What can be more altruistic and admirable than saving an invaluable human life, that too, near the world’s highest real estate? American climber Daniel Mazur, by rescuing Australian climber Lincoln Hall from Mount Everest, has done exactly that. After all, the glory and self-satisfaction he has now achieved after saving another climber in total danger is much more precious than just adding another name to the never-ending list of Everesters that runs into hundreds. Mazur, the team leader of the Summit Climb Everest Tibet 2006 team, gave up his dream to stand atop the world a mere two and half hour ascent below the summit to rescue Hall. At a height of 8,600 metres, Hall was found to be in a delirious state with no oxygen and food. Had the team not reacted in the nick of time, Hall would have fallen off the ridge and met with a painful death. Presuming him to be dead, his own team members earlier had abandoned him. Eventually, the rescue team was able to arrive after four hours to complete the mercy mission.

Now sample this: On June 4, the first double amputee to conquer Everest went on record admitting that he had no qualms leaving a fellow climber to die because he thought that there was hardly anything he could have done. New Zealander climber Mark Inglis reached the summit on May 15 after a 40-hour gruelling experience. On his way Inglis, along with at least 40 climbers encountered a Briton, David Sharp, who sat dying apparently of oxygen deprivation. After Sharp’s death, an international furore erupted and Inglis came in for sharp criticism for displaying apathy towards a dying colleague. Even Sir Edmund Hillary who first reached the peak with Tenzing Norgay in 1953 flayed Inglis for his inhuman decision.

Scaling Mount Everest is no more a sporting event. It has degenerated into a fame-seeking or money-spinning enterprise. Put bluntly, it is merely a lucrative commercial proposition devoid of the spirit of sportsmanship and camaraderie. Of late, the tendency to create weird records and engage in cheap gimmicks like going nude on the top and planting a red flag, for instance, has taken over. This only goes to prove to what levels some publicity-hungry climbers can stoop. One hopes the “crazy foreigners” would take a leaf from Mazur’s book and act more responsibly in the future.