Dead Lucky

AWARDED SPECIAL JURY MENTION AT THE BANFF MOUNTAIN FILM AND BOOK FESTIVAL 2007 "The day I summitted Mount Everest was the day I died" Lincoln Hall set off for Everest in early May 2006. Five weeks after reaching Base Camp in Tibet, he began his push for the summit. After three days of climbing higher into the oxygenless air, he was blessed with a perfect summit day. For a few minutes, Hall was the highest man on the planet. His Sherpa companions arrived, photos were taken, and the climbers commenced their long descent. Then things began to go horribly wrong. Hall was struck by cerebral oedema - highaltitude sickness - in the aptly named 'death zone'. Drowsiness quickly became overpowering lethargy, and he collapsed in the snow. Two Sherpas spent hours trying to revive him, but as darkness fell he was pronounced dead. The expedition's leader ordered the Sherpas to descend to save themselves. The news of Hall's death travelled rapidly from mountaineering websites to news media around the world, and by satellite phone to Hall's family in Australia. Early the next day, Dan Mazur, an American mountaineering guide with two clients and a Sherpa, was startled to find Hall sitting cross-legged on the knife-edged crest of the summit ridge. Hall's first words - 'I imagine you are surprised to see me here' - were a massive understatement. Much was reported in the press about Hall's resurrection, but only he has real insight into what happened, and how he survived that longest night. DEAD LUCKY is Lincoln Hall's own account of climbing Everest during a deadly season in which eleven people perished on the world's highest mountain.