By Sudeshna Sarkar
IANS
Kathmandu : A team of Nepali climbers, who sought to summit Mt Everest with the blessings of the government, abandoned a sick woman climber in the 'Death Zone' above 8,000 m.
Usha Bista, stricken with high altitude sickness, was found lying at a height of around 8,400 m, nearly unconscious due to cerebral oedema – swelling in the brain due to scarcity of oxygen in the high altitude.
She would have most probably died had not a group of western climbers launched a heroic rescue operation to bring her down.
The Loktantrik Sagarmatha Expedition 2007 – Democratic Everest Expedition 2007 – is headed by known Everester Ang Rita Sherpa, dubbed the Snow Leopard because of his climbing prowess, and includes Dorji Sherpa, another veteran said to have summited the 8,848 m peak 14 times.
The "Democratic" Nepali expedition had started out with much media hype last month, on the day of the Nepali New Year, announcing their plan to plant on the summit the flags of Nepal's ruling eight-parties.
The design was apparently to show the world that there was democracy in Nepal with the end of King Gyanendra's 15-month regime last year.
Before starting out, the team met the top leaders of all the eight parties, including Maoist supremo Prachanda, deposed prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba of Nepali Congress-Democratic and former deputy prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, who heads the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist.
At that time, Nepal's media also hyped Bista's inclusion, calling her the first woman from the farwest region, the Terai plains as well as Chhetri community, to attempt Mt Everest. So far, all Nepali women who have summited Mt Everest are from the Sherpa community, except one.
On Monday, at least one member of the expedition, Ang Ngima Sherpa, reached the summit where he released a book, "Kali Pani", written by Nepali Pratik Dhakal.
But no one from the 'Democratic" expedition stayed with Bista, found by climber and guide Dave Hahn, who was with the American 2007 IMG Everest Expedition.
When Hahn reached Bista, she was described as being in "very bad shape".Doctors at the base camp below asked Hahn to give her an injection and get her down or she "would surely die".
Hahn and a few other climbers then managed to bring Bista down to a lower altitude. A team of doctors from the British Extreme Everest Expedition there diagnosed her as also suffering from hypothermia and frostbite in the hands.
American climber Michael Haugen, who along with another member of the IMG expedition, Casey Aaron Grom, took part in the gruelling rescue operation from there, told mountaineering web site Mounteverest.net, "The doctors said that if she did not get down to lower altitudes with more definitive care, she would die."
Though Haugen and Grom had already been climbing for nine hours, having summited Mt Everest that day, they along with others organised the strenuous rescue that involved putting Bista in a sleeping bag, strapping it to a sled, dragging it along the steep slope and lowering her with ropes when dragging was not possible.
On Thursday, Nepal's official media gave a sanitised version of the incident, saying Bista was taken to the base camp Wednesday.
However, there was no mention of her teammates' whereabouts or the reason for their having left her on her own when she was so seriously ill.
The incident revives memories of 2006 when Australian climber Lincoln Hall was left for dead at 8,500 m by his team but survived 12 hours in the open without warm clothing or food.
While Hall was rescued the next day, British climber David Sharp, who was on his own, was left to perish by dozens of mountaineers who passed him on the way to the summit without stopping to help him.
The two incidents triggered worldwide condemnation with Everest legend Sir Edmund Hillary flaying the way commercialisation had turned mountaineering into trophy hunting by the rich.