Singapore: Australian Chin-Tark Chan should have celebrated his 50th birthday having just conquered one of Nepal’s great mountains. He died on it instead, amid worsening weather, bureaucratic snags and disputes about rescue tactics.
“Chinny”, from Perth, who was well known in the mountaineering community, had been with a small group of adventurers and sherpas on a multi-week ascent up Nepal’s Himlung Himal, a 7126-metre summit near the border with Tibet.
Perth man Chin-Tark Chan had a passion for climbing – often in Nepal.Credit: Facebook
But with about 300 metres to go, the Australian showed signs of extreme high-altitude sickness. He was vomiting blood, and more was coming from his nose, and was in and out of consciousness. He died 700 metres lower on October 29 two days later, when rescue efforts failed.
For different reasons, both the trekking company behind the climb and Chan’s insurer believe delays in getting Chan off the mountain could have been avoided.
Tour company 8K Expeditions was leading the ascent that day. When Chan fell ill, its guides contacted Global Rescue, a US-based emergency co-ordination service that was Chan’s specialist insurer, seeking a helicopter extraction for the Australian on October 27.
“Initially, the weather is good, and they needed to send a helicopter immediately,” 8K Expeditions co-founder Lakpa Sherpa said. “At that time, it could have saved [Chan’s] life.”
Himlung Himal in Nepal stands at an elevation of 7126 metres.Credit: 8K Expeditions
But Global Rescue declined to send a rescue helicopter to 6800 metres when the guides requested it, citing “unacceptable risk” and the “maximum operating altitude” set by Nepal’s aviation regulations.
“There are regulations, sir … [and] life comes first in this moment,” Lakpa told this masthead. “Mount Everest Camp Three is 7200 to 7300 metres elevation. Every season, more than 10 to 15 longline rescues are held there.
“Six thousand eight hundred metres is very different, very less.”
Lakpa said he did not hold Global Rescue, which he has recommended to clients, responsible for Chan’s death.
“Mountains are very dangerous. There is no guarantee of life. Everybody knows that,” he said.
Global Rescue ruled out a longline rescue for Chan, where a victim is winched up to a helicopter, and instead told the sole sherpa caring for Chan to move the Australian about 600 metres down the mountain, where Global Rescue hoped to land a helicopter. The rest of Chan’s group are believed to have continued the expedition to the summit, with other guides.
“There was only one guide and [Chan] is unconscious. How is it possible [to move him]?” Lakpa said. “Once Global Rescue declined the rescue, we mobilised another helicopter and tried to save Chin-Tark’s life.”
Global Rescue said that “despite repeated explanations” at the time of the request for help, the sherpa with Chan insisted that a helicopter be sent to the pair’s location at 6800 metres, because of the climber’s failing health. It said the decision by 8K Expeditions to seek another helicopter at that point made delays worse.
Lakpa said there were no helicopters equipped to perform a longline rescue available that day but an experienced pilot with a company called Prabhu Helicopters agreed to attempt a daring rescue by hovering just above the earth and snow, in the hope Chan could be loaded directly into the helicopter from the ground.
However, Lakpa said the weather had worsened by the time the helicopter arrived and the pilot could not pull off the attempt. The helicopter did drop off two more sherpas to help get Chan further down the mountain, to Global Rescue’s preferred location for the rescue, Himlung Himal Camp Three, at an altitude of 6210 metres.
Meanwhile, Global Rescue had secured a “vetted” company called Kailash Helicopter Services to rescue Chan. But when the frost-bitten Australian and the sherpas made it to Camp Three several hours later, Kailash had still not departed from Kathmandu because of “permit conflicts”. The fact Prabhu Helicopters had already applied for flight permission under Chan’s name had caused problems, according to Global Rescue.
“Throughout the day, weather conditions worsened. Snowfall across Himlung Himal prevented any helicopter launches,” Global Rescue said.
It was unclear if weather conditions would have allowed Kailash to take off from Kathmandu sooner if the paperwork had been faster coming through.
The sherpas got Chan down to Camp Three, but persistent bad weather, including strong winds, ruled out a helicopter rescue even at this location, Lakpa said. When the winds dropped and a window opened to try to get Chan further down the mountain, the sherpas made out for Camp Two, 410 metres lower. The Australian did not make it. He died on October 29 at an altitude of 6100 metres. No helicopter was en route.
The process for securing flight permits for Himlung Himal and other restricted areas involves several steps, including securing written authorisation from district headquarters and clearance from both Nepal’s Ministry of Home Affairs and the Civil Aviation Authority, according to Global Rescue communications director Bill McIntyre.
“Typically, permits are approved between two and four hours,” he said. “This took longer because the permit was held by Prabhu, whom the expedition company arranged separately. Global Rescue did not authorise those actions.”
Friends have described Chan as charismatic, funny and kind.
“The entire team of my company, the mountaineering industry, everybody, are very sad, because he was a very nice man,” Lakpa said. “For me, honestly, he’s like my brother. I cry very, very hard.”
A fund-raiser in Chan’s name has so far raised more than $11,000.
“While no words can ease this loss, we choose to honour Chinny’s memory by giving back to those who make high-altitude expeditions possible – the devoted Sherpas of Nepal,” organisers say.
Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority did not respond to questions posed by this masthead.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
