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Miracle on Everest · The Lincoln Hall Story — Transcript

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0:05[Music]
0:07the 2006 everest climbing season became
0:10the most controversial ever
0:13the ethics of commercial mountaineering
0:15hit headlines around the world
0:18climbers were accused of putting their
0:20own ambitions above the lives of fellow
0:22mountaineers
0:24a record 500 climbers summited everest
0:27some die trying
0:29for anyone to climb mount everest
0:31requires a superhuman effort
0:3490
0:35of the people who set off to climb
0:37everest never discover how hard it is
0:39because they turn back before then
0:42even when you're using oxygen it feels
0:44like you're on a treadmill and breathing
0:46through a straw
0:47no matter how hard you try you just
0:49can't get enough
0:51in 30 years of mountaineering lincoln
0:53hall has summited many of the world's
0:55great peaks
0:57but not everest
0:58well people are certainly drawn to
1:00everest because it's the ultimate symbol
1:02of adventure i mean there's other
1:03mountains that are harder
1:05you know more beautiful perhaps but of
1:07course nothing else is higher it just
1:10leaves everything for dead so in 2006
1:13when lincoln receives an invitation to
1:15join an expedition to the north side of
1:17everest he doesn't hesitate
1:20but it's a risky proposition
1:25at 29 000 feet the summit of everest has
1:2830 percent of the oxygen that exists at
1:31sea level
1:32ascending too quickly can lead to acute
1:35mountain sickness and eventually death
1:38recent studies suggest that climbers
1:40over 50 are at least twice as likely to
1:43die at this height
1:45lincoln hall has just turned 50.
1:48putting his writing career on hold he'll
1:51be leaving his wife barbara and two
1:53teenage sons behind it is hard to
1:55explain
1:56why you would face such dangers
2:00but i knew how dangerous it was
2:02and i felt that the dangers were within
2:04my grasp
2:06lincoln begins his journey from base
2:08camp
2:0918 000 feet above sea level
2:12from here
2:13he'll move up to glacier to advance base
2:15camp
2:17then up the ice slopes to camp one
2:21then he'll climb through the high caps
2:23and hopefully on to the summit
2:27lincoln has now spent two months on the
2:29mountain
2:30acclimatizing to the low oxygen levels
2:33this footage shows members of lincoln's
2:35expedition
2:37it has cost each climber fifteen
2:39thousand dollars to join the twenty
2:41strong international team run by russian
2:43everest veteran alex abramov today
2:47it's very long way about four hours from
2:50here is
2:51seems as
2:53very close but
2:55really not less than four hours
2:57so people should be brave
2:59today
3:01and i hope
3:03everybody reaches this altitude weather
3:05is perfect
3:08climbers on everest must also battle the
3:10weather
3:12there's usually only a two week window
3:14every year that allows access to the
3:16summit however this year the weather is
3:18unseasonably good keeping the window
3:21open for much longer
3:23more climbers make summit attempts
3:26but the casualty rate has also been
3:28higher
3:29already this season there have been nine
3:31deaths
3:33just before lincoln leaves camp one
3:35news arrives at the 10th
3:37it is russian teammate igor klushkin one
3:40of the russian climbers from our team
3:43had got into some sort of difficulty he
3:45was actually a very experienced climber
3:47but he was having problems and suddenly
3:49i i learned that he was dead
3:52igor's death is a wake-up call for
3:54lincoln
3:55eagle was a similar age and also an
3:58experienced mountaineer
4:00that was a shock
4:03there had already been a number of
4:04deaths on the mountain so already this
4:06was an expedition that like i'd never
4:08experienced because
4:10there was just so much death this time
4:12around
4:16it is now late in the season and very
4:19few climbers are left on the mountain
4:21most of lincoln's team have already made
4:23their summit attempts or have turned
4:26back
4:26the only members remaining are lincoln
4:29and german climber thomas weather with
4:31his guide
4:32climbing at their own pace they will
4:35continue up the mountain for three more
4:36days to camps 2
4:393
4:39then the summit not long after sherpas
4:42and i
4:43left the halfway camp to head to the
4:45high camp
4:46we
4:47came to a big flat rock it was an
4:49obvious place to rest there was this
4:51sort of long pile of rocks
4:53in front of us
4:55and you could see that there was a body
4:56under there
4:57it is the grave of igor klushkin the
5:00russian climber who died two days
5:02earlier ego's death had been in my mind
5:04of course since it happened
5:06and to come across his body
5:08was just a shock
5:11everest has become the final resting
5:13place for around 200 climbers
5:16lincoln's three sherpa companions
5:20are accustomed to encountering their
5:22frozen remains
5:23the sherpas don't like to move the
