David Sharp (mountaineer)

British mountain climber (1972–2006)

David Sharp (15 February 1972 – 15 May 2006) was an English mountaineer who died near the summit of Mount Everest. His death caused controversy and debate because he was passed by a number of other climbers heading to and returning from the summit as he was dying, although a number of others tried to help him. and was noted as being a talented rock climber who seemed to acclimatise well, and was known for being in good humour around mountaineering camps. He appeared briefly in season one of the television show Everest: Beyond the Limit, which was filmed the same season as his ill fated expedition to Everest. Sharp had a degree from the University of Nottingham and pursued climbing as a hobby. He graduated with a Mechanical Engineering degree in 1993. Sharp also took a six month sabbatical from his job to go on a backpacking trip through South America and Asia. In May 2002, Sharp summited the Cho Oyu with Jamie McGuinness and Tsering Pande Bhote. Cho Oyu is the sixth highest peak in the world and is near Mount Everest.

Sharp's first Mount Everest expedition was in 2003 with a group led by British climber Richard Dougan. The party also included Terence Bannon, Martin Duggan, Stephen Synnott, and Jamie McGuinness. Only Bannon and McGuinness reached the summit, but the group incurred no fatalities. climbed to , but did not reach the summit. but who became, on this 2004 expedition, the 56th French person to summit Everest. and included Austrians Marcus Noichl, Paul Koller, and Fredrichs "Fritz" Klausner as well as Nepalis Chhang Dawa Sherpa, Lhakpa Gyalzen Sherpa, and Zimba Zangbu Sherpa (also known as Ang Babu). D'Aubarede and Sharp disagreed on the topic of using supplementary oxygen while climbing. D'Aubarede said it was wrong to climb alone and to attempt summiting without using supplementary oxygen. However, Sharp apparently did not consider it a challenge to climb Everest with supplementary oxygen. Before Sharp booked his trip with Asian Trekking, his friend McGuinness, an experienced climber and guide, invited him to join his organised expedition at a discount. Sharp acknowledged this as a good deal but declined so he could act independently and climb at his own pace. Sharp was transported by vehicle to the Base Camp, and his equipment was transported by yak train to the Advance Base Camp, as part of the Asian Trekking "basic services" package. Sharp remained there for five days to acclimatise to the altitude. Sharp's predicament was not immediately known for several reasons: he was not climbing with an expedition that would monitor climbers' locations; he had not told anyone beforehand of his summit attempt (although other climbers spotted him on his ascent); he did not have a radio or satellite phone with him to let anyone know where he was or that he was in trouble and two other more inexperienced climbers from his group went missing at around the same time. Some members of the group of climbers Sharp was with, including George Dijmarescu, realised Sharp was missing when he did not return later in the evening on May 15 and nobody reported seeing him. Sharp was an experienced climber who had previously turned around when he had experienced problems and it was surmised that Sharp had sought shelter at one of the higher camps or bivouacked somewhere higher up on Everest, so his failure to return to camp did not initially cause serious concern. High altitude bivouacs are very risky but are sometimes recommended in certain extreme situations. Sharp ultimately died under the rocky overhang, sitting with arms clasped around his legs, next to Green Boots. The "cave" is situated approximately above the high camps, commonly called Camp 4 but the extreme cold, fatigue, lack of oxygen and darkness made a descent to Camp 4 very dangerous or next to impossible.

Himex organised several teams to climb Everest during the 2006 climbing season expedition. The first team was guided by mountain climber and guide Bill Crouse. At around 01:00 on 14 May, Crouse's expedition team passed by Sharp during their ascent near the location on the North route known as the "Exit Cracks". When Crouse's team descended around 11:00, they saw Sharp once again but this time he was higher up on the mountain at the base of the Third Step. They left their high camp in the evening on 14 May and were essentially traveling in three separate groups. Late in the evening to early morning, the Turkish team members encountered Sharp in the darkness while they were ascending. The first group encountered Sharp around midnight, noticed he was alive and thought that he appeared to be a climber taking a short break. Sharp supposedly waved them on. Some time later, others who noticed Sharp thought he was already dead; recovery of a dead climber's body is almost impossible due to the conditions so far up the mountain. Some of the Turkish team summited early in the morning on 15 May while some turned back near the summit due to difficulties one of their team members was having. At about 01:00, Woodward and his group (including Inglis, Alexander, Whetu and some Sherpa porters) encountered Sharp, who Woodward knew should not be there. He was neither conscious nor moving, was suffering from severe frostbite but they could see that he was breathing. Woodward noticed Sharp had thin gloves and no oxygen and said that they yelled at Sharp to get up, get moving and follow the headlamps back to the high camps. Woodward shined his headlamp in Sharp's eyes, but Sharp was unresponsive. During his descent, Chaya and the Sherpa porter/guide he was with, Dorjee, encountered Sharp a little after 09:00, noticed he was shivering and tried to help him. Chaya also notified the Himex expedition manager Russell Brice over the group's radio. Statements by Inglis suggest that he believed that Sharp was probably so close to death as to have been beyond help by the time the Inglis party passed him during his group's ascent and the reported radio calls to their base camp. However Brice, who was initially criticised for reportedly advising Inglis during his ascent to move on without assessing the situation at that time or the possibility of rescue for Sharp, denies the claim that any radio call was received about the stranded climber until he was notified some eight hours later by climber Maxime Chaya, who had not seen Sharp in the darkness of the ascent. The Discovery Channel was filming the Himex expedition for a documentary Everest: Beyond the Limit, including an HD camera carried by Whetu (that became unusable during the ascent due to the extreme cold) and helmet cameras for some of the Himex Sherpas, which included footage indicating that Sharp was only found by Inglis's group on their descent. However, the group of climbers with Inglis confirmed that they did discover Sharp on the ascent, but they do not confirm that Brice was contacted regarding Sharp during the ascent. By the time the Inglis group reached him on the descent and contacted Brice they were low on oxygen, heavily fatigued, with several cases of severe frostbite and other problems on the mountain, making any rescue by them impossible.

New Zealand mountaineer Jamie McGuinness reported about a Sherpa that reached Sharp on the descent, " Dawa from Arun Treks also gave oxygen to David and tried to help him move, repeatedly, for perhaps an hour. But he could not get David to stand alone or even stand resting on his shoulders. Dawa had to leave him too. Even with two Sherpas it was not going to be possible to get David down the tricky sections below".

Mountaineer David Watson, who was on Everest that season on the North side, commented to The Washington Post: "It's too bad that none of the people who cared about David knew he was in trouble", because "the outcome would have been a lot different." Watson thought it was possible to save Sharp, and he said Sharp had worked with other climbers in 2004, to save a Mexican climber who had gotten into trouble. Watson went to Sharp's tent and showed Sharp's passport to Tashi, who confirmed his identity.