David Sharp

David Sharp (15 February 1972 – 15 May 2006) was an English mountaineer who died near the summit of Mount Everest.

His death caused controversy and debate because he was passed by a number of other climbers heading to and returning from the summit as he was dying, although a number of others tried to help him.

Sharp had previously summited Cho Oyu and was noted as being a talented rock climber who seemed to acclimatise well, and was known for being in good humour around mountaineering camps.

He appeared briefly in season one of the television show Everest: Beyond the Limit, which was filmed the same season as his ill-fated expedition to Everest.

Sharp had a degree from the University of Nottingham and pursued climbing as a hobby.

He graduated with a Mechanical Engineering degree in 1993.

He worked for global security company QinetiQ.

In 2001, Sharp went on an expedition to Gasherbrum II, an 8035 m mountain located in the Karakoram, on the border between Gilgit–Baltistan province, Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and Xinjiang, China.

The expedition, led by Henry Todd, did not summit due to bad weather.

In May 2002, Sharp summited the 8200 m Cho Oyu with Jamie McGuinness and Tsering Pande Bhote.

Cho Oyu is the sixth highest peak in the world and is near Mount Everest.

The leader of the Cho Oyu expedition, impressed with Sharp's strength, acclimatisation abilities, and rock climbing talent, invited him to join an expedition to Everest the next year.

In 2002, Sharp went on an expedition to Cho Oyu, an 8201 m peak in the Himalayas, with a group led by Richard Dougan and Jamie McGuinness of the Himalayan Project.

They did make it to the summit, but one member died from falling into a crevasse; this opened up a slot on the group's trip to Everest the next year.

Dougan regarded Sharp as a strong climber, but noted that he was tall and skinny, possessing a light frame with little body fat; in cold-weather mountaineering, body fat can be critical to survival.

Sharp's first Mount Everest expedition was in 2003 with a group led by British climber Richard Dougan.

The party also included Terence Bannon, Martin Duggan, Stephen Synnott, and Jamie McGuinness.

Only Bannon and McGuinness reached the summit, but the group incurred no fatalities.

Dougan noted that Sharp had acclimatised well and was their strongest team member.

In addition, Sharp was noted for being a pleasant person at camp and had a talent for rock climbing.

However, when Sharp started to get frostbite on the group's ascent, most of the group agreed to turn back with him from the summit.

Dougan and Sharp helped a struggling Spanish climber who was heading up at that time, and gave him some extra oxygen.

Sharp lost some of his toes to frostbite on this climb.

In 2004, Sharp joined a Franco-Austrian expedition to the north side of Mount Everest, climbed to 8500 m, but did not reach the summit.

Sharp could not keep up with the others and stopped before the First Step.

As a result of his 2004 attempt, Sharp incurred frostbite on his fingers during the expedition.

Two years later, Sharp returned to Everest to reach the summit on a solo climb arranged through Asian Trekking.

In 2005 he quit this job and took a teacher training course, and was planning to start work as a teacher in the autumn of 2006.

David Sharp was also an experienced and accomplished mountaineer, and had climbed some of the world's tallest mountains including Cho Oyu in the Himalayas.

Sharp did not believe in using a guide for mountains he was familiar with, local climbing assistance or artificial enhancements, such as high altitude drugs or supplementary oxygen, to reach the top of a mountain.

While growing up in England, Sharp climbed Roseberry Topping.

At university, he was a member of the Mountaineering Club.

Sharp also took a six-month sabbatical from his job to go on a backpacking trip through South America and Asia.

He had worked for an engineering firm and took time off to go on adventures and climbing expeditions, but had been planning to start work as a school teacher in the autumn of 2006.

David Sharp was born in Harpenden, near London, and later attended Prior Pursglove College and the University of Nottingham.

He joined four climbers on this expedition, so Sharp relented on that point of disagreement, but only for a time, as he would return in 2006 for his solo attempt.

The expedition's leader was Hugues d’Aubarede, a French climber who was later killed in the 2008 K2 disaster (his third attempt to climb that mountain), but who became, on this 2004 expedition, the 56th French person to summit Everest.

D'Aubarede's group reached the summit on the morning of 17 May and included Austrians Marcus Noichl, Paul Koller, and Fredrichs "Fritz" Klausner as well as Nepalis Chhang Dawa Sherpa, Lhakpa Gyalzen Sherpa, and Zimba Zangbu Sherpa (also known as Ang Babu).

D'Aubarede said Sharp disagreed with him that it was wrong to climb alone and to attempt summiting without using supplementary oxygen.

This is confirmed by Sharp's emails to other climbers in which he stated he did not believe in using extra oxygen.