Imagine being left for dead on the world’s tallest mountain.
The freezing wind howls, the oxygen is thin, and every step could be your last.
This was the reality for Lincoln Hall, an experienced Australian climber, in 2006.
Yet against all odds, he survived.
Perched above a cliff at 8,000 feet
Climbing the world’s highest mountain is no joke and takes months of preparation.
Australian mountaineer Lincoln Hall was well aware of the risks, yet disaster struck when he attempted to climb Mount Everest in 2006.
At 8,600 meters (28,200 feet), near the summit, he suffered cerebral edema, a life-threatening swelling of the brain caused by extreme altitude.
His guides tried for hours to revive him, but as night fell and conditions worsened, they concluded he was dead. They left him behind to save their own lives.
The next day, Lincoln’s family was heartbroken to hear that he had tragically died during his Everest climb.
But that wasn’t the whole truth. Up on the mountain, the struggle for survival was still raging.
Lincoln was then alone on a narrow ridge, perched above a cliff dropping 8,000 feet, wearing nothing but a thin fleece top. His gloves, hat, goggles, and oxygen had been taken by those who assumed he had perished. The extreme cold and lack of gear could have killed him within hours — but somehow, Hall clung to life.
The next morning, another team of climbers including American mountaineer Dan Mazur came across Lincoln, who had been left alone a day earlier. Sitting upright, hallucinating, and believing he was on a boat rather than the world’s deadliest mountain, Hall was in a perilous state.
Mazur said that Lincoln’s first words to him were:
”I imagine you are surprised to see me here”.
”Where did you come from,” Mazur replied.
