Mountaineer Lincoln Hall dies — Transcript

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1. 0:00Australian mountaineer Lincoln Hall made
2. 0:02headlines for cheating death on Mount
3. 0:04Everest. He was left for dead, but
4. 0:06somehow managed to survive the freezing
5. 0:08conditions, but six years later, he
6. 0:11couldn't beat the cancer that's now
7. 0:12taken his life at the age of 56.
8. 0:16It's one of the most formidable places
9. 0:18on Earth, and Lincoln Hall said that's
10. 0:20why he wanted to climb Mount Everest.
11. 0:23The experience is incredibly intense
12. 0:25because it is so dangerous. That's
13. 0:27somewhat of an understatement. In 2006,
14. 0:30on the way down from the summit, Lincoln
15. 0:32Hall collapsed from altitude sickness.
16. 0:34His companions had to keep going and
17. 0:36Hall was left for dead.
18. 0:39Against all odds, he survived 12 hours
19. 0:42alone. But it's just very hard to
20. 0:46to talk. I wasn't afraid of death, but I
21. 0:50wasn't going to let it happen. I just
22. 0:52had to stay alive and somehow stay awake
23. 0:56till the morning when at least there
24. 0:58would be some sun which would carry some
25. 1:00sort of warmth. He carried the scars
26. 1:02with him every day. His friends say if
27. 1:04anyone was going to survive that trek,
28. 1:06it would have been Lincoln Hall. Lincoln
29. 1:09always he was so at home in the
30. 1:11mountains. He was such a good climber
31. 1:12that he he had an aura of invincibility
32. 1:15about him. But that strength couldn't
33. 1:17conquer his misoloma. He was exposed to
34. 1:20asbestos when as a child he helped his
35. 1:22father build two cubby houses. Hall was
36. 1:25a spiritual man. He later told of an
37. 1:27out-of body experience as he lay dying
38. 1:30on the mountain. You know, I didn't want
39. 1:32to be there. But suddenly, I wasn't
40. 1:36there. I wasn't there on the rock.
41. 1:38However, I could see
42. 1:40myself on the rock about 10 m away,
43. 1:43maybe a meter or two above. As a
44. 1:45Buddhist, Lincoln Hall didn't believe in
45. 1:47God. But when asked if he was wrong,
46. 1:49what would God say to him? He would say
47. 1:52something like, "So, you've chosen this
48. 1:54path. Welcome anyway."
49. 1:58Lincoln Hall said reaching the top of
50. 2:00Mount Everest was the closest thing to
51. 2:02achieving enlightenment, and every day
52. 2:04he had since cheating death was a bonus.
53. 2:07Adrien Rella, ABC News.