Arrogance

It's a pity that two of the most important figures in the events of May 10, 1996 (Boukreev and Lopsang) both died in the mountains within months.

It would probably have been a more genuine account on Krakauer's side if he had focussed his energies on uncovering the story of his own team, Adventure Consultants, after all they suffered the casualties, and Krakauer knew and understood them best. Obvious, the dead don't tell stories, and since all the client caqsualties were from AC it is difficult to speculate. If you don't see or hear something, you have to guess, and rely on a lot of circumstantial evidence. That's too bad.

Mountain Madness have a more solid story, and more reliable since all the clients are still around to tell it. Though had their own difficulties, they managed to scrape through and get out alive and unharmed. Each individual contributed to the events that day, some more and some less. Many individuals contributed incompetence, and very few were able to absorb these failures sufficiently to effect the course of events. At the end of the day, only a single individual (Boukreev) had the strength and courage (and mental alacrity)to do anything (after ascending the summit), and it's bizarre that his extraordinary efforts are not universally praised and recognised. The reason is probably because that man was not an egoist, he simply knew how to climb mountains, and loved his passion without needing popular support.
It's interesting how this quiet, strong character who seemed to have been made fun of, turned out the strongest and bravest, and the empty barrels have largely been silenced in the face of their incompetence and bullshit.

Doug Hansen drew away valuable energy (For AC), which more than likely had an effect on Hall's and Harris' deaths.

Sandy Hill Pittman also made life difficult for the crew around her. It is people who treat the mountain as she did, where the risks and efforts get 'paid for' by others, at least indirectly, this is where the mountain simply shows that it's will is done, not the will of dollars or even the stubbornness of men. The mountain tolerates sometimes, and climbers must adapt to the degree, or face the consequences.

This entire drama provides valuable surgical insight (the rich and the spoilt attempting to 'groove'up the world's highest mountain) for how the Circus Of Man gets ripped to shreds by the unhappy Sigh of Nature. We see ourselves as giants upon the Earth, but we still have not proved that we can take care of ourselves over any significant period of time. Most of us don't have enough to eat, most of us can't read. For every person out there who has enough to eat, has a job and a car, there's more than one other person who has neither of these things, and faces a desperate struggle to survive. Yet our society insists on loving the rich and beautiful, those with the loudest voices and the most conceit.

There is more strength in the sea and the sky than our most powerful weapons, but we insist on the hope that we are owners of the world, this planet, and not part of it. And all pay the price for such arrogance.