When The Strong Fall: The 1996 Everest Disaster - CONCLUSION (Pt 2)

What happened? They got caught in a big storm & it sounds like Rob felt a moral obligation to aide his client, another human being. Rob likely knew they were stuck & didn’t want to let his client die alone? Of all people Rob likely knew the risks.

I blame Rob Hall and Scott - they were focused so much on the commercial side, and individual people that everything went to shit. Anatoli at his own will went out and saved 3 people that thanked him to his last day - otherwise there would’ve been more deaths up there.

Love listening to this guy.
The victims may R. I. P.

At the end of the day, there are always three sides to a story: the version told by Person A, the version told by Person B, and the truth. No one will ever fully know what happened that night at the top of the world, but what we do know is that lives were lost—and speculation won’t change that.

Everyone on the mountain that day were selfish. However, they had a voice and they chose not to use it. There are no villains or hero’s in my opinion.

You are great and everything, but KITTY!

You have such a nice way of telling stories and also so polite to every person in the story, very appreciated thank you!

Learning so much. You're thoughts bring a lot of honesty from your experiences.

Here’s a thought…. Maybe the mountain is the villain.

Is that another gizzard shirt?

I learned some new information from this about Scott Fisher passing Ed Viesturs. The quote about being stuck on the Everest summit like being stuck on the moon is so stark. You just get the feeling that summit fever takes over and people lose their senses.

I was 9 years old when this happened it was the reason I learned about Mount Everest and climbing all together they gave me a great joy and love for climbing. I spent my younger years in the white mountains climbing and fishing I never liked John k. Love your videos

People shouldn’t use oxygen to climb, if your body can’t withstand the lack of it, then that is the sign. Respect your body and the mountain.

The storm, bad decisions that day by the leaders and S. Pittman. Three factors that doomed the group.

Thanks!

I read Into Thin Air, watched Everest and several documentaries on the 1996 disaster and my heart sinks every time like I’m hearing this story for the first time.

After watching this and your video on SP, it seems to me that most of the blame should be placed on the leaders who didn't honor the turnaround time. Contributing to that, the men's ego: the false sense of security (re: "yellow brick road") from prior successful attempts and their inappropriate/dangerous competition with one another. When you mix poor decisions and blind ambition with the weather and lack of rope set up, you get disaster. SP certainly handled the situation distastefully afterwards and could have decided to turn around herself, but its ultimately the leadership that failed.

Love your channel your a great narrator and storyteller.

To be a guide, you've got to be 110% fit If not, you are putting other people's lives at risk.

Rob Hall should’ve turned Doug around. End of story. 2 lives saved right there. Harris probably wouldn’t have died either. That could have dramatically changed the day. Rob survived a shocking amount of time stuck on the step. Instead of just dying slowly stuck he could’ve assisted Groom or Boukreev or Biedelman in their rescue efforts. Maybe no deaths between the two teams from one decision. We’ll never know but it seems like at least 3 deaths were preventable from that one decision.

Nothing the Chinese do surprises me anymore. They have to cheat and steal to keep up with the West. They are despicable

Firstly Rob Hall didn't have a 100% summit success rate for clients before this climb although this was stated early in this video. The very reason he remained at the summit so late was to wait for Doug Hansen, a client he desperately wanted to succeed because Hansen had been on a previous Everest expedition where Hall had turned him around, ie. an unsuccessful client. Secondly, if Scott Fischer made a rule that all the Western guides needed to use bottled oxygen, then Boukreev wasn't disobeying Fischer. Kazakhstan is NOT a Western country, so Boukreev was not a Western guide.