5:25bodies i guess there's a part of
5:27superstition in there but there's also a
5:28buddhist belief
5:30that when someone dies
5:32consciousness leaves the body over a
5:34three-day period so a body should be
5:36left in the one place for three days
5:39and of course nobody's going to hang
5:40around up there for three days or
5:41they'll just add to the body list
5:43too difficult and dangerous to retrieve
5:46most of everest victims remain where
5:48they fall
5:4922 years ago lincoln came close to being
5:52a victim himself
5:55this footage shot in 1984 records an
5:58attempt to summit everest by an
6:00unclimbed route up the north face of the
6:02mountain
6:03organized by lincoln hall it was a climb
6:06that would go down in mountaineering
6:08history the route that we chose on the
6:10north face turned out to be
6:13very dangerous to a lot of avalanches
6:16the attempt was brave but perilous to
6:20find a new route without fixed ropes
6:22sherpa support or oxygen and in the end
6:25we were really stretched
6:28lincoln's climbing partner was greg
6:30mortimer
6:31oh yeah was an extraordinary formative
6:33experience for everyone involved
6:35we're a very close group of friends
6:38on our appointed summit day
6:40lincoln wasn't
6:42feeling right and his feet and hands
6:45particularly his feet
6:46were really cold and
6:49he was worried that
6:50if he went on he was going to get
6:52frostbitten
6:53you know considerably so he just made
6:55that you know gut-wrenching decision to
6:58turn around
7:02they're on the top greg mortimer
7:04achieved his ambition by summiting that
7:06day
7:08but lincoln hall missed his chance
7:11really it was a survival decision for me
7:12it was uh probably the hardest decision
7:14i've had to make and
7:17but it was the right one
7:18but it's a decision lincoln has had 22
7:21years to think about
7:26what makes everest so dangerous is not
7:29its technical difficulty but the extreme
7:31altitude
7:33no amount of climbing experience can
7:35prepare the body for its unpredictable
7:37effects
7:39above 27 000 feet
7:41human life is most at risk which is why
7:44it is called the death zone
7:47still reeling from his encounter with
7:49igor's body
7:51lincoln is forced to consider whether to
7:52continue
7:56i thought well
7:57this here now is the purity of
7:59mountaineering do i want to go on
8:02and i actually wrote a list about why
8:04should and why i shouldn't
8:06i rang barbara
8:08hi everyone it's me
8:10i guess you're out
8:12happy birthday dylan
8:15i guess we'd been
8:16talking about it on and off for years
8:20he's always
8:22carried that disappointment
8:24of not achieving his dream the first
8:27time around so it was an opportunity to
8:29see whether he was able to do it and it
8:32was just a message on the answering
8:33machine just reassuring us that it was
8:36optimum conditions
8:38you know the weather was
8:40perfect
8:42he was climbing strongly climbing with
8:44oxygen
8:45climbing with three sherpas
8:48so everything was great
8:51i'm feeling strong
8:53the weather's fantastic
8:55and we'll be leaving at midnight
8:58i love you all
9:00bye for now
9:02[Music]
9:11it's midnight
9:12and lincoln hall is at the point of no
9:14return
9:16after 22 years his chance to summit
9:19everest has arrived again
9:25after four days of solid climbing he
9:28heads into the death zone where survival
9:31depends upon speed
9:33[Music]
9:34only three thousand feet below the
9:36summit lincoln will try to ascend and
9:38return as quickly as possible
9:41a grueling 18-hour day
9:44one of the unpleasant aspects of
9:46mountaineering is the procedure
9:48of getting up in the middle of the night
9:50uh so that you have the whole of
9:52daylight to use for your climb
9:55you've got this big mask in front of
9:57your face which means you can't really
9:58see your feet very well
10:00and you've got a headlamp on so you've
10:01got a very narrow beam of light
10:05[Music]
10:12but suddenly lincoln comes face to face
10:15with yet another victim of everest's
10:17brutal conditions
10:20it is the body of british climber david
10:22sharp it was
10:25quite shocking his body
10:27was literally frozen solid
10:30of the 11 deaths during this climbing
10:32season the most famous is david sharp
10:3510 days earlier sharp had crawled into a
10:38shallow cave
10:39it was his third attempt to climb
10:41everest but his method was extremely
10:43risky
10:44he had a minimalist approach to climbing
10:47he had no sherpa support he had no real
10:50contact with other expedition members
10:53because he didn't have a radio
10:54when he was discovered dying nobody even
10:57knew who he was he was very much alone
11:02as many as 40 climbers walked past david
11:05sharp as he lay dying
11:09concealed in the darkness
11:11most didn't see him
11:14those who did see him assumed that he
11:16was resting or already dead
11:18but david sharp didn't die that night
11:22next morning he was still alive
11:25now visible in the daylight the
