Everest and Examples of Self-Sacrifice. A Spanish expedition led by Juan Carlos Gómez sucessfully completed the ascent of Everest on October 6 when Jose Antonio Garcés, Francisco José Pérez and Rafael Vidaurre reached the summit from the South Col. Gómez stated that he was clearly bemused by the French group led by Denis Pivot, which he described as not really a team but a collection of individuals, each doing his own thing. Although he did not explicitly say so, he clearly has a different philosophy and his party closely supported each other. An Australian climber commented with some amazement how one Spaniard, Lorenzo Ortas, carried two oxygen bottles to 8500 meters where he deposited them, not for his own use but for that of his teammates to enable them and not him to reach the summit. The leader Gómez did not quite reach the top because when he was on the Hillary Step, he met Vidaurre, who was beginning his descent but was now nearly blind because of sun and wind blowing into his eyes. Vidaurre was weeping in his distress and begged Gómez to help him down. Gómez did not tell him to wait for a bit while he went to the nearby summit but immediately abandoned his summit bid and helped his friend descend without any accident.

Elizabeth Hawley