Post#2 Sandy Pittman by Ryan Horn

Sandy Pittman is a spoiled and extremely rich snob who is only interested in climbing Everest because it will boost her fame even more. In many ways it's easy to see why someone would want to have this selfish goal. With the amount of deaths and illness that occur on the slopes of Everest, those who manage to climbing the enormous mountain become legendary in the climbing world. Sandy claimed that she wanted to be the first female to successfully climb all seven summits, and that is definitely respectable. But after she lost the race to a women from Alaska, she still was determined to climb Everest. The only possible explanation of this is that she wanted to boost her fame as much as possible before her name faded. But from the moment she arrived at base camp, it's clear that she thought that the whole ordeal was going to be like climbing the small hills in California, where she grew up. "Since we'll be on Everest on Easter, I brought four wrapped chocolate eggs. An Easter egg hunt at 18,000 feet? We'll see!"(Page 122).  She clearly doesn't think that summiting the tallest peak in the world is a big deal. In some ways I admire her courage, or stupidity, whichever comes to mind first. She should know that she is going to have a difficult time standing up on the summit of Everest because of the Jet Stream winds, let alone hunt around for Easter eggs. Another thing that is clearly evident, is that she doesn't care how much work the Sherpas do. As long as she gets to the top, all the conflict and strife that she caused will be conveniently forgotten by her. There is a general rule that everyone follows when climbing tall mountains, and that is that you share the load! The Sherpas already do so much for the climbers. They pitch the tents, hack the ice away, melt snow for drinking water, fix ropes on difficult parts of the mountain, and many more things. Sandy Pittman giving them even more work is just plain crazy. "During the trek to Base Camp, a young Sherpa named Pemba rolled up her sleeping bag every morning and packed her rucksack for her... Within a few days Sherpa runners began to arrive on a regular basis with packages for Pittman, shipped to Base Camp via DHL Worldwide Express; they included the latest issues of Vogue, Vanity Fair, People, Allure"(Page 123). As I said, just plain crazy. Ironically, she would end up making the Sherpas do even more work, by carrying her 80 LBS of electrical equipment up the mountain, and eventually carry her! For all her enthusiasm and bubbling attitude, she couldn't make it to the summit, forcing a Sherpa to short rope and carry her at least a thousand feet. I think Sandy Pittman is a major reason why eight people died on that tragic day. She was a danger to herself and a danger to the entire expedition. Had she cared more about training, rather than fame, at least five Sherpas would have been able to assist struggling climbers, instead of carrying hair dryers and expresso machines up the tallest mountain in the world.