11:27returning climbers began to notice him
11:29it was very a very tragic situation
11:32columbus coming back from the summit the
11:34coldest night of the season 11 cases of
11:37serious frostbite that night alone
11:40it was the worst night
11:42of the season to be out
11:44in the elements and that's when david
11:46sharp was dying
11:47the media reacted swiftly to the news
11:50that david sharp was left to die david
11:52sharp he ran into trouble on the
11:54mountain and he is passed by a number of
11:56climbers 40 other climbers passed by
11:59mountaineer david sharp as he lay dying
12:01has commercial mountaineering made
12:03climbing a remarkably heartless pursuit
12:05criticism all the more stinging since it
12:08comes from sir edmund hillary he was a
12:09human being
12:11and we would regard it
12:13as our duty to
12:16get him back to safety the headlines
12:18reignited the debate about the ethics of
12:20mountaineering and whether or not
12:22they're being corrupted by modern
12:24commercial and personal imperatives
12:27david sharpe's situation
12:29was portrayed as climbers
12:33concerned only with their own ambition
12:36synthesizing these things in the comfort
12:38of your own lounge room
12:41can't let you understand what's taking
12:44place above 8 000 meters
12:47it's such a fine line
12:49between
12:51getting it right and getting killed
12:55the reason david sharp could not be
12:57rescued
12:58was because it was physically impossible
13:00to do so he could not walk
13:03and the reality of being at extreme
13:06altitude is that everything effectively
13:10weighs four times as much because you
13:12don't have the oxygen in your system to
13:14make your muscles work so to be able to
13:17lift
13:18a dead body or a nearly dead body is
13:20just impossible
13:22there was just no chance of bringing him
13:23down at all no chance
13:28[Music]
13:43lincoln and his sherpas are making good
13:45progress
13:46they reach the notorious second step
13:49shown here it's a 150 foot vertical rock
13:52wall
13:53the biggest obstacle on the climb
13:55[Music]
14:01[Music]
14:20after nine hours climbing lincoln and
14:23his three sherpas approached the summit
14:27i could see the summit ahead there were
14:30some prayer flags dangling over the very
14:32steep lip of the east face
14:36and that was an indicator that that was
14:37the summit
14:41it was obvious that we were going to
14:43make it
14:50[Music]
14:53it's the last little steep section to
14:55the summit which is just how it should
14:57be i guess
15:00and
15:01the one last step and i was on the top
15:08[Music]
15:12there was no one else there
15:14uh it was just an incredible privilege i
15:16guess to have it just to myself the
15:18highest person on the planet
15:25[Music]
15:27it was
15:28quite an unworldly feeling it's not it's
15:30not one of those you know
15:32punch the air type jubilation
15:35events
15:36tops of mountains aren't like that
15:38you've got the whole rest of the
15:39mountain it's only half time you've got
15:41you've got no locker room to go into you
15:43know
15:45[Music]
15:51[Music]
16:01back at base camp lincoln's old friend
16:04and 1984 expedition member mike dillon
16:07is the first to hear the news in the
16:08communications tent
16:11that day that lincoln got to the summit
16:13really started well for us because i
16:14just happened to be near the radio room
16:17and i heard his voice this is lincoln
16:19we're on the summit
16:21we are on the summit
16:23monitoring progress 8 000 feet below is
16:26expedition leader alex abramov
16:30these are the actual radio
16:35go transmissions go down don't forget
16:37that you need
16:39to go down descent is also important
16:42over
16:43we know that
16:45we know that and thank you for making it
16:47possible for us for me
16:51and he was totally lucid he was calm
16:54and it was nine o'clock in the morning
16:56and
16:57everything was it was fantastic
17:00[Music]
17:04his wife barbara receives the good news
17:07the phone call came to say that lincoln
17:10had summited and you know wasn't it
17:12fantastic
17:14but
17:14i did have this inner reservation
17:16because um
17:19i hadn't wanted to hear about the summit
17:21i just wanted to hear when i knew he was
17:23down and safe
17:26lincoln now has the most dangerous part
17:28of the climb ahead of him
17:31the descent we had a good rest on the
17:33summit we're there for 20 minutes um and
17:35that was really long enough because
17:38i feel very uncomfortable on a you know
17:40it might be a magnificent place but on a
17:42high summit i feel uncomfortable i know
17:44that it's a very dangerous place to be i
17:46know how quickly time can pass how you
17:47can be mesmerized by the view so we
17:50headed down the three sherpas and i
18:01150 feet below
18:03another member of lincoln's expedition
18:06thomas webber is forced to turn around
18:09very close to the summit thomas had to
18:11turn back because
18:12he was starting to lose his balance and
