Climbing Mt. Everest: Exploring the World's Highest Mountain - Essay Sample

Introduction

Mountain climbing is among the leisure activities that are undertaken by people for fun and exploration purposes. Mount Everest is the largest mountain in the world where different people have participated in the climbing activities. Individuals organize expeditions on the mountain for various purposes. An expedition is defined as a journey taken by people for specific objectives such as research or war. Mount Everest expeditions are mainly organized to promote research on various aspects such as the environmental ecosystem, stones, trees, and forest animals. Before the commissioning of the expeditions, the participants are prepared emotionally, psychologically, and physically for the experience along the mountain.

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Mt. Everest expeditions are associated with detrimental disasters such as the death of the climbers, insufficient supplemental oxygen, poor timing, and ineffective communication amongst the teams. For instance, in the 1922 and 1924 expeditions, seven and two men died consecutively (Roberto & Carioggia 2003). These deaths resulted from inadequate preparation and requirements for the climbers. In 1936, the climbers timed inappropriately. The moon set on early during that period leading to the failure of the expedition (Roberto & Carioggia 2003). These disasters caused a detrimental effect on the prestigious activity as well as the participants. This paper analyses the team's psychological safety and sunk cost fallacy theories and their contribution to the disaster of the expeditions on Mt. Everest.

The Team Psychological Safety

The efficiency and effectiveness of a group are enhanced by proper interaction and relation. The psychological safety of the team is among the theories that are applied during the preparation of a group to work together. Team psychological safety theory refers to the common belief that the group is secure for interpersonal risk-taking (Huang & Bruce 2019). However, group participants tend to take this belief for granted, and they fail to give it full attention (Frazier et al. 2017). The psychological safety of a team is described as the ability of an individual to show them without minding the adverse impacts of one's status, career, or self-image (Jean-Francois et al. 2019). This approach enables the team members to have a sense of belonging since they feel respected and accepted (Haller & Schwable 2014). The theory also allows the group members to give their opinions fearlessly (Dollard 2019). As a result, the group develops limited interaction rules resulting in a safer environment for the team participants. Ideally, the team psychological safety theory enables the members to identify with a group and provides a conducive environment for each participant.

Sunk Cost Fallacy

Cognitive biases are believed to distort a person's judgment. The sunk cost fallacy a theory that describes the scenario where an individual persists with behavior for the investments they have made (Ball-game theory; the sunk cost fallacy 2018). The approach describes the behavior in which an individual pursues a future practice due to circumstances such as invested time, effort, and resources (Fujino et al. 2018). For instance, when one orders too much food, and they end up overfeeding to feel the worth of the food. Cognitive behavior studies show that individuals who express the sunk cost fallacy trait are good risk-takers since they reinvest despite the adverse consequences (Haiya-Falah 2017). However, economic theorists advise the decision-makers to disregard the endeavors in spite of the incurred costs. Primarily, the sunk fallacy theory is all about reinvesting in an endeavor despite its previous cost.

The Effects of the Theories on the Mt Everest 1996 Expedition

The 1996 expedition on Mt. Everest is among the journeys that will be remembered in the history of the mountain. During this spring, the climbers made incredible achievements. In this year, 98 men and women climbed the mountain to the summit successfully. However, in the same year, there was a great tragedy on the mountain's slopes. During this expedition, 15 deaths were reported, including those of Rob Hall and Scott Fisher, the world's experienced mountain climbers (Roberto & Carioggia 2003). Additionally, during the expedition, there challenges such as darkness, storms, lack of communication, and extreme weather conditions. These disasters occurred due to the climbers' cognitive and psychological behaviors. The theories describe the instances that contributed to the tragedy in the expedition.

The Determination to Reach the Summit

The climbers' determination to reach the summit is among the factors that contributed to the disaster in the 1996 expedition. The climbers, despite the previous failures, reinvested their time, resources, and time to attempt climbing the mountain to the top (Jeffery & Alexander 2016). For instance, in the past years, individuals had tried to climb the mountain, and some lost their lives. However, despite the previous tragedies, the climbers stilled wished to get to the summit. This determination effectively describes the sunk cost fallacy theory and its effects on the expedition. The climbers wanted to fill the worth of their time and efforts (Alvarez et al. 2011). Therefore, they worked towards getting to the summit regardless of the possible dangers during the descent journey. As a result, some people lost their lives during the descending journey while others lost their way back (Roberto & Carioggia 2003). Primarily, the sunk fallacy behavior contributed to the determination of the people to achieve their goal despite the dangers associated with climbing the mountain.

