MovieChat Forums > Everest (2015) Discussion > Question about Scott's actions

Question about Scott's actions

posted 9 years ago by gtgrad95
11 replies | jump to latest

At one point it shows Scott, the leader of the rival Mountain Madness expedition, at the summit with Rob. He is telling Rob that his whole team already made it up and are on their way back down, while all of Rob's team didn't make it. My question is, why did Scott even bother going all the way up to the summit? He's the leader of the expedition and he has already summited before. Plus, he is responsible for getting his clients down safely. Plus he was already pretty sick and shouldn't have even gone that far. I am confused about why he would put his life and his team's life in danger for something that wasn't even necessary.

[–] duckofprey 9 years ago

I just watched the movie for the first time.

I may be wrong, and probably am, but I don't recall Scott making it to the top. You sure he did? I probably won't watch it again until next weekend.

[–] johnston.scot 9 years ago

I recall that he did make it to the summit. I remember him giving the pile of flags and stuff a distinctive little tap on the top with his hand.

[–] ceric-703-490951 9 years ago

He did summit, but I also wonder why he did. He was playing catch-up with his group and was already ill. Since they had all summited, he should've caught up with the highest bunch and then led them down.

[–] duckofprey 9 years ago

Further proof my ever aging memory sucks. Thanks guys.

[–] cpoet 9 years ago

I'm there with you, Duck. I didn't think he went to the top, either. In fact, I lost track of Scott and didn't know until the end credits that he died.

I thought he messed himself up escorting someone down and then going back up through the acclimatization levels, too fast. He took a shot of the dex stuff while he was on the radio with Rob, who was telling him to stop and rest a day, but he said he was okay, even though he looked wrecked and not nearly in good enough shape to get all the way to top. Especially if it was to re-prove a point and no one from his group needed him up there.

After that, the only time I remember seeing him is when someone tells him he really looks like crap.

How, when, where did he die?

[–] duckofprey 9 years ago

Not too long after he was told he looked like crap, they even showed a closeup of it.

[–] gtgrad95 9 years ago

Scott made it to the top with his sherpa, Lopsang. They show him touching the top of the rock at the summit and saying 'wooweeee'. He then sits down and Rob comes over to him and says 'you don't look so good man'. Lopsang then helps him up and they start their descent down. On the way, they encounter Doug who was on his way up. Rob says he will catch up with Scott and Lopsang and they continue on. At some point, Scott collapses into the snow and says he can't move any further. He eventually dies in the same spot.

[–] cpoet 9 years ago

Thanks! I watched the ending several times--this movie is ALWAYS playing--and I've seen him tap the summit "point" and I've seen him collapse, but I just can't ever seem to be looking at the screen when he dies.
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[–] palisade-1 9 years ago

At some point, Scott collapses into the snow and says he can't move any further. He eventually dies in the same spot.

It took Scott a number of hours to actually die there. There are witness accounts from Lopsang and also from Taiwanese climber Makalu Gau, who collapsed near Scott.

Mountainzone give some details:

Climber Ed Viesturs told Outside Online that Boukreev made several attempts to climb after Fischer, but the weather was too severe, and he had to turn back. According to reports from sirdar Lopsang Sherpa, who had climbed with Fischer, he was having a very difficult time and at one point asked for a helicopter. Fischer knew that helicopter assistance at this altitude was not possible, and it is believed he was becoming ill, possibly suffering from pulmonary or cerebral edema (fluid seeping out of vessels or membranes, such as capillaries in the lungs or brain from severe hypertension that is sometimes a form of altitude sickness.) When Fischer collapsed an hour above camp, Lopsang stayed with him as long as he could, and later said he was prepared to die with his friend. Fischer threatened to jump if Lopsang, who had been climbing without oxygen, did not descend. Hoping to send back help, Lopsang finally agreed and left Fischer on a protected ledge.

Because of its randomness, altitude sickness is frightening to even the most experienced climbers. On May 6th, Fischer had to escort a team member to lower camp because of severe illness and knowing that even the strongest climbers can suddenly be affected, Fischer worried then if this would be his trip for getting it.

When other Sherpas finally reached Fischer, he was in a coma and roped to Makalu Gao, who had been left their by Sherpas trying to help him down. Only capable of taking one climber, the Sherpas chose Gao because he could be revived and would be more likely to live. They bundled-up Fischer and left him with extra oxygen.

Boukreev reached Fischer late on Saturday, but Fischer had died.

http://www.mountainzone.com/climbing/fischer/fischer.html

Makalu Gau tells his story with recollections about Scott's last moments in Breashears' documentary that I linked to before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ5olbdXd10

Scott's wife is very critical of how her husband was portrayed in this film:

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/movies/new-movies/the-widow-of-scott-fischer-has-added-her-voice-to-the-chorus-condemning-the-new-everest-movie/news-story/8d3b5d0661c779b346c1211a828b6f13

But to be fair, the film concentrates more on Rob and his team because Beck Weathers' book, on which the film is based, does the same. Beck was on Rob's team and most of his story is centered around the Adventure Consultants crew and what they did.

[–] Wookieebitch 9 years ago

In reality it didn't quite happen the way it did in the film. Scott did make it to the summit but Hall and Fischer never had that conversation. I don't believe they were even on the summit at the same time. Fischer was behind the bottleneck and there are pictures online that he took of the bottleneck at the Hillary step. Fischer was not behaving as he normally would have and they now believe he was suffering from altitude sickness much earlier than they had realized and was making poor decisions. The pictures he took of the bottleneck showed the sky looking less than hospitable. It's generally accepted that on any other day he would have turned around at that point if he hadn't already.

It is a fascinating and tragic story but unfortunately, a few mistakes were made that day.

[–] heather-stai 8 years ago

It's generally believed that Scott was suffering from a combination of HAPE and HACE very early in the climb. He was going up and down the mountain, between camps, several times that day to escort climbers. He barely rested in between climbs, let alone gave himself to acclimatize. By the time he had summited, he was too sick to know the severity of his situation. With as sick as he was, he very well could have thought that he was on his way down the mountain when he was in fact summiting.