18:16sort of veer off
18:19some of his mental functions were
18:20beginning to not work properly and that
18:23at that point the guide decided that
18:25they should head on down
18:27after the adrenaline surge of summiting
18:29climbers on descent face a bigger battle
18:32total exhaustion
18:34and the threat of running out of oxygen
18:37the descent of any big mountain is
18:38always
18:39the most exhausting part of the client
18:44and so i wasn't surprised when i started
18:46to feel
18:48incredibly exhausted
18:51[Music]
18:55there's this big snow slope which was
18:57like really easy to see
18:58and i suppose there was a bit of a
19:00danger for me perhaps in the fact that i
19:03really didn't have to think about it and
19:05and that maybe allowed me to let my
19:08mental guard down
19:12lincoln doesn't know it but he begins to
19:14suffer from high altitude cerebral edema
19:19low pressure is forcing fluid to leak
19:21inside his brain causing it to swell
19:26symptoms are lethargy hallucinations and
19:29irrational behavior
19:31lincoln must descend immediately or he
19:34will die
19:44so
19:56[Music]
20:03abc
20:10and i just developed this uh incredible
20:12lethargy um
20:15and i didn't
20:16see it as anything other than lethargy i
20:19wasn't unconscious but i just lost it
20:22news of lincoln's condition is yet to
20:24reach base camp as the expedition leader
20:27is preoccupied with another unfolding
20:29tragedy
20:30an urgent radio call is received from
20:32climbers 150 feet below lincoln
20:35it is thomas webber's guide
20:59for more than five minutes
21:05[Music]
21:11okay
21:13if you are sure he did
21:18[Music]
21:23what apparently had happened was that
21:24thomas had
21:26simply said to the guide i'm dying
21:30and he died just like that
21:35it's strange it's it's um
21:38he's had some premonition
21:40it's just one of these strange things
21:42that happen on everest
21:45[Music]
21:50geez what a tragedy
21:58[Music]
22:00but the worst news was out of the blue
22:02the expedition leader who was monitoring
22:04the um
22:05activities high on the mountain suddenly
22:07told thomas sherpa to go up again to
22:11help lincoln and he was in trouble that
22:13lincoln was in trouble first time we
22:14knew about it sorry
22:16i don't know how you feel you or how you
22:19feel yourself
22:21but now linker is very bad
22:24and if it's possible
22:26send one serpa up
22:29to help lincoln because he
22:32is near the dead also
22:35and take one shelter oxygen and go down
22:39and this is a double terrible shock to
22:41us because he was
22:43as i said
22:44no there's no reason why anything could
22:46have should have gone wrong with
22:48[Music]
22:52lincoln thomas's sherpa pember begins to
22:56climb back up the mountain
22:58to where lincoln is fighting for his
23:00life
23:08was
23:09struggling but the sherpas were
23:11struggling more because they knew that
23:13if they didn't get me down i would die
23:15that's what happens with cerebral edema
23:17and i was being so uncooperative it
23:20would have been the worst day of their
23:22lives
23:27back at advanced base camp lincoln's
23:29friend and fellow climber kevin ogilo is
23:32manning the radio
23:34kevin came to everest as part of a film
23:36crew but was unable to acclimatize
23:39he remained at advanced base camp to
23:41support the team
23:42his video diary records what happens
23:45next
23:47with information from the sherpas
23:48lincoln is
23:50i suppose best described
23:53as crazy as altitude crazy
23:56i've just heard that the surface is
23:58trying to literally kick him
24:00to move but he's just
24:02gone mad
24:04it was a rough day for kevin because not
24:06only was he
24:08on the radio and suddenly hearing the
24:10news that thomas had died
24:12but a few hours later he heard that i
24:14was dying as well
24:18i just hope lincoln
24:20takes a big breath of oxygen and gets
24:22moving because he's a good man
24:26the sherpas have no choice but to try
24:29and manhandle lincoln down to safety
24:33in the communications tent lincoln's
24:35teammate richard harris tries to make
24:37him focus
24:51thomas weber's sherpa arrives to help
24:53with lincoln's rescue
24:55i'd have some moments of lucidity
25:00what are you doing here
25:02he said thomas thomas has died
25:06and that was just uh this
25:09huge shock just seemed so inconceivable
25:12since he seemed to have been going so
25:13well
25:14and that's then i shut down again
25:22cerebral edema is toying with lincoln's
25:25mind
25:30[Music]
25:32i thought i was in queensland a really
25:34severe case of wishful thinking you know
25:36i actually felt quite safe
25:38and quite happy just to be there
25:43and then i heard an australian voice
25:45seeing speaking english
25:51with you
25:52and you are trying to fight
26:02what i was actually hearing
26:03was michael dillon's voice
26:06on the radio it's so frustrating being
26:08down there because you're so
26:10far away from everything you can't
