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Doug Hansen (Everest)

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Douglas J. "Doug" Hansen was an amateur mountain climber who disappeared on the descent after reaching the summit of Mount Everest. He is included amongst the dead of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster.

Biography

Hansen was born on May 28, 1949 in Seattle, Washington to parents Fabian Joseph Hansen and Helen Wendt. He grew up in Aberdeen, South Dakota with his two brothers and sister and moved with his family to Renton, Washington as a teenager. He climbed Mount Rainier in his youth, graduated from Renton High School in 1967 and susequently went to work for the United States Postal Service in Kent. He married, had a son an daugher and ultimately divorced, after which he turned his energies toward marathon running and climbing in the European Alps. In 1993 he unsuccessfuly attempted to ascend Shishapangma as a paying client of Eric Simonson's International Mountain Guides. In 1995 he aborted a summit attempt on Mount Everest as a paying client of Rob Hall's Adventure Consultants.a He returned to Everest in 1996 as Hall's client for a second attempt at summitting the mountain.

1996 Expedition

On March 31, 1999 Hansen arrived at Kathmandu to join the the Adventure Consultants Friendship Everest Expedition 1996. From there he travelled by helicopter to Lukla where they hiked to Everest base camp, reaching it on April 9. A journalist climbing with the expedition said that toward the end of April Hansen told him he had had minor throat surgery earlier in the year, was experiencing the after effects of frostbite suffered from his previous summit attempt and was "feeling like shit."

On May 9th at 11:30 p.m. local time the group - followed shortly thereafter by several other expeditions - headed for the summit. In the early hours of May 10 two members of his group aborted their climb and Hansen reportedly told a fellow climber that "he was cold and was going back." Several of his fellow climbers later commented on Hansen's slow progress throughout. Nevertheless he continued with his ascent, and it has been speculated that expedition leader Hall convinced him to continue. Guide Ang Dorje Sherpa encountered him above the Hillary Step at around 3 p.m. and ordered him to descend; in response Hansen shook his head and pointed upward toward the summit. A photograph was taken of him by a guide from another expedition at about 3:20 p.m., showing Hansen about 130 feet past the Hillary Step clipped to a fixed rope and with a unraveled lace strung out from his left boot. He reached the summit at around 4 p.m., the last to summit that day.

At 4:30 p.m. and then again at 4:41 p.m. base camp received radio calls from Hall stating that Hansen had depleted his oxygen and could not descend the Hillary Step without fresh supplies. Interviews with Adventure Consultants personnel afterwar said Hall characterized Hansen's condition as "weak" and "incapacitated" and the situation as "very serious." During subsequent communications Hall was encouraged to abandon Hansen by guide Guy Cotter and "save himself," trying to give Hall "the option to...decide that what I was saying was a good idea and he might have been thinking it in his own head but yet not being able to come up with that decision himself." The expedition records show that at around 5:45 p.m. Hall indicated he was attempting to bring Hansen down the Hillary Step and Adventure Consultants employee Helen Wilton stated that Hall "sounded a little annoyed that...Doug might be listening to " and that she "recorded at that time that it sounded like Rob wasn't leaving Doug and...we didn't hear for another twelve hours from Rob."" Guide Andy Harris was subsequently dispatched with additional oxygen as a blizzard hit the southwest face of the mountain.

At 4:45 a.m. on May 11 Hall radioed base camp, indicated that Harris had reached him in the night but had since disappeared and in response to queries about Hansen replied "Doug is gone." Hall died the next day without further elaboration and this ambiguous statement has been subject to multiple interpretations. Adventure Consultants guide Guy Cotter reported contemporaneously as follows:

Last to descend were Rob Hall and Doug Hansen who were caught by nightfall above the South Summit and consequently ran out of bottled oxygen. Hansen died during the night and Hall was forced to bivouac in the open at 8750m, without tent or sleeping bag.

Mountaineers David Breashears and Ed Viesturs reached Hall's body on May 23 and found evidence that Harris had reached the site but no trace of Hansen, whose body has never been found. The most proximate records suggest Hansen died where he foundered - at the top of the Hillary Step - evidenced by the expedition's official necropsy finding of death by exposure and the near impossibility of getting a prone climber down the face of the step.

Aftermath

In the immediate aftermath of the disaster there appeared to be a coordinated effort to absolve the deceased Hall from responsibility for Hansen's death. The best selling book Into Thin Air from a journalist embedded with Adventure Consultants established a popular narrative regarding the diasterous expedition. Sources perpetuated otherwise undocumented radio transmissions allegedly heard by Cotter that reinforced a narrative of Hall valiantly encouraging Hansen to descend the Hillary Step in a blizzard the night of May 10. And Breashears' and Viestur's discovery of "three or four ice axes planted in the snow" near Rob Hall's body was embellished beyond the known facts to suggest a fall by Hansen on the South Summit, implying that Hall had succeeded in getting him down the Hillary Step.