What I learned about Scott Fischer expedition from a Russian research is that there was a problem with oxygen right from the beginning. First of all delivery. Literally they did not have oxygen bottles until the very last moment due to dependence on the man responsible for delivery who had an exclusive contract with Russian oxygen producer with whom that man had an exclusive contract making him the only supplier around the world. Btw due to the agreement the price of oxygen was very high. Given the fact that Scott faced a significant money shortage problem: one client negotiated discount, another didn’t pay full amount, - the oxygen stock Mountain Madness finally had was limited from the very beginning. Then on the way there occurred to be 2 cases that required more oxygen than was planned: one Sherpa suffered an injury and the eldest client who experienced breathing problems but wanted to resume climbing. Anatoly refused to use oxygen because he had an experience of climbing on Everest without it, he was generally experienced and very strong (both physically and emotionally) climber and out of responsibility for the clients who needed it way more than him knowing that there was oxygen shortage.

It would be a comedy of errors if it weren't so tragic. You can easily assign blame. There's a lot of it to go around. Guides not doing what they should have been doing. The leaders not leading like they should have been. I guess the Mountain Guide industry on Everest in '96 should have been heavily scrutinized. I'm not sure it's gotten much better. You still see Sherpas with no oxygen guiding climbers. You still have people dying every year. Clearly guides are allowing people to pay and climb who have no business being there. I still think that you could run a successful Guided operation that would be relatively safe if you run it using the safest guidelines. The problem is too many people are allowing others to make judgements calls. Why is it hard to tell your guides you must do this and you must do that or you can't work here? Turning someone around should be easy. Why is it hard to tell your clients if you don't make the summit by this time, you will be turned around. There are no judgement calls. It's up to you to make the climb in a safe manner. It's my responsibility to get you off this mountain alive. If you can't agree to those terms, you can't be a client. We don't want your business. Ultimately the problem with many of the expeditions of Everest is that safety and everything else takes a backseat to profits. We will continue to hear stories like this as long as that is the case.

What's the purpose of removing Mallory as well? Wasn't he "Buried" when his remains were discovered? Can this burial site be surveyed with a drone?

I find very plausible that the Chinese would try to remove Irvine, as he would be the last missing piece to the mystery, and if the British were in fact the first to summit Everest (not to mention using the northern route, decades before the Chinese achieved this). The motive is there! I just hope this is not the case and the Chinese played fair. Finding Irvine and the camera would bring closure.

what a South African being an @$$hole? no way. To see all of the trash that is left up there is so ironic as some of the people climbing this mountain are against cruelty to animals, drive eco friendly cars, all about carbon footprint back home but leave their ish all up on the mountain.

I think the most difficult thing for probably most people to really listen to and hear and actually accept about all of this stuff and people can argue with me all they want but I feel the simple truth is that nobody should be climbing any of these mountains. And I haven't heard a good solid reason that actually makes logical sense as to why people are doing this. All the time and money spent to just walk up a damn hill. Folks I really feel that it's just not smart. I think the people themselves are incredibly smart but the motivations just are not smart. There's no real accomplishment made at all but what they believe. Getting to the top is meaningless and people lose their lives which is the opposite of meaningless. There's not a good reason. It doesn't exist. People don't see the accomplishments right in front of their everyday lives and miss them chasing the top of a stupid hill when they have family and people surrounding them that need them and love them. What is the true adventure? Helping and being present with their family, friends and community around them and truly seeing how that's the true mountain? Or climbing dirt and rock at risk of losing it all just to look around on top of a hill completely distant from the real life they selfishly left hoping they come home alive. I'm just over all this. Nobody's life is worth this.

These stories are fascinating and heart breaking! There is a part of me that thinks these adventurous men are too reckless. If you look in the mirror, a mere man is no match for an enormous mountain covered in snow and ice. If you have a family that needs you and loves you, count yourself blessed. Maybe these types should literally get their heads out of the clouds. It seems totally wrong to throw your life away and destroy your family just to say you climbed a mountain. That comes down to arrogance and pride in my humble opinion. It’s just too selfish! It is so sad to see young men dying for an insane sport. 😢

Sadly I think it is completely about ego!