26:12rush up and try and help rescue lincoln
26:15it's all you can do is try and rescue
26:16him with your voice the urging became so
26:21persistent suddenly i realized that in
26:23fact i was way up on this huge mountain
26:26and this was a ex exceptionally
26:28dangerous situation
26:30i suddenly took the instruction to
26:32continue abseiling
26:34in his delusional state lincoln has to
26:37abseil down the treacherous second step
26:40all the sherpas can do is watch
26:42helplessly
26:50in australia lincoln hall's wife barbara
26:53waits anxiously for news from everest
26:56and of course i
26:59had been thinking the whole time
27:02on my way home from work
27:04calculating the hours and thinking when
27:06i got home at about 6 p.m that there
27:08should have been a message by then but
27:11there wasn't
27:12[Music]
27:15then comes the worrying news that
27:17lincoln is still near the summit i
27:19immediately felt really sick and full of
27:23dread because
27:24he would have been up near the summit
27:27for probably
27:28six or seven hours and
27:31i couldn't imagine what difficulty he
27:34was having
27:36at 28 000 feet lincoln's difficulty is
27:39the second step
27:40this footage shows the 150 foot vertical
27:43rock face
27:44in his disoriented state it's proving
27:47extremely dangerous my mind was saying
27:49absolutely my body couldn't handle it i
27:51whizzed down the ropes pretty well out
27:53of control
27:57what happened was i swung across and
27:59slammed into pemba
28:02to try and stop the uh
28:05me hurting him so much i sort of uh
28:07thought well i'll use my the spring of
28:09my my leg to slow down the impact but
28:11unfortunately i had these spiky things
28:14called crampons on the end of my boots
28:16which are really sharp i'm in the design
28:17so
28:18your feet don't slip on ice they
28:20certainly didn't slip on pember's thigh
28:22either
28:31at the time i hadn't realized i'd i'd
28:33hit him with the crampons and that i'd
28:34actually wounded his leg quite badly and
28:36we're like two spiders with a hanging
28:40beneath this cliff on our abseil ropes
28:48is badly hurt but he and the other three
28:51sherpas simply refused to give up on
28:53lincoln
28:54people say that the sherpas should have
28:56left me
28:58when i was being really difficult
29:00but the chefs just don't
29:02think like that what they were engaged
29:04in doing was getting me down the
29:06mountain and that's what they were going
29:07to do
29:08after getting lincoln down the second
29:10step they managed to put him on the
29:11radio
29:13this is his transmission
29:19for about
29:20four people
29:22where are we
29:26we're still at the second step
29:29so
29:30it's bloody tough up there
29:36lincoln
29:40did you say do i can't
29:42or do i copy over
29:44give us and your family down here and
29:47keep on going you've got four sherpas
29:50there
29:50who respect you a lot
29:55but yeah look
29:57i don't know what time it is
29:59but uh
30:00i'll talk to you when i can
30:02okay
30:04thanks
30:05bye
30:06[Applause]
30:09the sherpas really struggled to get me
30:10as far as they could
30:12but eventually they had to stop
30:18in an extraordinary feat of endurance
30:21the sherpas have dragged lincoln as far
30:23as they can
30:24but at twenty eight thousand feet they
30:27are still in the death zone running out
30:29of oxygen here means almost certain
30:32death when lecture doji dawa and pemba
30:35finally got me to the point where i
30:37spent the night
30:38they could do nothing else we had a
30:4019-hour day there and it wasn't 19 hours
30:44of descent i mean it was 19 hours of
30:46struggle and so it was an extraordinary
30:48hard thing for them physically
30:50we'd all run out of oxygen
30:52dehydrated we were all close to death
30:55but that's not all
30:57lincoln faces yet another threat
30:59the bitter cold
31:01frostbite is a result of the body's
31:04attempt to preserve its core temperature
31:06blood vessels near the skin begin to
31:08constrict forcing blood to the essential
31:11organs
31:12without warmth the cells in the
31:14extremities begin to freeze
31:16[Music]
31:19down at advanced base camp kevin orgello
31:22is realizing that time is running out
31:25this decision at some point has got to
31:27be made to leave him
31:28to die he'll be good could you your best
31:31friend no fly
31:33yeah but the decision has got to be made
31:35by
31:36by the sherpas and alex
31:41they can't
31:42they're on a knife edge ridge that only
31:44one person can walk by
31:47you can't if he doesn't want to move
31:49because he's just become completely
31:51delirious what can they do
31:54and at what point do you decide because
31:55otherwise you're gonna have you're gonna
31:57have
31:58one dead climber plus
32:00three dead surprises
32:10[Music]
32:12it is at this point that lincoln slips
32:15into a coma due to cerebral edema
32:18his brain is shutting down
32:21and his respiration becomes barely
32:23perceptible
32:25[Music]
