Ger’s real life story rescued from mountain

If he had gotten down to Camp Four that day and had heard the Koreans were in trouble, chances are he would have gone back up to try to help them. He was just that kind of person.

A couple of weeks ago this column focused on Into The Silence by Wade Davis, a superb account of the attempts to climb Mount Everest involving veterans of the First World War such as George Mallory.

We needn’t have gone back so far in time though, if we were looking for heroism at high altitude.