Twenty-four-year-old Israeli climber Nadav Ben-Yehuda, who was 300 meters from the summit of Everest, gave up his dream of conquering the world's highest peak to save an injured Turkish climber.
Ben-Yehuda described the incident as follows: "I passed two fresh corpses. The corpses were fresh, because they were the bodies of people on the same ropes I was climbing. I realized they were dying and didn't have the strength to move. The people didn't crawl away, but buckled up, fell into a coma, and died. Those who continued to move climbed over them.
When I saw him, I recognized him. It was Aydin Irmak (Turkey), we met him at the camp. He was unconscious, without gloves, oxygen, crampons, or a helmet. He was waiting for the end. Other climbers passed him without lifting a finger, but I knew that if I had passed him, he would surely be dead. I knew I should have at least tried to save him.
Aidin and I began the descent, which lasted nine hours. It was very difficult to carry him because he was heavy. Every now and then he regained consciousness, but then he would pass out again. When he came to, he screamed in pain, and this made our descent even more difficult. Very slowly, but we descended, but at a certain point my oxygen mask broke. Shortly afterward, we met a climber from Malaysia, who was also exhausted. It became clear that it was completely impossible to go any further. I shouted to the climbers I met on the way up and asked for some oxygen for the two injured people, some of whom responded..."
They reached the camp, were evacuated by helicopter to Kathmandu, and were hospitalized. Everyone was frostbitten; Nadav Ben-Yehuda suffered severe frostbite to his fingers, having been forced to remove his gloves during the rescue operation.
"I was faced with a choice: be the youngest Israeli to climb Everest, which would be fantastic for my career, or try to get a climber off the mountain. I chose the latter and succeeded... Thanks to everyone who helped me prepare and taught me, which gave me the strength to get down the mountain both for myself and to carry those in need down to the valley."