Mutual responsibility in mountaineering

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What do we take from mountaineering? Will the joy of victory be complete and pure if we realize that we have passed by someone else's misfortune? Will we be just as happy at the top if the stranger died before reaching it?

These questions should be asked at the very beginning of your passion for mountaineering, because the correct answer determines why we go to the mountains - for the sake of wretched vanity and the satisfaction of petty ambitions, or for full-fledged personal growth, for moral and physical development? After all, there will be no development if our passion is not based on an understanding of the basic ethical rules, the observance of which should not be influenced by either our social status or nationality - the mountains equalize everyone and give us the opportunity to show our most human qualities. Isn't that the proper value of mountain climbing?

In the mountains, we often encounter situations in which the safety of other people directly or indirectly depends on us - for many people that is a new, unknown level of responsibility, unusual and inapplicable in their normal, urban conditions of life. However, you need to understand that when climbing mountain peaks, participating in the mountain expeditions to remote areas, we expose ourselves to conditions in which, sometimes unexpectedly for ourselves, we get to a different level of responsibility for others, since our own life and safety depend on those who are next to us.

Increasingly developing commercial relations between climbers in the growing business industry in mountaineering, make adjustments to the behavior of people in emergency situations. However, many just do not understand the specifics and try to apply the relationship pattern they are used, to the cases where it is obviously inapplicable.

More than once in Russia I have heard stories that mutual assistance and support were inherent in the “Soviet school of mountaineering”, but in Western culture there is no idea of such mutual assistance. This is complete nationalistic nonsense. From time immemorial, in the maritime business, directly related to Western culture, there was an immutable international law - to come to the aid of all those in need at sea, to leave the route at the SOS signal, change course and do everything possible to save the lives of those in distress. This is a matter of survival in the sea, which, like the mountains, is an element of Nature beyond human control.

Entering into a relationship with the elements of the mountains, we put ourselves in the conditions where our life and safety become dependent on those people who, willingly or unwillingly, are nearby - and there will be no other help in the event of an accident. It doesn't matter if you are a client or a guide, whether your own or someone else's group is in trouble. It makes no difference, because help is needed immediately.

Unfortunately, gloomy news regularly come about accidents in the mountains, in which the severity of the consequences is seriously aggravated by ridiculous actions, or by the complete indifference of people who were in close proximity and would be able to come to the rescue at a difficult moment. But they did not accept this responsibility and did not provide timely assistance.

I am sorry for few examples. Two roped guides fell down while climbing Elbrus, after which their clients continued to move up and made the desired ascent. The lives of two people in this case turned out to be less valuable than the ambitions and desire to get to the top. How much is the price of such a victory...?

When descending from Mount Ushba, a person dies of fatigue five meters from the tent, into which his partner, no less tired, has already got and fallen asleep...

Abandoned by the group, the climber, who fell into a crevasse on the glacier, dies of hypothermia, without having time to wait for the rescue team, for which his own group slowly went down.

I won’t even touch on a whole set of stories about Mount Everest, where people die on the trail literally a step away from the other climbers, indifferently passing by - everyone has their own Sherpas, their own oxygen, their own hard-earned money spent on the expedition – why should they to stop?

So, if we accept this as inevitable, if we explain our behavior by the fact that we paid the money and nothing else will concerns us? If we pass by those in distress, in the expectation that rescuers should come and do it for us, what will happen? It is logical that at a difficult moment we will be left without help in the situation, when everything depends on every minute, and any, even the most insignificant intervention of outsiders can help to save someone’s life.

In the difficult conditions of the mountains, where many dangers threaten a person, trouble can come to any of us at any moment. Under these conditions, the level of responsibility for each other increases many times, and our own safety depends on how much we care about the safety of the people around us. This is the first rule of conduct in the mountains, at sea, in the taiga. The rule, tested by time. The rule, which became the Law - help to others, and they will help you.

The author of the text and photos - Alex Trubachev

MCS EDIT 2023