32:29from what i understand they were
32:30monitoring my you know vital signs
32:33my breathing was getting less and less
32:35frequent and more and more shallow they
32:37couldn't find a pulse
32:39one of them poked me in the eye to which
32:40i didn't respond at all
32:45at 5 20 p.m the sherpas declare him dead
32:53the decision
32:54that had to be made
32:57to save sherpas lives
33:00and that's to leave lincoln
33:05shelters have been working
33:07at over 8 000 metres now for over 24
33:10hours
33:11and although the sherpa people are very
33:13strong
33:14and very tough
33:15and very kind and loyal
33:18there's only so much they can do before
33:19their own lives being put at risk
33:22the sherpas stay with lincoln for
33:24another two hours until finally
33:26expedition leader alex abramov orders
33:29them down
33:31they take lincoln's belongings and he's
33:33left alone with no oxygen water
33:36or shelter
33:43[Music]
33:49nobody has ever been left for dead this
33:51high and survived
33:53[Music]
34:01i was
34:03meditating by the fire and somehow i
34:07felt
34:09lincoln's arms around me
34:12and i didn't like
34:15the feeling of that at all
34:18my next step of course was to have to
34:20phone
34:20uh barbara his wife and that's we just
34:23knew what a tragedy
34:25we were just a small part of his life
34:26but to have to suddenly make the phone
34:28call to say
34:30that um you know
34:32he died to his fat to his family that
34:34was that was terrible
34:39another phone call came through from
34:41base camp
34:43and i just knew instantly that it was
34:45the worst news possible and
34:48i didn't want to to hear it and i didn't
34:51want to continue the conversation but i
34:53had to be told
34:55mum called us out there and
34:58it was it had been my good called um
35:02and
35:04um she sat us down on the couch and
35:08said um
35:10boys
35:12about 20 minutes ago
35:14your dad passed away
35:17well everything just seemed to get blank
35:20and we just
35:22sat there together in a huddle
35:25holding hands and
35:27hugging and crying and
35:32we didn't know what to do
35:34[Music]
35:45alone
35:46the highest person on earth
35:49lincoln hall has been declared dead
35:53news of the tragedy quickly spreads
35:55around the world
35:57for those involved i think it's kind of
35:58like
36:00one of those things like you know where
36:02were you when john f kennedy was shot
36:03type
36:04things
36:06that
36:07depth of
36:09shock and horror and and warm emotion
36:13and
36:15you know that crazy mix of things that
36:17that
36:18goes with the death of a very dear
36:20friend
36:23and
36:24oh hard
36:29we left um discussing plans to build a
36:32memorial to him at base camp i remember
36:34i looked back up at the mountain and i'd
36:36never seen it look more beautiful it's
36:38like i had a translucent
36:40quality and of course lincoln was up
36:42there and lincoln was dead
36:49but something unexpected happens that
36:51night
36:52the weather begins to change
36:55a blanket of cloud covers lincoln
36:57preventing the temperature from dropping
36:59below -25 degrees i mean it's very hard
37:02to know exactly what happened
37:04i resurfaced somehow and i actually woke
37:07up
37:09and i realized where i was
37:14lincoln's luck begins to turn
37:16whatever way you look at it it was a
37:18very strange set of circumstances
37:22i've been left for dead and yet at one
37:24level my mind was connecting
37:28there's all this stuff still happening
37:29in my head and it's all very vivid
37:32determined not to die
37:34lincoln's subconscious begins to fight
37:37back
37:38he starts to hallucinate
37:42it was a case of me
37:44rejecting death
37:45and insisting on life
37:47and the way that was expressed to me was
37:50i was wearing a grey cloak and that
37:52cloak was like a cloak the cloak of
37:55death that was welcoming me and i was
37:57wearing it
37:59and
38:00and i knew i had to accept the cold and
38:03whatever else was going to happen
38:05if i put that cloak away
38:08and then i felt like
38:11then i felt like a pilgrim i suppose
38:12someone who who knows where they've got
38:14to go
38:15who's
38:16doesn't know what the journey's going to
38:18be
38:18[Music]
38:19but knows that's his his only choice in
38:21life
38:27i'm not arrogant enough to think that
38:29i'm so special that i can
38:32just decide i'm not going to die and not
38:34die
38:35i had to believe that i wasn't going to
38:37die because otherwise i would not have
38:39been able to face that impossible set of
38:42circumstances
38:43the hypothermia the hypoxia the
38:46exhaustion the dehydration the cerebral
38:48edema
38:50it was a death sentence and i had to
38:52utilize everything that i'd learned over
38:55three decades of mountaineering
39:00[Applause]
39:01[Music]
39:04drawing on years of buddhist meditation
39:06and yogic breathing techniques lincoln
39:09is able to remain conscious in spite of
39:12hypothermia
39:14[Music]
39:18soon
39:19the sun came and there was this amazing
