Boukreev’s final attempt to reach Scott Fischer

Boukreev’s final attempt to reach Scott Fischer is a rescue effort driven by incomplete information and tested against increasingly unmistakable signs that Fischer cannot be saved. Though exhausted and urged not to climb, Boukreev sets out with oxygen and tea, reaches Fischer near the Balcony in a renewed blizzard, and finds him without breath or a pulse. The attempt ends not in rescue but in a last act of care: Boukreev shields Fischer’s face and body, then turns back through darkness and near-zero visibility.

Conflicting reports at Camp IV

After sleeping only about two hours, Boukreev woke to tea brought by Pemba and asked whether anyone had gone up to Scott. Pemba did not answer at first. Boukreev urged him to send Sherpas, but recognized that he himself had no strength to climb again without recovering. Around 8:30 a.m., he looked toward the previous day’s route and saw that the storm had weakened. He learned that Sherpas, including Lopsang’s father and Tashi Sherpa, were heading up with oxygen. He told Neal Beidleman that he would stay at Camp IV while Beidleman worked to get the clients down.

Later, after a strong wind had kept him inside, Boukreev spoke with Todd Burleson and Pete Athans, guides with Alpine Ascents who had come to help bring climbers down. He went to the Taiwanese tents after hearing that Sherpas had returned with Makalu Gau. Gau’s face and hands were badly frostbitten, but he could speak a little. He said he had been with Fischer the previous night. Boukreev initially hoped that Fischer might survive, then feared he was already dead; since Gau’s account came secondhand, Boukreev sought confirmation from the Sherpas who had gone up.

In their tent, Lopsang’s father was crying. Boukreev understood that the Sherpas said Fischer had died, though they also said he had still been breathing. They had given him oxygen through a mask, but no medicine. Boukreev went back to Burleson and Athans and asked for help going up to Fischer, believed to be alive at about 8,350 meters. Athans, who spoke Nepali and had spoken with the Sherpas, warned that the attempt was impossible: the storm was not over, oxygen had not helped, and Fischer could not swallow tea even when it was put into his mouth. Boukreev nevertheless reasoned that oxygen might still improve Fischer’s condition if he was breathing.

Choosing to climb

Boukreev returned to the Sherpas’ tent to clarify what they had done. Lopsang’s father said they had placed a mask on Fischer, opened a bottle of oxygen, and used it. Boukreev then radioed Base Camp and asked Ingrid Hunt for advice. She urged him to try whatever was possible and suggested an injection from a small medical packet he had. He promised to try everything he could.

He asked the Sherpas for three oxygen bottles and a thermos of tea. They questioned why he needed them and called his plan foolish. Athans likewise tried to dissuade him, warning that the weather might worsen again before Boukreev could return. Boukreev insisted that going up was what he needed to do. His judgment rested on a specific hope: Fischer was just below the Balcony and might have enough oxygen until about seven o’clock; if supplied with more oxygen, he might revive.

Boukreev received only two bottles, perhaps from David Breashears’s expedition, though he was unsure of their source. As he prepared to leave, the wind rose. At around 4:00 or 4:15 p.m., he asked Athans whether he would climb with him. Athans said no and began to cry, convinced there was no chance. Boukreev set out alone, carrying oxygen and equipment and moving steadily without resting.

The encounter with Beck Weathers

About 150 meters from the tents, Boukreev saw a small moving figure coming down. At first the sight seemed phantom-like; as he approached, he saw a man holding his bare hands in front of his body like a surrendering soldier. It was Beck Weathers. Weathers did not initially answer when asked who he was. He said he had seen no one and declared that he would never return to the mountains, speaking in a way Boukreev described as confused.

The encounter shook Boukreev’s concentration at the moment he needed to think clearly before climbing farther. He called back to Burleson and Athans and asked them to take care of Weathers while he continued. Weathers’s survival nevertheless strengthened Boukreev’s resolve: if a climber in such a condition could be revived and helped, perhaps Fischer might still be reachable. Boukreev took a mask and continued upward with oxygen as darkness began to fall, while strong wind and blizzard conditions returned.

Finding Fischer and turning back

At about 7:05 p.m., in darkness and a serious storm, Boukreev found Fischer through the snow. Fischer’s down suit was unzipped, one hand was bare and frozen, and the area around his face mask was frozen. Under the mask, his face was blue, like a large bruise; Boukreev saw no breathing and a clenched jaw. The hoped-for sign that oxygen might revive him was absent. Boukreev said he had lost his last hope and could do nothing; he could not stay with Fischer in the storm.

Boukreev’s assessment turned on the difference between Fischer and Weathers. Weathers had been revived and could still be helped; Fischer showed no pulse or breathing, and oxygen had not improved his condition. With the storm strengthening and Boukreev himself losing strength, the possibility that had justified the climb gave way to the recognition that there was no way to help Fischer. The decision to leave was thus not a withdrawal from an uncertain rescue so much as an acknowledgment of the signs he had found and the limits imposed by the weather.

Before descending, Boukreev roped Fischer’s pack around his face to keep birds away and placed four or five empty oxygen bottles over his body for cover. He began moving down quickly at about 7:15 p.m., feeling deeply sad and emotionally numb. By around 7:40, after reaching roughly 8,200 meters, visibility had vanished in darkness and blowing snow. He used his headlamp, but the light showed only two or three meters; oxygen did not improve his ability to see, so he stopped using it. He recognized the area near the Kangshung Face, close to where Yasuko Namba was likely lying, then changed direction, spotted oxygen bottles, turned back briefly, and climbed a little until he saw tents. The attempt to reach Fischer ended with Boukreev himself navigating back through the storm, carrying the knowledge that he had reached him too late to help.