This is Annapurna

A documentary from 🎥 Wormkit Lo -- Please Subscribe:    / @arjet   who was there filming the expedition

In part is the tragic story of Annapurna climbers Malaysian Wui Kin Chin, 49, and Nima Tshering Sherpa, 32, has captured global attention.
Sadly, Dr. Chin passed away in a Singapore hospital on May 2, 2019.

How Dr. Chin could go from summiting Annapurna at 8091-meter/26,545-feet with 30 other climbers and then being alone for over 40 hours a few hundred meters below the summit is difficult to understand. Dr. Chin was a very physically active man. He had climbed the 7 Summits and another 8000-meter peak, Manaslu. He had run 41 full marathons with the last one in 2014 for the New York Marathon where he completed the 26.2 miles in 4:55:01.

When Chin became unconscious and stopped moving at 7,500-meters, Nima gave Chin his own oxygen at 5:00 pm and rushed to the next camp to call for help. He stumbled into Camp 4 at 7,100-meters at 12:30 am suffering from frostbite and with a hurt back.

While there are many heroes in this story, Nima stands out. The 32 year-old Sherpa from Khumjung is married and has three children, aged 3, 9, and 11 plus supports his 70 year-old mother.

-------------------Did Red Tape Kill a Man on Annapurna?-------------------------
When Wui Kin Chin collapsed high on the deadliest mountain in the world, he urgently needed a rescue. Instead, he sat alone at 24,000 feet for more than 40 hours.
Before taking on Annapurna, Wui Kin Chin had climbed all of the seven summits and Manaslu, and run 41 marathons.

On April 23, 2019, Wui Kin Chin and Nima Tshering Sherpa stood on top of Nepal’s Annapurna, the deadliest 8,000-meter peak in the world.

It was 4:40 in the afternoon, late in the day for a summit, and the sun was getting low on the horizon. Still, 30 other climbers accompanied the men on top of the 26,545-foot peak, 17 of whom were Sherpas hired by Seven Summits Treks, a Nepal-based guiding outfit.

The 32 climbers were not part of a unified team under a single leader, which is the usual approach on bigger budget commercial expeditions to popular mountains like Everest. Instead, the climbers had joined a single permit to share the overhead costs and expenses like base-camp cooks and fixed ropes. It’s a common tactic on the less frequently visited 8,000-meter peaks.

On this trip, Seven Summits treks had done the organizing, paired most of the climbers with a Sherpa, and then—largely—left them to their own devices. Chin had specifically requested that the outfitter hire the 31-year-old Nima to guide him up the mountain based on recommendations he’d gotten from other climbers.

A bespectacled anesthesiologist from Malaysia, Chin was a careful and meticulous man. Before taking on Annapurna, the 49-year-old had climbed all of the seven summits and 26,759-foot Manaslu, and run 41 marathons. But Chin climbed slowly to the top, and on the way down he began to lag further and further behind the rest of the climbers who’d made the summit. After descending about 2,000 feet, he ran out of supplemental oxygen. He looked lethargic, his steps becoming uneven. Finally he sat down in the snow and told his guide that he couldn’t go on. Nima’s English isn't great, and the two men had difficulty communicating. But it was clear that Chin was in serious trouble. Nima gave his client the rest of his own oxygen, and took off to get help at the next camp, about 1,300 feet below.

Chin settled in for what he hoped would be a short wait.

Though Chin had paid Seven Summits Treks to guide him up the mountain, he had also purchased a membership with Global Rescue, a New Hampshire-based company that provides emergency medical evacuations, to get him out of any life threatening situation he might encounter. (Full disclosure: I’m a Global Rescue member.)

Both companies tell different stories about what happened after Nima staggered into Camp 4, at 23,300 feet, a little after midnight. He had fallen and hurt his back on the descent to the camp and had taken much longer to get to there than he’d hoped. He relayed information about Chin’s condition down to his boss, Dawa Sherpa, at Base Camp.

Critical information about Chin’s location and who was going to go get him appears to have been either miscommunicated or ignored

Dawa is one of three brothers who founded Seven Summits Treks and currently serves as the outfit’s director. Dawa says he called Global Rescue, gave them Chin’s GPS coordinates, and asked for helicopter assistance.....

Continue reading at: https://www.outsideonline.com/2395761...

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