39:22life-giving warmth
39:28after 30 hours in the death zone at
39:31minus 25 degrees lincoln hall should
39:34really be dead
39:36hallucinating wildly he is in the final
39:39dangerous stages of hypothermia and is
39:42still a long way from safety
39:44but his lucky streak continues there was
39:46so much good fortune the most dramatic
39:48was the appearance of
39:50a team of four climbers who were heading
39:52for the summit
39:55[Music]
39:56unlike david sharpe who died 10 days
39:58earlier lincoln is fully conscious
40:01moving around and clearly visible to the
40:03approaching mountaineers
40:06climbing that morning is a team led by
40:08american guide dan mazur with jang bu
40:11sherpa andrew brash and miles osborne
40:14um i was kind of staring down on my feet
40:17as you do because you know you're just
40:19so focused on one foot in front of the
40:20other
40:22and i kind of looked up and then i saw
40:23this kind of yellow um kind of blob
40:25sitting up there on the ridge and i was
40:27just completely um
40:29dumbstruck i didn't know what
40:31hey so what are you doing here we went
40:33up to him and the first thing that he
40:34said was i bet you're surprised to see
40:36me here
40:39and that was the thing that completely
40:41threw me
40:42when miles and his party found me that
40:44morning
40:45they were stunned
40:46to see that i had unzipped my down suit
40:49and was half undressed
40:50there are two possible reasons
40:52one is that i was rejecting the cloak of
40:54death
40:55and the other is that i was in the final
40:57stages of hypothermia about to die
41:00up to 50 of hypothermia victims are
41:03found with their clothes off
41:05it's called paradoxical undressing
41:08when death is imminent blood returns to
41:11the extremities in a rush producing the
41:13sensation of a hot flush i don't think
41:16it even crossed anybody's mind until
41:17that point as to well would we go to the
41:19summit or not
41:21who are you
41:23i'm lincoln
41:26we found a climber
41:28i'm saying his name's lincoln hall i was
41:30behaving erratically not that i was
41:32aware of it the first thing they did was
41:34to secure me to a rope
41:35i want to get i want to get off the boat
41:39at the time he seemed to think that he
41:40was on a boat and the one thing that he
41:42was desperately trying to do frozen
41:43fingers and all was to try and pull
41:45himself off the ridge there to try and
41:47kind of disembark from the boat which
41:49obviously wasn't the best of ideas at
41:50the time because it was about a 10 000
41:52foot drop
41:53we're off
42:02down and advanced base camp kevin has
42:04had a bad night
42:06yesterday was a horrible day
42:09we lost two very very good friends
42:12um thomas in the morning
42:14and then a hell of a day with lincoln
42:17um
42:18last night i went to bed
42:20and i'll be honest i shed some tears in
42:22my tent for them
42:23i just couldn't believe that we lost two
42:25friends on the mountain
42:27today i woke up and as you can see it's
42:30a beautiful day on everest
42:32went out to alex
42:34and heard the news that uh
42:37the lincoln is still alive
42:40so alex instantly
42:42launched a rescue
42:44and currently
42:46these amazing guys from nepal
42:48are climbing up there
42:50to hopefully bring our friend down
42:52[Music]
42:55miles and his colleagues stay with
42:57lincoln for four hours
42:59just before we saw lincoln i
43:01firmly believed at that moment that
43:03there was nothing that could stop us
43:04from reaching the summit
43:06the time spent with him has meant their
43:08precious oxygen supply has depleted
43:11and it's now too late in the day to
43:13continue
43:15after years of saving to raise the
43:17twenty five thousand dollars he needed
43:19for the expedition
43:21it is all over for miles
43:23i knew then that in my lifetime i was
43:25never ever going to get to the summit i
43:27took one last look took a picture and
43:29then got down as fast as possible
43:31i was so pissed off i can't even tell
43:32you
43:34[Music]
43:35i know what it's like
43:37to turn back from the summit i know that
43:39sort of huge burning sense of
43:41disappointment
43:42and i do know that miles
43:46felt that as well
43:48it took me uh 24 hours to get the
43:50perspective that
43:52in the big picture everything had worked
43:54out fine the summit missing the summit
43:55didn't bother me that much lincoln was
43:57okay um and i got so many emails from
44:00friends at home who had said
44:02i don't know what i would have done if
44:03i'd read that you left this guy and gone
44:05on to the summit
44:09base camp base camp do you receive over
44:13due to a radio blackout kevin is unable
44:16to transmit the good news
44:19base camp base camp from abc over
44:24his family believe he's dead
44:27and yet the man is
44:29almost having a fist fight
44:31with the sherpas that are trying to
44:33bring him down it's almost comical if he
44:35wasn't so sad
44:38base camp base camp do you receive over
