"Do you agree that Cathy O'Dowd and here fellow mountaineers had no choice but to leave Fran "to die"?"

The article does undoubtedly give many good reasons why not to attempt to save Fran. But I am not completely shore that they had “no choice but to leave Fran”.  The fact that there were nine people on the mountain and that together they couldn’t even try to help rescue Fran is rather peculiar. I don’t know what others would do, but I would at least try to help, rather than to just leave her “to die”.  Also, Cathy states that they had been with Fran “for nearly an hour” pondering over what to do, this completely wastes time and any chances of saving her. Cathy is in a moral dilemma, and I believe the moral thing to do would be to attempt a rescue.

The three Uzbek climbers that left her oxygen and supposedly “tried to help” saw Fran the day before this incident. She must have been in a better state then, and all they do is just leave a canister of oxygen.  The Uzbek climbers then stay with the rest of the group and Fran, and help to “watch Ian and Jangbu to see what decision they took”, this is just more evidence of time being wasted and therefore lowering Fran’s chances of survival.  

In conclusion I believe that to live Fran “to die” was not the only choice they had.  As I said, the morally correct thing to do would be to of least attempted a rescue, rather than to fritter away time.