Three lessons from the story of three Everest climbers
There is no doubt that when to quit is an important decision-making skill. Getting the decision right is sometimes is a matter of life or death. That was the case of three climbers to Mount Everest in 1996 and they made the right decision just on time. It
For Mount Everest climbers, the Base Camp of Mount Everest is at 17,600 feet. The next stop takes them to Camp 1 at 19,500 feet, followed by Camp 2 at 21,000 feet. Then the Camp 3 is at 24,000 feet and finally Camp 4 is at 26,300 feet. From Camp 4, it is another arduous 1700 feet (approximately) to the summit. The climb from Camp 4 to the summit and down requires perseverance just to survive, much less reach the summit - the air above 25,000 feet is too thin to sustain human life for an extended period. In addition, the average temperature during the climbing season is minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 26 degrees Celsius).
This Everest story is about three less known climbers of their 1996 Everest expedition: Dr. Stuart Hutchison, Dr. John Taske, and Lou Kasischke. Hutchison was the youngest climber of the team, at 34. Taske was the oldest climber of the team, at 56. Kasischke, aged 53, had climbed six of the seven summits.
They were part of a commercial, guided expedition of Mount Everest, operated by Adventure Consultants, one of the most successful, highly regarded companies guiding climbers to the summit in the 1990s. Its expedition that year consisted of three guides, eight climbing Sherpas, and eight clients. Rob Hall, aged 35, was their expedition leader. Rob had completed his fifth ascent to the summit of Everest.
While at the Base Camp, Rob Hall set the turnaround time on summit day at 1 p.m.
A turnaround time is, simply put, the time at which climbers are to stop their ascent, even if they haven’t yet reached their destination, and return to camp. Turnaround times are meant to protect climbers from putting themselves in danger on the descent, which requires more skill than ascending the mountain. In fact, eight times more people die on Everest on the way down than on the way up.
Hutchison, Taske, and Kasischke were part of one of three expeditions trying to reach the summit on the same day and the top of the mountain was crowded. More crowded than it was supposed to be.
Hutchison, Taske, and Kasischke had gotten stuck at the back of the pack, behind some climbers from that group. Those climbers were slow and difficult to pass because they were clumped together, which was a problem since you have to go much of the way along a single fixed rope (experienced climbers know how to spread out to allow faster climbers to pass).
Also stuck with them was Rob Hall, whom Hutchison asked at one point how long it would be until they reached the summit. The reply was about three hours. At that point, Rob started climbing faster, trying to get past the clump of incompetent climbers in front of them.
Hutchison held Taske and Kasischke back for a talk. Looking at their
watches, it was nearly 11:30 a.m.
Hutchison announced his opinion: their summit attempt was done. It would be well past 1 p.m. when they reached the summit, even accounting for wiggle room. Taske agreed to turn back, but Kasischke was reluctant to quit. He needed to summit Everest to complete the last of “Seven Summits,” climbing the highest mountain on every continent.
Hutchison and Taske managed to persuade Kasischke and, at 11:30 a.m., they gave up on their summit attempt. They turned around and made it - safely, uneventfully—back to Camp 4 and, later, off the mountain.
However, Rob Hall, along with four others who reached the summit that day, died on various parts of their descent back to Camp 4 as they violated the turn around times and the weather got from bad to worse. Rob reached the summit around 2 pm and also waited for one of the climbers Hansen who arrived only at 4pm. Hansen was very exhausted and Rob could not get Hansen down. They both died.
Jon Krakauer, in his famous book "Into Thin Air" highlights: “faced with a tough decision, they (Hutchison, Taske, and Kasischke) were among the few who made the right choice that day.”
Three Lessons from the story:
Persistence is not always a virtue. Whether it is prudent to continue up the mountain depends both on the climbing conditions and the condition of the climbers. When those conditions warrant quitting, it is a good decision to heed those signals.
Making a plan for when to quit should be done long before you are facing the quitting decision. As Daniel Kahneman has pointed out, the worst time to make a decision is when you're "in it".
The turnaround time is a reminder that the real goal in climbing Everest is not to reach the summit. The ultimate goal is to return safely to the base of the mountain.
Source: From the book: "Quit - The power of knowing when to walk away" by Annie Duke