When daredevil adventurers meet a tragic demise, should we mourn the way they died or celebrate the way they lived?
In May 2024, I heard news that two hypothermic, frostbitten climbers were stranded near the summit of Denali, North America’s highest mountain. I scanned the reports for detail, but rangers would not release further information other than to say that the climbers were not from the United States.
Why my interest? Because Peter, my partner of 14 years, was attempting to summit Denali at that exact same time. The summit rate at that point was a mere 15%, so even if Peter was okay, there was very little chance that he had reached the summit.
Later, I would learn that he did summit successfully. I would also learn that, on their descent, his group would stop to assist the two stranded climbers. One of those climbers – 36-year-old Malaysian Zulkifli Bin Yusof – would not survive.
Yusof was not the only casualty on Denali that year. Another climber – Japanese national T. Hagiwara – died after falling during his solo climb.
Clearly, high-altitude mountaineering is a dangerous hobby. The risk of death is real. In fact, when Peter and I were looking for a life insurance policy, we couldn’t find one that would insure him given his ambition to climb the seven summits. (Eventually, we turned to a broker who managed to assist.)
For many adventurers, the risk of death is all too real. Last month, I was startled to read the news that Felix Baumgartner had died. Baumgartner, also known as “Fearless Felix”, was most famous for his 2012 skydive from the edge of space.
The jaw-dropping stunt saw him jump from a balloon 38km (24 miles) above Earth. During his nine-minute descent, he became the first skydiver to break the sound barrier, reaching a peak speed of over 1,343km/h (834mph).
Baumgartner died at the age 56 during a paragliding incident in Italy. As a pioneer of extreme sports, clearly he understood the risks involved. He would know well that if you court death, sometimes death will answer you. With this in mind, should we civilians mourn daredevil adventurers like him?
Another example is Ueli Steck, famous for his rapid ascent of the Alps. In 2017, at just 40 years old, he fell to his death on Mount Nuptse in the Himalayas. I first came across Steck in the documentary Sherpa…
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