Beck Weathers is one of the mountaineers who survived the 1996 Mount Everest disaster. This event marks one of the most tragic ones in the history of mount climbing in the world. Eight people died at the peak this year. And Beck was one of the lucky ones who made it out despite being injured.
He is currently working as a Pathologist in Texas, America. Everything that happened in 1996 has been shown in Jon Krakauer’s book Into Thin Air (1997), which was also adapted into the movie Into Thin Air: Death on Everest (1997) and a 2015 movie called Everest. His life took a great and most negative turn after his ascent to Mount Everest. Though he survived the disaster, some relationships in his personal life almost broke back home. Hence, he writes about his experience and life story in his autobiography Left for Dead: My Journey Home from Everest (2000).
In this article, we are going to talk about everything that you need to know about Beck Weathers.
Beck Weathers Mount Everest
Beck Weathers was one of the mountaineers in the 1996 Mount Everest expedition. He was one of the clients of Rob Halls from Adventure Consultants. Beck lost his sight due to the high altitude and unfavorable condition of the mountain. He told Hall that he had lost his sight to which Rob suggested that he descend to Camp IV.
Weathers did not, however, approve of this, and told Hall that he may actually regain his eyesight once the sun was out as his faulty eye sight may have been the result of over exposure of the sunrays. The team leader agreed to his request and asked him to wait for him in the Balcony at 27,000 ft, on the 29,000 ft Everest so that they could descend the mountain together. In addition to his bad eyesight at the moment, Weathers had also recently had a radial keratotomy surgery before the ascent.
Unfortunately, Rob Halls guided another client on his way down the mountain and eventually perished much higher in the altitude of Mount Everest. Weathers had to be led down the mountain by another guide Michael Groom who short roped him through the peak. The blizzard led to Weathers and other mountaineers from the team to lose the sight of Camp IV. By the night, Weathers was lost from the sights of other mountaineers. The Sherpas found him in a state that they assumed he was near to death. This led them to leave him where he was and they headed towards Camp IV by themselves.
Beck, however, did not lose hope. He stood up and walked to the Camp IV somehow in an attempt of survival. When he finally reached the camp, his team members were in shock from his appearance. His face looked like it was made out of porcelain. The cheeks and nose were all black from the cold and it did not look like he would survive given that his nose was entirely frozen. His mates even commented on his hands as “the hands of a dead man.”
His friends could only comfort him until he finally died, but this was, fortunately, only an assumption as to how he looked that time. He survived a night without being able to eat and drink. His cry for help was unheard when he was stuck alone due to the blizzard. But, when he returned to the tent, he shocked everyone. Weathers was soon led to the basecamp. Then, he was evacuated through a helicopter from the Everest area soon after.
It is saddening that many parts of his hands and feet including an arm from elbow to wrist, fingers, and some toes, had to amputated because of the sickening condition he was in. Another great success of his survival is that, Beck walked with frozen and numb legs to the base camp with some help despite the hardships. Likewise, his nose also had to be amputated which was later surgically reformed with skin from his forehead and ear.
Overall, his story in Everest is no less than a horror story. Whatsoever, he survived a near death event and it really wouldnt be wrong to say that this man made it out of his death bed!
Beck Weathers Personal Life
Seaborn Beck Weathers was born on December 16, 1946. He completed his education from Wichita Falls, Texas. His family was mostly of military background. He married and had children in Texas itself. In 1986, he attended mountaineering classes to discover something about him in an attempt to escape depression. Weathers considers himself a very depressed person and claims to have spent a majority of his adulthood in depression. Beck said, “I never let anybody know about it and I discovered that if you drove your body hard — when you did that, you couldn’t think, and that lack of thinking as you punished your body and drove yourself was amazingly pleasant.”
Similarly, he considered Richard Bass to be his inspiration. Weathers also had it in him to climb all teh Seven Summits in the world. In his 1996 expedition to Mount Everest, he met Sandy Pittmann for the second time after meeting her in an expedition to Vinson Massif.
More than his will to end his life, Mount Everest gave him a life of exceptional experience and a great will to protect his life in every possible way that he could. In fact, he was not entirely wrong for choosing mountaineering as a way out of his depression.
When he got back home, there were some things to be taken care of including his relationship with his wife. Though his already depressed mindstate made it tough for him to open up intimately with his wife, his deadly experience in the highest peak of the world, actually brought forth a new perspective in their lives. He recovered from his depression after he descended and made it back home from the 1996 Everest disaster.
One of the best things that Beck claims to have happened to him is that, he has stopped looking for the acceptance of others, and a need to show them his worth. The former mountaineer now lives his life on his own terms and has cured his depression entirely since.
Where is Beck Weathers now?
Beck Weathers is working as a pathology staff at Medical City Dallas Hospital in Dallas, Texas with his family now. He also wrote a book on a small part of his life at Everest in Left for Dead: My Journey Home from Everest. Furthermore, he is very active in giving speeches and motivational knowledge even now to anyone who may need it.
His life changed after Everest. Weathers’ wife was on the verge of divorcing him when he ascended Mount Everest. However, she was furious about the people who left him on the mountain to die, and this encouraged her to never leave his side thereafter. She took care of him after he returned injured. Beck has lost many parts of his physical self. But, he has gained something more important in return, his will to live, a freedom from anyone else’s opinions on him, and a much happier life with his family. Weathers really does not consider his loss in the Everest to actually be a loss to him.
As of the current time, he has announced his retirement from mountaineering.
Please help UNHAS to continue flying… They are true heroes and legends. One of pilots I had honor to fly with was Col. Madan K.C. now flying UNHAS – in 1996 he rescued climbers Beck Weathers and Maluku Gau at camp 1 (approx 20,000feet or 6,096 meters) on Everest #IFlyWithUNHAS https://t.co/0hXNvdAJvz pic.twitter.com/fciQEdO9hz
— Edita Horrell (@EditaHorrell) February 20, 2021
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