The 1996 Everest Tragedy Case Solution

The Mount Everest is not an easy milestone to accomplish, and with deaths amounting to a grand total of 304 up till this year (alanarnette.com, 2021), it is easily one of the most difficult feats to accomplish and surpass. The tough terrain, the unforgiving climatic conditions, and the never-ending altitude coupled with the thinness of oxygen at higher altitudes all combine to make the Everest a milestone only a few daring has achieved to date.

The root cause of this problem can be solely condensed and blamed on the management and leadership styles of Scott Hall and Robb Fisher. Fisher a popular figure in the industry sought competition in Hall, who had to make a name for him after his wife had been charged for sexual harassment and was soon removed from her workplace. Thus the pressure was on for both the parties and this added pressure is what resulted in the clouding of the judgment of both individuals. The root cause of this problem can be solely identified from the statements on John Krakauer who went on to say in his book that there was a sense of disembodiment and disfigurement in the group (Krakauer, 1997). He pointed every man for himself mindset of the leaders, which then soon trickled down to the climbers as well and there was no sense of team or teamwork in the participants, clearly indicating poor leadership by the two and the lack of communication among the group.

Tragedies of this scale and magnitude are certainly not inevitable in a place like the Everest. While they can be prevented by a number of preventive measures, they still can’t be made impossible, and throughout the years, we have seen a number of people falling victim to the atrocities of the Everest. Whether it be the disaster of 1970 where six Nepalese met their demise on the world’s tallest mountain (Nag, 2017), or be it the deaths of 1974, where 6 Frenchmen met their ends by the means of a deadly avalanche (Morris, 2016) the Everest in unforgiving in its ways and can leave no stone unturned when it comes to inflicting deaths.