The Israeli who Saved a Life on Mount Everest

May 20, 2012 was a stormy Spring day near the summit of Mount Everest. Approximately 200 climbers were on the slopes, each racing to reach the mountain’s peak, then make their descents as quickly as possible before a threatening storm moved in. The temperature was a shocking -55 Celsius (-67 Fahrenheit). Anyone who fell or passed out on the treacherous mountain paths faced near-certain death.

Two climbers had already died on the mountain in recent hours, and another two would soon perish in the following days.

One of the intrepid climbers on Everest was Nadav Ben Yehuda, a 24-year-old law student from the Israeli town of Rehovot. Nadav was only 300 meters away from the summit, carrying his 50 lb. backpack of equipment, and was about to become the youngest Israeli ever to reach the top of Everest, and only the fifth Israeli ever to scale the world’s highest peak. He’d been dreaming of this moment and training hard for it for years.

Other climbers just passed him by and didn’t lift a finger, but I had no second thoughts. I knew that I had to save him.

As he climbed in the frigid, threatening weather, Nadav knew the risks he faced. He’d passed the bodies of two climbers who’d died on the mountain. Suddenly he saw another mountaineer ahead of him who was alive, but in distress. It was Aydin Irmak, a 46-year-old Turkish man Nadav had become friendly with back in Kathmandu, as they prepared to scale Everest’s peak.

Aydin was terribly ill. He’d passed out as he made his way down the mountain and was now lying on the mountain pass unconscious, without a harness, oxygen mask, nor appropriate equipment for the coming storm. “He had no gloves. No oxygen. No crampons. No cover…” Nadav later described. “He was waiting for the end.”

Nadav yelled at his friend, “Aydin, wake up! Wake up!” but to no avail. It was obvious that Aydin was dying.

Nadav couldn’t believe his eyes. Instead of stopping to help, climbers ignored Aydin and hurried past on their way to the top then down again. “If I had continued climbing, he would have died for certain,” Nadav explained. “Other climbers just passed him by and didn’t lift a finger, but I had no second thoughts. I knew that I had to save him.”

In a moment, Nadav’s dreams for scaling Everest evaporated. All that mattered was saving the life of a fellow human being.

No one offered to help. Alone, Nadav attached Aydin to his harness and began the slow journey down. It was an eight-hour trek down to a lower-elevation base, and Nadav was doing it in extreme weather conditions, lugging the inert, 190 lb. climber. “It was very hard to carry him because he was heavy,” Nadav recalled. “At times he would gain consciousness, but then faint again. When he woke up he would scream in pain, which made it even more difficult.”

For some of the descent, Nadav carried Aydin on his shoulders. At times, he shuffled down the mountain’s paths with Aydin between his legs. More than once, the two men fell down the mountain together as much as 50 feet at a time.

Nadav’s oxygen mask broke and two of his oxygen cylinders stopped working in the freezing air. “That was the one moment of true panic.”

Climbing up, Nadav wore three gloves on each hand. In order to better maneuver his equipment as he carried Aydin down, Nadav removed two of the gloves on his right hand; nearly immediately, he felt frostbite setting in. Half an hour after he began carrying Aydin, Nadav’s oxygen mask broke and two of his oxygen cylinders stopped working in the freezing air. “That was the one moment of true panic,” he described.

By the time they reached the camp, both Nadav and Aydin were extremely ill. Nadav collapsed a hundred yards from camp, with frostbite on his right hand, his cheeks, and his feet. He had to receive emergency medical treatment and was soon evacuated to Assaf Harofe Hospital in Tel Aviv. He’d lost 20 kg. during his time on the mountain.

Doctors warned Nadav that he might lose his fingers, though miraculously, doctors in Israel managed to save them. Despite his pain, and not reaching the summit, Nadav had no regrets. “A person’s life, any person’s life, is more valuable than anything,” Nadav said once he was back home. “I knew that I might lose my fingers, but that wasn’t something I could worry about because that would be immoral.”

“I am not a hero but I am completely Israeli,” he told reporters, explaining that in his time in Israel’s army he absorbed the maxim that Israelis never ever leave a fellow soldier behind. “I didn’t get to the summit, but I saved someone’s life.”

In the decade since he saved Aydin Irmak, Nadav Ben Yehuda has gone on to climb other peaks and pursue a career in mountain rescue. His actions on the slopes of Mount Everest are a testament to the timeless Jewish value that human life, so fragile and irreplaceable, is more important than anything else, always.

The Torah commands: “You shall not stand aside while your fellow’s blood is shed” (Leviticus 19:16). It’s difficult to imagine how we might respond in a dangerous situation when our actions could save another person’s life. Nadav’s heroism on Mount Everest inspires us all.