At first Australian climber Robert Gropel thought that his wife Maria Strydom was simply exhausted from the effort of climbing Everest.
In the midst of their summit day they halted well above 8000 metres, the area known as the Death Zone, as Strydom said she could not continue, Gropel asked her permission to go on to the summit.
What neither of them realised, however, was that it was not simply exhaustion but altitude sickness and that the decisions they would make - so tantalisingly close to the summit - would cost Strydom, a university lecturer aged 34 her life.
Now, in a moving interview with Australian television, Gropel has described the fatal hours leading to his wife’s death and the decisions that they both made judgements tinged with grief and deep regret.
Above 8000 metres, even with supplemental oxygen, the risks increase markedly. The blood thickens which, combined with dehydration and effort, can trigger altitude sickness which - at its worst - can cause a lethal build up of fluid on the lungs and brain.
Complicating the issue is that it affects individuals with different severity with the onset of the first symptoms sometimes mistaken for tiredness or a minor illness.
Decision-making too can become more difficult. Small mistakes - a dropped item of equipment, a stumble, something as simple as not drinking enough or the question of when to turn back or carry on - have multiplying and serious consequences.
Strydom, a university lecturer , and Gropel, a vet, were both vegans who were determined to climb the highest mountains on each continent, a challenge known as the Seven Summits.
Now in a tearful interview, broadcast in Australia on Sunday, Gropel described the crucial moment when he decided to separate from his wife, as she waited high on the mountain.
With the summit apparently only appearing fifteen minutes away, and with Strydom flagging and unable to continue up, he asked if he should continue without her.
“I asked, ‘Do you mind if I go on,’ and she said, ‘Yes, you go on, I’ll wait for you here,’” her husband Robert Gropel told the Seven Network on Sunday. “From that position the summit didn’t look that far, 15 minutes away.”
Strydom’s delay in descending, however, would have fatal consequences - exacerbated by the fact the pair ran out of supplemental oxygen as Gropel struggled down with her.
“I didn’t want to separate from her. I wanted her to keep going,” he said of the decision to leave her and press on to the top.
“I also understood she was very exhausted. I just ran up and down and it didn’t mean anything to me. Because we do everything together and everything else we did together was much more special.”
“When I made it to the summit of Everest it wasn’t special to me,” he told the interviewer, “because I didn’t have her there.”
Reaching Strydom where she was waiting, the pair began their descent, but it was soon clear that something very serious was amiss.
Soon Strydom began hallucinating, struggled to walk and began talking incoherently, perhaps the result of a stroke triggered by cerebral odema.
Helped at times by a group of sherpa high altitude guides, at other times apparently struggling on his own, he shared oxygen with Strydom until that ran out and then - suffering the effects of altitude himself - recalled he had medication for altitude sickness.
“It took a while for me to register that I had medication and so as soon as I realised I gave her a dexamethasone injection.”
But the long period spent high on the mountain was taking its toll on an already stricken Strydom - who by the time she faded into unconsciousness had been without extra oxygen for some 20 hours.
Even as fresh oxygen was being brought up she was slipping in an out of greater danger.
“I could see that her condition had deteriorated,” Mr Gropel said. “She was going through periods of being lucid and periods of hallucinating.”
“There was a point where they thought she would get better. Her condition had improved and she was taking medication and fluids and had made camp,” says Steve Pennells who interviewed Gropel. “And then overnight she just got worse.” Strydom died in Gropel’s s arms.
“Walking away was the hardest thing [for him],” says Pennells. “You can imagine, or hopefully you can’t, making the decision to come off the mountain knowing that the body of your wife is up there.”
“She was my motivation idol, my hero, she was a very strong advocate for women, she was the perfect person,” he added. “I’m just trying to be strong. I’m learning to cope and block out what causes sort of, breakdowns and trying to get the job done of bringing my wife home.”
“I’m her husband, it’s my job to protect my wife and get her home and it’s just natural for me to blame myself,” Gropel said. “I still can’t look at any pictures of her because it breaks my heart.”
Sherpa climbers brought Strydom’s body down the mountain to Camp Two on Wednesday, where a rescue helicopter picked it up and took it to Kathmandu on Friday.
“Her body has now been brought to Kathmandu from the mountain,” said Phu Tenzi Sherpa of the Seven Summit Treks that organised her expedition.
guardian
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