Over-Commercialization

Over-commercialization of the expeditions is also a notable factor that contributed to the loss of the disaster of the 1996 expedition. In 1996, there was a significant trajectory of the number of commercial journeys on Mt. Everest (Bogage 2019). This rise was recorded after 1985 when David Breashears, an American renowned climber, helped a 55-year-old businessman from Texas to successfully climb the mountain to the summit. This expedition motivated the more inexperienced people to climb the mountain with the help of experienced individuals. Therefore, skilled individuals charged aspiring individuals, thus making it an opportunity to make profits (Covert & Writer 2015). As a result, there was an increase in the people to guide the groups into climbing the mountain at a cost. Consequently, the number of commercialized expeditions increased, thus increasing the number of deaths during the trips. The people with sunk cost fallacy character strived towards reaching the top to feel the worth of the money paid for the expedition (Haselton et al. 2015). Consequently, the less experienced climbers died since they failed to give up even at their weakest points. Ideally, the sunk fallacy cost theory resulted in the tragedy of the expedition through the commercialization.

High Attitude

Remarkably, the 1996 Mt. Everest expedition disaster was caused by the lack of high altitude climbers in the teams. Mt. Everest is among the areas with an elevated attitude in the world. In high altitude areas, the pressure is decreased, thus resulting in oxygen insufficiency (Yongling & Yingshu 2014). As a result, the climbers should develop techniques to survive in the low oxygen concentration areas. In 1996 expeditions, most climbers were from Africa, Taiwan, and Norway and had questionable expertise in high altitude climbing. For instance, in one of the expeditions, Breashears and Viesturs led a production group from IMAX film to develop a documentary about Everest (Roberto & Carioggia 2003). Most of the team members were inexperienced in high altitude climbing, thus risking their lives in the expedition. Through the team's psychological safety approach, the people gained the confidence and motivation to climb the mountain.

The theory describes the factors that motivated the people to take risks and climb the high altitude mountain regardless of their low experience (Liang et al. 2014). In the group, some members were experienced in climbing high altitude areas. Therefore, the less experienced climbers believed that they would make it to the top since their colleagues would support them. As a result, the team shared in the belief that they were prepared for interactive risk-taking (Anjume et al. 2018). Additionally, the inexperienced climbers developed trust with the group. Thus, they were motivated to climb the mountain. Primarily, the team psychological safety is a cognitive behavior that triggered the people to risk their lives by climbing the mountain.

Lack of Supplemental Oxygen

Lack of supplemental oxygen is another factor that significantly contributed to the rise of disasters in the 1996 Mt. Everest expeditions. Mountain climbing is a tiresome activity that requires an individual to have a surplus and clean oxygen (Lu et al. 2015). Therefore, the climbers are required to carry the supplemental oxygen to enhance their climbing activities. During the 1996 expedition, some climbers failed to carry supplementary oxygen (Roberto & Carioggia 2003). This failure was contributed by the theory of psychological safety theory that assured the climbers of security with their members. In one expedition, some team members were experienced in climbing the mountain without supplement oxygen (Fujino et al. 2016). However, other climbers were inexperienced. Thus, they needed additional oxygen. The amateur team members, due to the team psychological safety approach, failed to carry the supplement oxygen (Roberto & Carioggia 2003). The climbers felt secure with the experienced team members; thus, they climbed the mountain without the oxygen. As a result, during the expedition, lack of oxygen overwhelmed the inexperienced members leading to their death (Berger & Grocott 2017). Primarily, the team's psychological safety approach describes the circumstances that encouraged the inexperienced people to climb the mountain without supplementary oxygen.

Overcrowding

The rising numbers of mountain climbers in 1996 are another factor that resulted in the disaster of the expeditions of 1996. 1996 is among the springs that register a large number of expeditions on Mt. Everest (Maria et al. 2019). This rise was perpetrated by the increase of experienced climbers who offered to guide other people through the climbing process at a fee. Additionally, the previous expeditions' attempts and successes motivated the people to participate in the mountain climbing activity (Steffen et al. 2018). As a result, there was an increase in the masses of people on the climbing paths. Therefore, there was a delay in the ascension and descent activities for the people. This delay resulted in the people spending more time on the mountain than the intended period (App state university researcher scale Mount Everest to conduct climate research as part of the national geographic expedition 2019). Consequently, some individuals suffered from extreme weather conditions and lack of sufficient oxygen leading to their death.

The theory of psychological safety plays a role in the overcrowding factor of the deadly disaster in the expeditions in various ways. Psychological safety behavior encouraged the people to continue the climbing activities despite the crowding challenges (Florian & Sarah 2017). The team members felt secure among the groups; thus, they believed they would successfully climb to the summit and come down to the foot. Additionally, the psychological safety approach also played a significant role in disaster by providing individuals with interpersonal risk-taking security (Newman et al. 2017). The confidence in som...