Recent research has alleged that "all the innacurate statements have an extreme bias in favor of Rob Hall and Adventure Consultants." Other less popular books of the era likewise contradicted many of the factual claims set forth in a dominant popular narratives of the late 1990s, Breashears himself offered cryptic commentary concerning Hall's "Doug is gone" statement, though in promoting a PBS documentary on the disaster he specifically referenced "what happened to Rob Hall and Doug Hansen on the traverse from the Hillary Step to the South Summit." It is now recognized that Hall's actions significantly contributed to Hansen's death.

A small memorial to Hansen was subsequently placed in a rock garden on the property of the United States Post Office in Kent. The plaque reads: "Don't give up on your dreams. In memory of coworker Douglas Hansen who died May 10, 1996 descending the summit of Mt. Everest. - May 1997."

References

  1. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/67996020/douglas_j-hansen: accessed January 2, 2025), memorial page for Douglas J. “Doug” Hansen (28 May 1949–11 May 1996), Find a Grave Memorial ID 67996020, citing Greenwood Memorial Park, Renton, King County, Washington, USA; Maintained by Grave Tag'r (contributor 46491198).
  2. Davila, Florangela and Bjorhus, Jennifer. (1996). "Two Area Climbers Killed On Everest - Six Others Also Die In Unexpected Storm." Seattle Times, May 13, 1996. Seattle Times Archives
  3. ^ Kasischke, L. W. (2014). After the Wind: 1996 Everest Tragedy : One Survivor's Story. United States: Good Hart Publishing.
  4. Cockrell, W. (2024). Everest, Inc.: The Renegades and Rogues Who Built an Industry at the Top of the World. United States: Gallery Books.
  5. ^ Rtcliffe, G. (2011). A Day to Die For: 1996: Everest's Worst Disaster - One Survivor's Personal Journey to Uncover the Truth. United Kingdom: Mainstream Publishing.
  6. Dickinson, M. (2011). The Other Side of Everest: Climbing the North Face Through the Killer Storm. United Kingdom: Crown.
  7. ^ Roberto, M. and Carioggia, G. (2003). "Mount Everest - 1996." Harvard Business School, Rev. Jan. 6, 2003. Harvard Business School.
  8. ^ Hawley, Elizabeth (November 2023). "Himalayan Database Online". The Himalayan Database. The Himalayan Database. Retrieved January 1, 2025.
  9. ^ Krakauer, J. (1998). Into Thin Air. United States: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
  10. ^ Boukreev, A., DeWalt, G. W. (2015). The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest. United States: St. Martin's Publishing Group.
  11. ^ Weathers, B., Michaud, S. G. (2000). Left for Dead: My Journey Home from Everest. United States: Random House Publishing Group.
  12. Beidleman, Neal (September 23, 2020). "Episode 9". YouTube. The Mill House. Retrieved January 1, 2025.
  13. Coburn, B. (2015). Everest: Mountain Without Mercy. United States: National Geographic Society.
  14. Tracy, Michael (December 30, 2024). "Everest 1996: Analysis of Photos taken between 7AM and 10AM". YouTube. @michaeltracy2356. Retrieved January 1, 2025.
  15. ^ PBS Frontline, "Storm Over Everest", aired 13 May 2008
  16. Tracy, Michael (April 25, 2024). "Analysis of Into Thin Air Photo on Page 11". YouTube. @michaeltracy2356. Retrieved January 1, 2025.
  17. Coburn, B. (2015). Everest: Mountain Without Mercy. United States: National Geographic Society.
  18. Dickinson, M. (2011). Death Zone. United Kingdom: Random House.
  19. ^ Viesturs, E., Roberts, D. (2006). No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks. United Kingdom: Crown.
  20. ^ Breashears, D. (2000). High Exposure: An Enduring Passion for Everest and Unforgiving Places. Singapore: Simon & Schuster.
  21. Leger, C.J. (2016). "The 1996 Everest Disaster - The Whole Story." Base Camp Magazine: A Mountaineering & Expedition Publication, December 31, 2016. Article
  22. "Is an Everest Climb "Technical"?". OutsideOnline.com. 30 March 2010. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
  23. Strychacz, T. (2023). Popular Culture and Political Economic Thought: Fables of Commonwealth. Germany: Lexington Books.
  24. Tracy, Michael (May 13, 2024). "Analysis of Scott Fischer's photo from South Summit". YouTube. @michaeltracy2356. Retrieved January 1, 2025.
  25. Gammelgaard, L., Seal, P. (2000). Climbing High: A Woman's Account of Surviving the Everest Tragedy. United States: HarperCollins.
  26. Breashears, David (May 20, 2008). "Part 2: David Breashears Chats With Jim Clash About Everest". YouTube. Jim Clash. Retrieved January 2, 2025.
  27. Tracy, Michael (September 3, 2024). "Everest 1996: South Summit on the Ascent". YouTube. @michaeltracy2356. Retrieved January 1, 2025.
  28. Wagner, R. (2009). The Expeditionary Man: The Adventure a Man Wants, the Leader His Family Needs. United States: Zondervan.
  29. Abelhauser, Barb. (2019). "There Are Dreams And There Are Dreams." The View From A Drawbridge. Observation