from higher authority, in all team settings
recommendations should be allowed by members and leaders should be sensitive to those
recommendations. In sum, this fear of authority could have been prevented if collaboration and
staff validity were permitted between all members of the two teams. In addition to the issues that
hindered the team leaders and clients, there were some errors made in this case by the team
leaders alone as described in the following paragraphs.
In preparation for the climb, the two main team leaders, Rob Hall and Scott Fischer,
made irrecoverable mistakes. In Why Hard Nose Executives Should Care about Management
Theory, we learned that a theory that was successful for one company would most likely not be
successful for another. This same logic can be applied to each Mt. Everest climb mentioned in
the case. It took both Hall and Fischer multiple attempts to reach the summit. Both leaders
should have recognized that each attempt to reach the summit was unique and differed from the
previous attempt. Going into the 1996 climb, Hall and Fischer overlooked the preparation details
because they assumed that the current climb would be no different from the last and that they had
built a yellow brick road to the summit. For example, Krakauer remembered that Hall
bragged on more than one occasion that he could get almost any reasonably fit person to the
summit, and his record seemed to support this. Hall failed to realize that each reasonably fit
person that was attempting the climb was different from the clients that had previously made it
up the mountain. It was as if Fischer and Hall treated the 1996 climb like it was routine task
performance. Instead of them planning the climb out of habit or routine, they should have
focused on adaptive task performance and on adapting that climb to its specific clients and
conditions. In addition to shaky climb preparations, the leaders also encountered many stressors
that ultimately hindered their performances as leaders.
The expedition provided a handful of stressors and the damaging strains that followed.
Scott Fischer was one of the best instances to illustrate stressors endured during the expedition.
Fischer encountered an initial hindrance stressor when he was experiencing logistic problems
with his teams oxygen supply. Fischer was forced to allocate his time on the logistic problem
instead of his expedition planning. This gave off the appearance that he was exhausted at times
in the early days of the expedition. Fischers concerns with the oxygen tanks did not stop there
and was alarmed by the unplanned oxygen usage during the initial stages of the climb. His
logistics issue eventually caught up to him as he was not able to properly go through his
acclimatization processes and consequently endured physiological strains on summit day. He
was experiencing a burnout not only physically, but emotionally and mentally. His desire to get
his group to the summit safe was overwhelming and his performance started to descend. Many
climbers noticed Fischers deteriorating physical condition during the ascent, yet no one
questioned his plans to proceed. Although Fischer received instrumental support throughout the
process with the help of the Sherpas he was overwhelmed with role overload and therefore, never
had the opportunity to entirely prepare for the climb both physically and mentally. A possible
solution to this overload of stress could have been for Fischer to use a problem-focused coping
strategy so that he could delegate his duties and seek assistance from other members of the team.
Now that the issues with the leaders have been evaluated, the complications that faced the clients
need to be assessed.
One of the major concerns that the clients faced was the idea of sunk cost. Taking a look
at the actual costs of those who attempted to ascend Everest, the impression is that the trip was
very expensive. With clients paying $65,000 to climb Everest, they were even more motivated to
reach the summit. The clients experienced a sense of continuance commitment in that the costs
of not completing the climb or reaching the summit were just too great. Some fell into this sunk
cost trap, but some did not. For example, Taske, Hutchison, and Fischbeck had each spent as
much as $70,000 and endured weeks of agony to be granted this one shot at the summitand
yet, faced with a tough decision, they were among the few who made the right choice that day.
Those three were fortunate enough to recognize that the irrecoverable costs of the expedition
were not enough to risk their lives. Although this issue was mainly relevant to the clients, Hall
also had a cost of proving to others that his failure to reach the summit the previous year needed
to be put to rest. Sadly, the team members continuance commitment and sunk costs ended up
costing much more than $65,000- it cost some clients their lives. A solution to this sunk cost trap
would be to practice recognizing this trap. Like mentioned in Hidden Traps in Decision Making,
When you find yourself in a hold, the best thing you can do is stop digging. The idea of this
sunk cost trap, however, was not the only issue influencing the clients decisions.
Making the decision to join the expedition may have been easy for some clients with the
luxury of disposable income, but some of these clients lacked in ability and self-efficacy. One of
the issues emphasized was the importance of developing self-reliance in your climbers because
you cannot hold their hands all the time. Fischer and Hall underestimated the importance of
experience and ability which in turn gave the more unexperienced clients a false sense of hope
that any reasonably fit person could get to the summit. Some clients were so blinded by this
idea and Krakauer came to realize that when it came time for each of us to assess our own
abilities and weigh them against the formidable challenges of the worlds highest mountain, it
sometimes seemed as though half the population at Base Camp was clinically delusional.
Although many clients possessed self-assurance in the beginning, their inexperience became
magnified the further along they climbed and their self-efficacy slowly declined. Self-doubt
began to take a toll on some clients like Kasischke when he exclaims with frustration, Im
finished. Im finished. In sum, it would have been wise for each client to put their money aside
and truly evaluate their ability to achieve the ultimate goal of reaching Mt. Everests summit.
After all, if you do not have ability or self-efficacy a goal may never be reached regardless of
how much income you have or the amount of training you endure.
In conclusion, whether the 1996 Mt. Everest events were due to mistakes made by the
leaders, clients, guides, or even Sherpas, there are many lessons to be learned from this
tragedy