Competence

I have been given the task of describing competence in relation to the book Into Thin Air. I believe that the competence of the climber is very important to the outcome of their Mount Everest climb. This counts for other things in life as well those competence maters. The book “Into Thin Air” gives us good examples of how competence matters. One point which you can take from the book is that inexperienced climbers would take with too much equipment or stuff that is unnecessary. For example Sandy Pitman took with satellite phones, computers and other non-climbing items. The people who climbed and were not experienced climbers will hold back the other climbers by lack of technical skills, organizational skills and not having had the practice. In a situation like climbing Mt. Everest the non-experienced climbers could forget items, not know how to climb in different weather conditions and not be willing to go down when sick. An example of that is Scott Fischer when he climbed with stomach pains and eventually died because of mountain sickness. Competence really matters for climbing mountains such as Mt Everest. It can mean life or death. These points are not only valid for climbing but also can be used for any other group and individual work.