Just when you read the 100th article that says how easy Mt. Everest is to climb and that a 73 year old woman managed to climb it the other day and how there is no challenge then you read that 5 people got killed in one day on the mountain because there are so many people trying to climb it that there was a traffic jam. Back when Jon Krakauer wrote his book Into Thin Air, that was basically the reason for all the deaths that day too. Too many people so everyone goes slow so people spend too long in the death zone. This is probably not a celebrity or anything but it is fascinating to me because there are not that many sports or things you can do in life that can kill you so easily and that test you quite as much as an ascent of Mt. Everest. People willingly do it knowing there is a decent shot they will get seriously injured or die.
Jon Krakauer's book on mountain-climbing (INTO THIN AIR) is a great read -- he talks about how the obsession develops, worsens, and culminates in shocking feats of risk. It's pretty much standard operating procedure to step over dead bodies on the trail, or to ignore or leave behind people who fall ill or become injured, because if you help them you might not "summit." It's an interesting obsession. After that book, I hear about people dying on mountains without a lot of surprise. They knew what they were in for.
ReplyDeleteWhile I enjoy a good rock climb that is just too too much.
ReplyDeleteI feel badly for the families of the lost...very sad.
The idea that the bodies are left there frozen is creepy. I know they have no other option, but that would freak me out.
ReplyDeleteITA @Seachica. Ewww
ReplyDeleteI am far from the outdoorsy type, but I've always been fascinated by Everest stories. I've read several books and watched just about everything on Netflix. (Anyone else see that NatGeo series a few years ago?)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the traffic jam issue has no easy solution. Hiking the mountain HAS gotten "easier", though it's still a huge, arduous feat that most humans couldn't begin to undertake. Many of the hikers are skilled, but many are barely above "novice" stage and thinking they could manage fine with a good Sherpa and/or expedition leader (many of whom charge upwards of $30K for the climb).
The problem is that the weather conditions give hikers a very short window -- you can really only climb it for about three weeks in May. So you have literally hundreds of hikers all trying to get up the mountain in a short timeframe. I've read that it really is a traffic jam, with women and men just queued up there, waiting for their 3-5 minutes(!) at the summit. From what I can tell -- and please correct me if I'm wrong! -- the hiking community has been hotly debating this problem for years, but there's no easy way to stop the traffic jam without cutting way back on the number of people allowed to climb the mountain.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete@Alanna, I have read that many "serious" mountain climbers at the way Everest has become a hot tourist location. Because so many people do it, everyone thinks it is easy. It isn't easy at all and the chances of dying (or at least getting frostbite) can be very high. I would think that the Death Zone itself would be a deterrant, but nooooo. People take pictures of the dead bodies (half of whom aren't even officially identified) on the way up and down.
ReplyDeleteI think Mt Everest puts Nepal in a very awkward situation. On the one hand, it needs the tourism money that it brings, but on the other, they have to deal with the issues related to the deaths and environmental stress that tourism brings.
ReplyDeleteYou would think they would develop a permit system to balance the two issues out. They could control traffic while collecting fees.
@Beth- Everest sits on the border between china and Nepal, so I'd think a permitting system would require cooperation between the two countries. Which i don't see happening.
ReplyDeleteHere's one of the many sites with pics of the bodies... http://www.buzzfeed.com/toddvanluling/dead-bodies-on-mount-everest
ReplyDeleteI've been beaten down by Mount Washington in January. No serious climber thinks Everest is easy. Only foolish ones.
ReplyDeleteClimbing this mountain is the most inane activity. People hv already been up there, no reason for anyone else to. What on earth do they possibly get out of ot?? Is it some macho thing? Anyone who climbs this mountain is a jackass, and deserves to die.
ReplyDeleteYeah Topper and there is a saying: "A fool and his money are soon parted". I amend that to some people having more dollars than sense.
ReplyDeleteThat site where the dead bodies were was quite macabre. I just never realized there was so much human debris. Just tragic.
I can't say I've read an article or heard someone say it's easy to climb Mt. Everest.
ReplyDeleteIt seems crazy to me that there are enough people climbing it at once to create a traffic jam.
I believe I saw something on the BBC site today saying that you have 1 in 10 odds of not making it back down the mountain alive, and there have been times when it was more like 1 in 4. Um...call me chicken, but I really don't like odds like that with my hobbies...
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, there are lots of bodies up there, some of them well-preserved and some not so much...some have basically become markers along the trail, such as a guy known as Green Boots (an Indian climber in chatreuse boots). It's almost impossible to bring bodies back down; it's pretty much all most people can do just to get themselves down alive, although I believe there have been a few expeditions designs to either bring bodies down or at least "bury" them as best as possible, even if that only means cutting the ropes and letting them fall into the crevasse, out of sight. (And Everest isn't even the most dangerous mountain in the Himalayas--I think K2 is worse, IIRC.)
I love mountain climbing but I don't do it often enough nor do I have the capacity and ability to even think to ever try Everest (asthmatic, hate the cold, too small.) There should definitely be stricter regulations for who tries to climb as well as permits. This requires a great deal of technical skill as well as physical endurance and anyone who doesn't meet those standards should be denied automatically. This isn't a stop on the tour bus, you can and will die if YOU, not your sherpa, not your guide, are unprepared. Not that I wish anyone to die, unlike some people.
ReplyDeleteNepal DOES issue permits. Only for the income; there is no vetting of skills or anything.
ReplyDeleteTwo of the five dead were sherpas.
ReplyDeleteI live in Yosemite and don't climb because it scares me. I'm proud to say that I got to party with Warren "Batso" Harding (1st to climb El Capitan) a few times and heard some great stories about his life.
ReplyDeleteI hiked to Everest in the 80's and would love to do it again. Nepal is so beautiful!
Not only the bodies, but the incredible amount of equipment that climbers leave behind is a problem on Mount Everest. I remember reading about that years ago, and the Nepalese trying to mount clean-up operations to gather the debris from what many consider to be a sacred mountain. Rude.
ReplyDeleteWe live in Seattle and because two climbers were from Seattle including Scott Fischer, we heard the constant bulletins as news came out of the 1996 tragedy. It almost felt like we were there because the news was constant and detailed. After that, I've never understood why people would take the risk when it's not just skill, but also weather, crowds and luck.
ReplyDeleteOuch auntliddy...deserve to die? Really?
ReplyDeleteWhat is scarier are the people left to die. That is really horrid! There are people screaming for help, but no one can help them without dying themselves. Is ANY mountain climb worth that? Seriously, if you know you will be climbing over bodies AND seeing people die for a moment at the top, WHAT is wrong with you?
ReplyDeleteWOW- that link a blogger above posted just freaked me the HELL out!
ReplyDeleteI had NO idea MT Everest was like this!
I cant imagine the irony of making a trip like this the pinnacle of your life, and climbing the mountain as you began the ascension towards complete and total one in a lifetime beauty---all while fucking bodies are decomposing in various stages all around you!
Talk about a mind fuck.
And yeah, count me amongst those who said it just aint worth it.
Hmmm. A hang-glider just died in British Columbia after her tandem "coach" apparently didn't have her buckled into her harness. She slowly slid down his body after grasping onto him for dear life, until she fell to her death, taking his shoe with her.
ReplyDeleteNow, if that happened to one out of every ten hang-gliders off that specific cliff, could everyone agree that: a) the 'sport' should be outlawed, b) that particular cliff should be closed to any such activity, and perhaps c) that the people who continued to want to do it were, how shall I say....stupid??
There is something messed up about the fact that some of the bodies are used as landmarks.
ReplyDelete