Lopsang Jangbu Sherpa’s attempt to escort Scott Fischer down the mountain

Lopsang Jangbu Sherpa’s attempt to escort Scott Fischer down the mountain was a desperate effort to get a gravely weakened climber off the upper slopes, and it ended with Fischer left in a sheltered hollow as darkness and a blizzard made further descent impossible. In a retrospective account, Lopsang described a slow, rope-assisted evacuation punctuated by rest, attempts to warm Fischer, and repeated pleas to continue toward Camp IV; the Sherpas sent with supplies the next morning found Fischer dead.

The descent begins

Lopsang’s account places the attempted evacuation on the descent from the summit. He said he had rope and sent Fischer ahead, then kept him attached to a line because Fischer was too weak to walk reliably. At one point, Fischer went down while Lopsang played out the rope, controlling his movement rather than allowing him to descend alone. The line became the practical means of keeping the two together on terrain where Fischer’s strength had failed.

The descent was not a continuous march. Lopsang recalled moving down in short stretches, with frequent pauses: after roughly two minutes of progress they rested, then repeated the pattern. He described carrying and using a great deal of rope, and said the effort to get down toward the last camp took hours. The account makes the escort’s central difficulty plain: Fischer remained physically present and responsive, but was no longer able or willing to make the descent under his own power.

Attempts to keep Fischer moving

Lopsang recalled Fischer insisting that he could not walk and asking for a helicopter. Lopsang urged him toward Camp IV, telling him that the camp was close, while Fischer anticipated a much longer journey. When Fischer said he would jump rather than continue walking, Lopsang answered that he had rope and could lower him slowly. His account presents the exchange not as a single refusal but as a repeated negotiation over whether any kind of movement remained possible.

Lopsang also tried to support Fischer physically. He offered tea and juice, and described removing ice and taking off his own glove in an effort to make Fischer warm. These measures did not restore Fischer’s ability to descend. Lopsang recalled Fischer saying he was very sick and repeatedly telling him to go down, while the weather deteriorated around them.

At one point, Lopsang said, Rob Hall asked him to go to the Hillary Step with oxygen, offering him five hundred dollars. Lopsang refused, explaining that Fischer was sick and that he would not leave him to go back for the oxygen. The episode shows the immediate conflict between two urgent needs: a request to carry oxygen for another climber and Lopsang’s decision to remain with Fischer, the person he was already trying to bring down.

The storm and the decision to leave

As night came on, wind and snow made the route impossible to see. Lopsang described losing all visual direction: they could no longer distinguish the way down. He told Fischer to stay while he made a small hollow for shelter, and promised to send Sherpas, oxygen, and tea. Fischer repeatedly urged Lopsang to go down. Lopsang said he stayed with him for about an hour, but was himself becoming dangerously cold, and eventually left after again promising to send help.

The separation was not presented as the end of Lopsang’s effort. He said he planned to send stronger Sherpas, including Fischer’s own support, and the next morning two Sherpas went up with oxygen, tea, and soup. In a later part of his account, Lopsang placed Fischer and Makalu Gau together in the hollow. He said Makalu’s head was there when he encountered him, and recounted telling both men that Sherpas and supplies would come. His recollection connects the shelter to a broader effort to keep the stranded climbers alive through the night.

Death and the limits of rescue

The morning supply party arrived too late to save Fischer. Lopsang stated plainly that Makalu Gau survived but Fischer did not. He added that two Sherpas used oxygen at full pressure for three hours, without success; Fischer had also removed his jacket and thrown away his gloves. Lopsang’s account closes on the mismatch between sustained effort and outcome: rope, shelter, warmth, oxygen, tea, and soup were all attempted, but none could reverse Fischer’s condition in the storm.

Because this scene is recounted by Lopsang in a later discussion, its details come through his spoken testimony, including interruptions and moments of uncertainty. The account preserves the practical sequence of care—tethering, lowering, resting, offering drinks, making a hollow, and sending help—while also recording Fischer’s insistence that he could not walk and his repeated requests for a helicopter. The failed escort is therefore both a concrete rescue attempt and an account of how a descent could become impossible before the climber had been brought to safety.