44:42of course we all know this up here
44:44but his friends down at base camp
44:46uh going through hell believing their
44:48friend is dead
44:50and i can't tell them
44:52base camp base camp do you receive over
44:54it is several hours before kevin
44:56eventually gets through to base camp and
44:58from there the good news spreads around
45:01the world people in our office in sydney
45:03saying they'd heard
45:04somewhere on the
45:06via the internet that
45:08they thought lincoln might be alive
45:10and my immediate response to that was
45:13no don't go there don't clutch onto that
45:15given we've just been through the trough
45:16of death
45:18and then
45:19until we found out for sure what was
45:21going on
45:21[Music]
45:27well i was just generally
45:29surfing the net someone emailed me a
45:32bunch of news links saying
45:34stuff about my dad and it had on the
45:35front page
45:37everest climb i found the life
45:40and had a picture of dad there
45:44it was
45:45stated as fact that he was alive
45:48and so we
45:51we breathed heavily for a while and
45:54and
45:55thought we couldn't believe it
45:58[Music]
46:03after 36 hours of fighting for his life
46:07lincoln hall makes his momentous arrival
46:09at advanced base camp
46:11he is exhausted
46:13and emotionally drained
46:16kevin orgello is there to capture the
46:18moment
46:20where you're in a bloody flowmaker
46:26i mean i'm alive now i got some more
46:28frostbite to my collection it's good
46:30really because my kids have never seen
46:31fresh frostbite
46:36[Music]
46:39we hope you're so proud to have the flag
46:41there
46:47i almost left my children
46:49without a father and my
46:51wife without a husband and
46:54had that happened i could not even begin
46:57to think
46:58about forgiving myself
47:01which was why
47:02i just had to come back
47:04yeah hi there
47:06i only got the opportunity to talk to
47:10barbara once i was down an advanced base
47:13camp so apparently i'm getting on
47:14youtube
47:16um
47:17lincoln's voice
47:19was so unrecognizable faint
47:22croaky crackly
47:24that i wasn't sure it was him
47:27i'll tell her you're well come on
47:28because i'm well you know they're saying
47:30i'm well leader that's what i need to
47:31tell you
47:32they've been forcing food into me with
47:33bastards
47:34she couldn't believe it was me and what
47:37i did was i said well because it's me i
47:39hope you haven't started looking for
47:40another husband
47:42i thought well that really that really
47:44is
47:45that's him that's him
47:47what do you reckon
47:51doesn't look the greatest but he is he
47:53is
47:55it was
47:56so exciting it was bloody exciting
47:59because we felt just so wretched
48:02you know
48:03and
48:05and so it was all that much more sweet
48:07[Music]
48:10this footage shows lincoln finally
48:13reaching base camp
48:15after two months on everest
48:17the expedition is over
48:2022 years on lincoln hall has achieved
48:24his dream
48:26but his greatest achievement was not
48:28reaching the summit
48:29but getting down alive
48:32his first priority is to find the
48:34sherpas who helped save his life
48:37i just wanted to
48:39to thank them so much for
48:41for what they had done because they
48:43really had risked their lives for me
48:48if pember or any of the other sherpas
48:51had died and i survived
48:54[Music]
48:56would be the most dreadful
48:57outcome possible
49:00it would just be the worst thing i can
49:02think of
49:04pember was the only uh sherpa that i was
49:07able to
49:08see as soon as i got down
49:13[Music]
49:16he just kept telling me don't worry
49:18you're alive don't worry it's okay
49:21and uh
49:24and i think they were just so happy that
49:26that what they had done it had saved my
49:28life
49:30with the trophy of climbing everest so
49:33highly prized
49:34the 2006 season of death is unlikely to
49:38be the last
49:39lincoln hall's return from the dead on
49:41everest is a miracle
49:44he should have frozen to death
49:46but he didn't
49:47he should have died from cerebral odema
49:50but he didn't
49:52his survival still eludes explanation by
49:55medical science
49:57and it's something he is still coming to
49:59terms with one thing that's
50:01helped me to deal with that is to is the
50:03tibetan buddhist
50:05interpretation of
50:06of the nature of death which is that
50:08consciousness
50:09leaves the
50:10body you know in different stages and
50:13there's eight of those stages and it's
50:15basically a shutting down a bit like you
50:16do when you get out of your helicopter
50:18you turn this off and you turn that off
50:19when the whirring starts to go quieter
50:21and quieter
50:22well i i went through the two of those
50:25levels i can take two of those boxes in
50:27terms of
50:28consciousness leaving me now the big
50:30question is
50:31what caused the reverse
50:33i just don't know
50:35[Music]
50:45[Music]
50:59you

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