Into Thin Air Lesson Plan

Why is it significant for the rest of the teams on Everest that the Taiwanese and South African expeditions are relatively incompetent?

Although the final ascent to Everest’s summit focuses far more on the individual’s determination and fitness, mountaineering in such an unwelcome environment necessarily means that all teams need to rely on each other at some point.

This means that everyone's fate is intertwined, whether they like it or not. Ask your students if there's been any indication that either the Taiwanese or South African teams have shown themselves to be at all reliable. Would they trust their lives to teams who obstinately refuse to do the necessary work to...