Off late, I’ve been Tweeting & posting Facebook updates on the status of 2012 Mt. Everest summit. What has summiting Mt. Everest got to do in an MBA blog? It’s completely out of place, isn’t it? well, actually not! Summiting Mt. Everest calls for a lot of decision making, en route. a bad decision simply costs your life – that’s about the size of it! really simple, isn’t it?

My fascination with Mt. Everest is very recent when we were introduced to Mt. Everest summiting this year during our Judgment & Decision making course by Prof. Kristian Myrseth. we had some reading excerpts from Into thin Air: a Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster, a 1997 bestseller by Jon Krakauer.  The book details Krakauer’s experiences during the 1996 Mount Everest disaster when eight climbers were killed and several others were stranded by a “rogue storm”.

Climbing Mt.Everest is a high stakes game – one has a lot to gain (honor, laurels, self-achievement,…) and to lose (mainly, one’s own life). This sense of adventure & unencumbered adrenaline rush has caught my attention & I’m following this year’s summit on National Geographic. It’s kind of cool & very exciting. I can’t tell you how much, but I’m very, very excited! It feels as though I’m the one climbing Mt. Everest this year. I could identify myself with those men & women who have decided to risk everything to take a look from the highest point on earth. I was also very sad when Colombia space shuttle crashed on its return to earth, but those folks also knew the risks they were taking. It’s this element of risk that gets me excited when I read or see things such as these. There’s a fine difference between those folks who embrace risk & those who don’t. The chances of survival are almost negligible. The risk is far too high. One might not return to one’s family. The road ahead is uncertain. It calls for discipline, planning, precision, execution, etc. all these elements are just too great…and exciting!

Thousands of climbers have attempted to reach the summit of 8,850-meter (29,000-foot) Mount Everest since the 1920s. Between 1921 and 2006, around 8,030 climbers &  6,108 Sherpas died on  Mt. Everest. there were 212 climbing deaths (a death rate of 1.3 per cent), 192 of which occurred above the base camp. Among climbers who died higher than 8,000 metres above sea level, 56 per cent succumbed on their descent from the summit and 17 per cent died after turning back. Only 15 per cent died on the way up or before leaving the final camp.

Factors most associated with the risk of death were excessive fatigue, a tendency to fall behind other climbers and arriving at the summit later in the day. many of those who died developed symptoms such as confusion, a loss of physical coordination and unconsciousness, which suggest high-altitude cerebral edema, a swelling of the brain that results from leakage of cerebral blood vessels. Symptoms of high-altitude pulmonary edema, which is involved in most high-altitude-related deaths, were suprisingly rare. furthermore, the oxygen contact at such high altitudes is negligible. So, most climbers carry oxygen tanks, but some decide to brave the mountains & decide not to carry oxygen.

Regardless of these oxygen tanks, at such high altitudes, hallucination sets in & decision making is challenging. Hallucination and the adrenaline rush to reach for the summit are often reasons for poor decision making at such high altitudes. at times, young sherpas embrace more than the required share of adventure & attempt crossing crevices over metal ladders, only to trip & fall into oblivion. such are the dimensions of risk & uncertainty; one wrong move or judgment costs lives. yet, Mt. Everest draws hordes of adventure lovers every year.

Mt. Everest is a hallmark case that highlights the need to engage in delicate balancing acts with regard to vision, confidence, trade-offs, and commitment – concepts very relevant to leaders & managers of organizations. This experience demonstrates the fine balance between preparedness, over-/under-confidence and decisiveness when faced with challenges!

From reflecting on the case, I believe that a crucial managerial aspect is managing the danger of “escalation of commitments”, when faced with a failing course of action. It is especially hard when one considers the sunk cost, after expending a great amount of resources; in most cases, wishful thinking sets in. Hope that investing extra effort/resources would lead to a course change is a flawed logic, but most managers & leaders are oblivious to this! It is especially hard when one is “in the game”. Under such circumstances, an outsider perspective is very relevant, but is in most cases unavailable.

With Mt. Everest case, often times, these climbers are just short of the summit when poor weather kicks in. at this juncture, the escalation of commitment – that a climber has made it this far, so taking an extra iota of risk to reach the summit pays off – entices the climber to move on, risking his/her life as well as those of fellow comrades. It is easy to see that such an enterprise is futile & is a recipe for sure death, but why they persist in their mission is inexplicable. However, I could imagine why those climbers wish to test their limits & push forward.  In closing, Anatoli Boukreev’s closing thoughts about the Everest tragedy sum it all up – “to cite a specific cause would be to promote an omniscience that only gods, drunks, politicians, and dramatic writers can claim”. Boukreev made 18 successful ascents on peaks above 8000m between 1989 – 1997.

Boukreev (39) died in 1997 under an avalanche on Mt. Annapurna!