Blinded Everest Climber Left to Die After Summit
A 28-year-old Scottish climber, Peter Kinloch, was 600 feet into his descent from the top of Mount Everest when he lost his eyesight. 12 hours and only 200 feet later, his fellow climbers decided they had to leave him.
Everest was the fifth peak of the Seven Summit Challenge for Kinloch, where climbers reach the top of the tallest peaks on all seven continents. Shortly after beginning his descent from the top of Everest, Kinloch told his fellow climbers that he could no longer see properly. An anonymous member of the group told the Daily Mail that, "Descending, Peter surprisingly seemed to lose his co-ordination and took a few slips and stumbles," and he "had initial signs of frostbite on two fingers. His speech and thinking seemed to remain sharp and he did not evidence any signs of altitude sickness."
After 12 hours of being helped along by sherpas, the other climbers decided to leave Kinloch on the mountain. They were in Everest's "death zone" near Mushroom Rock, when climbers from his group gave him high doses of oxygen, injected him with a steroid to treat altitude sickness, and left him. His father told the paper, "We can take comfort in that he achieved one of his ambitions."
A full account can be read here, at Everest News (via commenter burntbread).
