Chapter 15: 1:25-2:10 pm Beidleman reaches summit just after Krakauer at 1:25 pm. Boukreev and Harris are already at the summit, and K. Schoenig reaches the top 20 minutes later (1:45) There is still no sign of Fischer or any of his clients. Because 2:00 pm is the turn around time, Fischer, Hall, and all of their respective clients should have turned around by now. Although Beidleman is a guide, he does not have a radio and cannot contact either leader. At 2:10, Sandy Hill Pittman summits with Lonsang. Rob Hall, Yasuko Namba and Mike Groom summit as well. Rob tells the group that he thought Fischer was right behind them.

Chapter 15 Later on, Krakauer learns that Scott Fischer was actually ill during this summit attempt He was not only fatigued from rounding up clients from acclimatization climbs, but he also had liver problems and an intestinal parasite. At the time, no one realized how sick he actually was. It is guessed that Fischer reaches the summit around 3:40 pm and Doug Hansen summits at 4:00 pm.

Chapter 15 Because Beidleman believes Fischer is okay, he decides to help Sandy Hill Pittman getting down to Camp Four. At this point the storm is starting to make it difficult to see, much less climb. Pittman is comatose, and Beidleman injects her with medicine to help her body cope with the altitude. On the way down, the group notices Beck Weathers. Beck has been waiting, completely blind, for hours for a guide to come and take him back to camp. At this point, Yasuko Namba’s oxygen runs out, but she refuses to keep moving. Mike Groom drags Namba and Weathers down the mountain, but the storm is so bad that they cannot see. While trying to go down an area with a less steep incline, the group gets lost in the storm about 1,000 feet from camp.

Chapter 15 Eventually, Krakauer gets to Camp 4, goes into his tent and sleeps. He is utterly exhausted and unable to think clearly. Stuart Hutchinson tries to wake Krakauer up to make noise for the other climbers to hear, but Krakauer is too exhausted and does not come out to help. Hutchinson goes out six times to try to find the any of the missing climbers but continually returns unsuccessful. Beidleman, Shoenig, and two Sherpas go out looking for the lost group; they find them and leave Tim Madsen with the others until they can get help. The group gets Boukreev and tells him to go assist the group. Boukreev gets lost, goes back to camp for directions, then eventually finds the missing group. By this time, Pittman, Weathers, Charlotte Fox (the doctor), and Namba all look like they are too far gone, or dead. Boukreev gets Pittman and Fox back to base camp and reports that Beck Weathers and Yasuko Namba are dead.

Chapter 16 At 6 am at Camp 4, Stuart Hutchinson wakes up Krakauer to tell him that Andy Harris is not in his tent, and that the guide must have not made it back from the summit. Krakauer is shocked because he was sure he had seen him on his way down. He believes he ran into Harris on the South Col. He talked with him, then Harris slid down, the mountain and walked over to camp. Instead, at this time, Krakauer thinks Harris must have slid down the mountain and walked off the side. Krakauer retraces his steps and sees footprints in the snow leading straight off the side of the mountain. Krakauer is horrified that he had been the reason everyone thought Harris was accounted for, but in reality was lost.

Chapter 16 On the way back to Camp 4, Krakauer over hears a radio call between Base Camp and Rob Hall. Rob slept the night on the Summit Ridge and is radioing base campe, asking for help. Scott Fischer is still missing, and the IMAX team tries to borrow a radio from the South African team and hopes to help Hall, but the South African group leader, Ian Woodall, won’t let them use it.

Chapter 16 At this point in the chapter, Krakauer stops telling the story to explain what he later learned about the night of May 10th. After he gets home, Krakauer hopes to figure out all of the parts of the story. After the article is written, he eventually talks to a climber named Martin Adams. Adams previously refused to talk to anyone about the night. Through his conversation with Adams, he realizes that the climber he ran into that night was not actually Andy Harris but Martin Adams. The footprints he saw were probably from Boukreev during his attempt to find the missing climbers. Because of his confusion of Adams and Harris, Krakauer is left with a huge amount of guilt. Now everyone is left with the question: What happened to Andy Harris?