Chapters 14-15 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 14 is called "To the South Summit." The Mountain Madness climbers left Camp IV about 30 minutes after the members of Rob Hall's team departed for the summit. Here DeWalt writes about the different approaches taken by Hall and Fischer toward climbing. Hall was more of a "legalist," De Walt claims, believing that the safest way to climb in a group is to set down rigid guidelines and expect the climbers to follow them, giving up some of their personal freedom in the process. Fischer, on the other hand, DeWalt calls a "situationalist." He believed that it was impossible to foresee every possible eventuality and that climbers should be allowed some flexibility.

There was some controversy about who was supposed to fix the ropes from Camp IV to the summit. According to several climbers, they thought Hall's Sherpas were to...