High on the icy slopes of Mount Everest, where the air is painfully thin and the cold bites into the bones, survival is never guaranteed. For Australian mountaineer Lincoln Hall, the year 2006 would become a defining moment — a moment when life and death collided in one of the most unforgiving places on Earth.
His story is one that challenged expectations, stunned the climbing community, and became a symbol of extraordinary human resilience.
On Everest, every step is a battle. Climbers often spend years training their bodies, strengthening their minds, and preparing for the dangers that await them near the top of the world. Lincoln Hall understood these risks well, having spent many years climbing mountains around the globe. Yet nothing could have prepared him for what happened on that fateful day near the summit.
In late May 2006, Hall joined an expedition attempting to reach the 8,848-meter peak of Mount Everest. It was a challenge he had dreamed about for years. But at an altitude of over 8,600 meters — a place known as the “death zone” — his dream turned into a nightmare.
He began suffering from high-altitude cerebral edema, a dangerous swelling of the brain caused by extreme altitude.
His condition deteriorated quickly. He became confused, disoriented, and began hallucinating, the classic hallmark of a life-threatening condition. His Sherpa guides tried desperately to help him, doing everything in their power to keep him alive. But the storm rolled in, temperatures plunged, and night approached. Their oxygen supplies were nearly gone, and the cold was intolerable.
After hours of attempting to move him, the Sherpas made an impossible decision. They reported to their expedition leader that Lincoln had stopped breathing. Believing he was dead, they were forced to leave his body behind in order to save their own lives.
News of his death spread quickly. Back home in Australia, Lincoln’s family received the heartbreaking message that he had died near the summit of Everest. They mourned him deeply, unable to imagine the horror of his final moments. But they had no idea that the story was far from over.
Meanwhile, high on the ridge, Lincoln Hall was not dead. Somehow, in the freezing mountain darkness, he regained consciousness. He woke alone, confused, and sitting in a thin fleece jacket with no gloves, no hat, no goggles, and no oxygen. His gear had been removed by those who believed he had perished. He was perched on a narrow ridge with an 8,000-foot cliff just inches away.
The temperature that night dropped far below freezing. Winds roared across the slopes. Under normal circumstances, any climber exposed like this would die within minutes. Yet Lincoln Hall survived the night — a fact that doctors and climbers still struggle to fully explain.
As dawn broke, another team of climbers approached the ridge. Led by American mountaineer Dan Mazur, the group spotted something unusual in the distance. At first, they thought they were seeing a body — not uncommon on Everest. But as they got closer, they realized the man was sitting upright.
Then he spoke.
Lincoln looked at them calmly and said:
“I imagine you’re surprised to see me here.”
Mazur could hardly believe his ears. Lincoln was alive — frostbitten, disoriented, hallucinating, but unmistakably alive. The discovery shocked the entire team. They had been on their way to the summit, but now they faced an impossible choice.
Continuing to the top would mean leaving Lincoln to die. Helping him would mean turning back and abandoning their once-in-a-lifetime chance at the summit.
Mazur later said the decision was immediate. For his team — Myles Osborne, Andrew Brash, and Jangbu Sherpa — there was no debate. They had found a living human being in desperate need, and they knew what they had to do.
They gave Lincoln oxygen, water, food, and warm clothing. They wrapped him in gear to protect him from the cold. They radioed for help, though they knew rescue at this altitude was nearly impossible. Still, they refused to leave him.
Hours passed as they tended to him on the exposed ridge. The wind battered them. The cold seeped into their bones. But they stayed. They kept him alive until rescue Sherpas could climb up from below.
Finally, after an exhausting operation, Lincoln Hall was lowered from the ridge and descended to the North Col. From there, he was taken to Advanced Base Camp, where medical staff began treating him for frostbite, dehydration, and the brain swelling that had nearly killed him.
Miraculously, he survived.
The climbing world erupted with shock. Stories of climbers left behind on Everest are not uncommon — but stories of climbers coming back from the dead are almost unheard of. Lincoln’s survival was called “the resurrection on Everest,” and it quickly became global news.
Despite frostbite that claimed the tips of some fingers and a toe, Lincoln recovered. Even more remarkably, he held no resentment toward the Sherpas who had left him behind. He understood the impossible choice they had faced in the death zone.
Lincoln later wrote a book about his ordeal titled “Dead Lucky: Life After Death on Mount Everest.” In it, he reflected on how close he came to dying and how grateful he was to the team that saved him. He also explored the spiritual transformation he felt during and after the experience, drawing deeply from Tibetan Buddhist teachings.
His rescuer, Dan Mazur, received worldwide praise for abandoning his own summit attempt to save a stranger’s life. Letters poured in from political leaders, celebrities, and ordinary people around the world. National Geographic honored the team’s extraordinary courage.
Mazur later said something that resonated deeply with millions:
“You can always go back to the summit. But you only have one life to live.”
Lincoln Hall lived for six more years after his Everest ordeal. During that time, he traveled, wrote, advocated for humanitarian causes, and cherished time with his family. Despite everything he overcame on Everest, another battle awaited him.
In 2012, Lincoln Hall died at age 56 from mesothelioma, a rare cancer caused by asbestos exposure. He had worked with asbestos as a young laborer decades earlier. His death was unrelated to Everest, but the courage with which he faced his illness echoed the strength he showed on that mountain ridge.
He left behind a wife and two sons — and a legacy that continues to inspire climbers, adventurers, and anyone who finds themselves fighting impossible odds.
Lincoln Hall’s story remains one of the greatest survival tales in mountaineering history. It is a reminder of the fragility of life, the power of the human spirit, and the incredible things that can happen when strangers become heroes. His experience on Everest speaks to something deeper than adventure — it speaks to hope, compassion, and resilience in the face of death.
And it proves, beyond any doubt, that sometimes miracles do happen — even eight thousand meters above the Earth, on the coldest mountain in the world.