...Lincoln had reached the summit at 9 am in good speed and made an upbeat radio call from the top. But within an hour, Lincoln was moving slowly and losing his coordination. He descended to 8800 meters by 10 am, and 30 minutes later, Lincoln sat down in the snow, unable to move on his own.

For 9 hours, three Sherpas tried to ferry Lincoln down, but managed only to lower him 100 meters. He lost consciousness after 6 hours and 3 hours later, the Sherpas declared Lincoln dead at 7:20 pm (local time) on May 25. After he reportedly had showed no signs of life for hours, Lincoln was left at the same point (second step 8700 m) where Thomas Weber had died 7 hours before.

In darkness, their oxygen supplies exhausted and developing snow blindness, the Sherpas were ordered by the expedition leader Alex Abramov to descend and save their own lives.

First Sherpas reach Lincoln next day at 11 am

12 hours later, May 26 at 7 am, climbers on summit push found Lincoln motionless in the snow, but showing weak signs of life. They gave him oxygen, tea and radioed for help. Abramov and most other expeditions immediately dispatched all available resources such as oxygen, a stretcher, and man power up the mountain to save Lincoln.

4 hours later, at 11 am, 3 Sherpas reached Lincoln at 8700 meters. They administered altitude drugs and fluids to the climber. Lincoln now began to talk, but his speech was slurry and he was very weak. The 3 Sherpas proceeded to immediately carry the climber 50 meters over a technical section until they were met by a second rescue team of 8 Sherpas.

"We shall overcome"

After a total of 11 hours of descent, and 23 hours since he had been left for dead, Lincoln and his 11 rescuers reached camp 1 at North Col (7000m) by 10 pm on May 26; Lincoln even managing the snow slope from 7500 m without assistance. Lincoln had by then spent close to 3 days in the death zone since his summit push on the early morning of May 24; and at least 12 hours of them without oxygen, exposed on Everest north ridge...

i really don't think anyone here can make such firm moral judgements, even sir ed hillary. conditions change, and it all depends on how the climber is feeling themselves at the time as to whether or not they try and save someone. the only way to know exactly what to do is to actually be there at the time, and know exactly how the possible rescuer feels. how can you say for sure what you'd do, if you were up there, absolutely buggered after a hard ascent?

I guess ROCKETSOCKS did spent way to much time in thin air, what damaged his brain.I can't belive that climbers think so stupid.If all of us would think that way, we all would be the kind Mr. Bush guy !!!!selfish.

Bah! Not possible. In those conditions you're as good as dead, not even 30 people could help you even if they tried. It's best to just ignore such hopeless cases and continue on to the summit. Do you want to tell your friends you summited Everest or that you almost summited Everest and instead saved a man's life? Obviously you've got to go for the only thing that matters, the peak!

Obviously you've got to go for the only thing that matters, the peak!

Bah! Not possible. In those conditions you're as good as dead, not even 30 people could help you even if they tried. It's best to just ignore such hopeless cases and continue on to the summit. Do you want to tell your friends you summited Everest or that you almost summited Everest and instead saved a man's life? Obviously you've got to go for the only thing that matters, the peak!