Hey your comparison to an airplane pilot was perfect. If these leaders cared about anyone but themselves they would never have kept going when all these other human beings were depending on them. According to Jesus who created all of us, we are all sinners without God and without hope unless you have given your life to Jesus. Without Jesus we all make other things our idols. This mountain is a pagan idol to so many. Even the so called religion on the mountain and the ceremony before the climbs is pagan. Why would anyone rebel against the only God and Savior Jesus and then be so foolish as to try to claim that mountain. The Tower of Babel so offended God that he confused the people by making each speak a different language. Only God lives above the Heavens!!

Feel like you misused the term trigger warning for the most MILD of takes. But great video regardless.

If anyone is triggered, they shouldn’t be watching climbing videos.

what the bleep is he talking about "trigger warning" over and over MY GOD what has this world come to? We now can't "hear" words or we're going to flip out. This poor me all about me turns me off so i just stopped watching. Grow up grow up grow up.

I watched Everest on IMAX a few years back when it came out. Since then I read a few books and watched other versions of the disaster. I don’t know why it affected me as deeply as it did. I think the phone call from Rob Hall to his wife really made it “real” for me. I still think about Rob Hall to this day still up there . (I know it’s just a body and he is somewhere much greater) but
It just gives me such a lonely helpless feeling when I think of his final hours!

Did I miss you covering Beck Weathers? It would seem his is a significant part of the story.

Well, as far as I know, oxygen is good servant but bad lord. When you are on oxygen, it's better, but when it runs out, you are in hell. So, was it bad that Boukreev didn't use it? Maybe the reason why he had so much strenght to save some climbers from the south cole was that he didn't use oxygen. Because others on oxygen were not able. Just a theory.

Thanks!

Rob Hall did not have 100% of clients to the summit before the 1996 climb.

Just found this channel. Wish I was a climber, but alas I'm not. This is the best explained content I have come across. You have gotten yourself an avid viewer. Cheers!!

With inflation, the $50,000 guide fee in 1996 is $100,000 today - 2025.

If it could go wrong it did. on this sad story ❤❤❤

Hall and Fischers egos got them killed, BOTTOM LINE. It was a competition between the two, the differences in these expeditions and all the others that had 100% success rate was they each had a journalist with them and were determined to get them to the summit this and only this clouded their judgement and they paid the ultimate price.

I have followed discussions on the 1996 Everest disaster for some time, and I recognise that there is much to learn from such a tragic event, including the psychological phenomena that arise under extreme stress, group decision-making, and the unyielding power of nature. However, I find it deeply troubling to see this tragedy monetised in a manner that appears to prioritise revenue over respect for the individuals who lost their lives.

From a psychological standpoint, the 1996 disaster highlights how “summit fever” and deference to authority can distort judgements in high-risk environments. Analysing these issues can be educational, but it must be done in a considerate and ethical manner. It is entirely possible to educate and illuminate without sensationalising the deaths of real people. When content creation becomes too fixated on profit and shock value, it risks devaluing the very human lessons we should be learning: humility, compassion, and the fragile nature of life in unforgiving conditions.

I find your approach, sadly, to be exploitative. As a consequence, I no longer wish to support or engage with any content that frames these tragic events as a revenue-generating spectacle rather than a sober recounting of historical reality. This is why I am stating my objection here and why I will not be viewing any further videos on this topic from your channel.

Sadie should never have been there. She was the weakling and perhaps the cause of all the deaths

Oxygen is also a liabillity.. boukreev proved he could climb a help others without it. Clients knew the risk of the climb. Thats how life works. Maybe anatoli shouldn't been a guide that day but forcing him to use gear he didn't felt confident about is also nuts.

There was a problem with some of the oxygen tanks and the regulator did not fit? Frustrated from the start, with equipment problems....I guess when it comes to life and death in the mountains, human compassion, your life over there's, inexperienced individuals, weather, your on your own....

Thank you brother im not a expert on any of this with climbs. I have never even try to climb even if i had friends that are climbers. But one thing im sure of and that is easy to point finger on others and say what they did rong. In risky moments the brain dosent register all info as it should. There are so many things that mess up with our brains when the brain start to send danger alert to our bodys that in seconds a person that cared about others are like zombie suddenly.