Rob Hall was a man who died doing something he considered an expert after successfully doing it four times. He was a mountaineer from New Zealand who led a 1996 Mount Everest expedition that turned into tragedy. Meet the mountaineer whose death would have come at a time of glory – the completion of his fifth summit of Mount Everest.
Who is Rob Hall?
Rob Hall was born Robert Edwin Hall on 14 January 1961 in New Zealand. Growing up in New Zealand, he spent much of his time climbing the Southern Alps. He met a man who would become his close friend and partner on his mountaineering journey in 1988. Rob Hall and Gary Ball became more than friends, they were climbing partners looking for corporate sponsorships for their expeditions. When they decided to try the Seven Summits in 1990, they did it in a grand way, setting up all seven in a seven-month period. They began with Everest in May and ended on December 12 with Antarctica’s Vinson Massif. They exceeded their own deadline by hours and also made a realization that guided their next decision. The realization was that each time they had to undertake riskier climbs in order to continue gaining and retaining sponsorships. Unfortunately, this would increase the likelihood of an accident. The two friends therefore decided to leave the world of professional rock climbing and instead focus on a high-altitude guide business.
Their decision led to the formation of AdventureConsultants, a company founded in 1992 that quickly grew into a leading expedition guide company. In the year the company opened, they took six clients to the top of Everest. Unfortunately, Gary Ball died of pulmonary edema in October 1993. Rob Hall was alone to run his business and by 1996 he had led thirty-nine people on expeditions to the summit of Everest. Rob Hall’s $65,000 price tag was quite high, but he cultivated a reputation for reliability and safety. He was in fact called the “Mountain Goat”.
Rob Hall was really all about mountaineering. He met his wife Jan Arnold in 1990 during his Everest summit attempt. Jan Arnold was a doctor in New Zealand, but she followed Rob Hall to the mountains on their first date and the two later tied the knot. Rob Hall and his wife also climbed Everest together in 1993. She would have been there for the 1996 summit attempt, which ended in disaster, but she was pregnant with his baby. Rob Hall’s first daughter Sarah Arnold-Hall was born two months after his death en route to Everest.
Rob Hall’s death
In 1996, Adventure Consultants booked an Everest expedition consisting of three guides, including Rob Hall, and eight clients, including a commissioned journalist named Jon Krakauer. The expedition began just after midnight on May 10, 1996 from Camp IV on the South Col. Other climbers joined Scott Fischer’s Mountain Madness and some Taiwan and Indian sponsors. The number of expeditions rose to around 33 people.
The expedition experienced delays, and many of the climbers were unable to reach the summit until 2:00 p.m., which was thought to be the last safe time to turn back and attempt to reach Camp IV before dark. Guides waited for clients at the summit and only started descending at 15:00. One client ran out of supplemental oxygen and Rob Hall offered to stay behind to help while the others descended.
At 5:00 a.m., visibility was reduced and the route back to Camp IV was obscured when a snowstorm hit Everest’s southwest face. Rob Hall radioed for help, stating that the client he was with had passed out but was still alive. One of the other Adventure Consultant guides named Andy Harris began climbing the Hillary Step to get to them with water and supplemental oxygen.
On May 11, 1996, twelve hours after the blizzard had hampered their descent progress, Rob Hall radioed down and stated that he was on the South Summit. He reported that Andy Harris had reached them, but unfortunately reported that the client had died sometime during the night and that he had also lost Andy Harris. He hadn’t been breathing bottled oxygen because his regulator had been choked with ice. Although he eventually managed to repair his oxygen mask, his frozen hands and feet made it difficult to climb down the fixed ropes.
Rob Hall broadcast the camp later that afternoon and asked that his wife be called. It would be his last message and he would reassure her that he was as comfortable as expected and that she shouldn’t worry so much. He died shortly after the call and his body was found on May 23, 1996. His body was left just below the South Summit, where it remains to this day.
Jon Krakauer gave his best-selling account of the events in Into Thin Air and the events of the expedition were also dramatized in the film Everest (2015).