# At least 12 Sherpa guides dead in Mt. Everest avalanche **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 18, 2014, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-12-sherpa-guides-dead-in-mt-everest-avalanche/686422 "2014-04-18T15:02:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-12-sherpa-guides-dead-in-mt-everest-avalanche/686422/41 "2014-04-23T12:12:32Z")
[The rest of this year’s season on Everest seems to be cancelled, as Sherpas pack up and leave.](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-22/everest-sherpas-say-they-are-abandoning-climbing-season/5404642) Probably for the best. The deadliest year on record is 1996 with 19 deaths in total, and with a head start of 16 before the season is even properly underway, it wouldn’t take much to beat that this year. I don’t think anyone would want that. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-12-sherpa-guides-dead-in-mt-everest-avalanche/686422/42 "2014-04-23T15:11:35Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Probably for the best. The deadliest year on record is 1996 with 19 deaths in total, and with a head start of 16 before the season is even properly underway, it wouldn’t take much to beat that this year. I don’t think anyone would want that. I don’t think anybody cares what the record is. It’s about the fact that all of the people killed were Sherpas and they feel it would be disrespectful to ignore those losses and keep climbing. And they may also think it reflects their concerns about the risks they’re taking. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-12-sherpa-guides-dead-in-mt-everest-avalanche/686422/43 "2014-04-23T16:15:13Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I don’t think anybody cares what the record is. It’s about the fact that all of the people killed were Sherpas and they feel it would be disrespectful to ignore those losses and keep climbing. And they may also think it reflects their concerns about the risks they’re taking. In more practical terms, the modern day Everest climb relies almost entirely on the ladders and ropes the Sherpas were prepping. ---
**Author:** ![Scubaqueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Scubaqueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scubaqueen)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-12-sherpa-guides-dead-in-mt-everest-avalanche/686422/44 "2014-04-23T20:57:38Z")
With a few minutes of online surfing and fact-checking it doesn’t take long to learn that since 1921, when Tibet opened its borders to outsiders and someone decided to start keeping a record of those who attempted to summit, well over 200 climbers have died on Everest. Some records say the death total could be as many as 250, and quite a few (an estimated 189) are still up there because it’s too dangerous for them to be brought down. Or they simply disappeared without a trace like George Mallory and a surprising number of others. A look at the timeline since the 1970s to the present is chilling. A whole lot of people have died in just 44 years. **Aspidistra’s** photo upthread certainly shows where the term ‘traffic jam’ came from and why death seems to come to Everest more and more frequently. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-12-sherpa-guides-dead-in-mt-everest-avalanche/686422/45 "2014-04-23T21:07:48Z")
> [@Scubaqueen](#): > > Some records say the death total could be as many as 250, and quite a few (an estimated 189) are still up there because it’s too dangerous for them to be brought down. A lot of bodies are clearly visible along the climbing routes, and are given nicknames and used as [landmarks](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/there-are-over-200-bodies-on-mount-everest-and-theyre-used-as-landmarks-146904416/?no-ist). Bodies and clothing don’t really decompose very well up there. The story of [Green Boots](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Boots), the body of an Indian climber who died in 1996, and who is probably the most famous corpse on the mountain, really got to me for some reason. It’s all pretty morbid stuff. ---
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-12-sherpa-guides-dead-in-mt-everest-avalanche/686422/46 "2014-04-23T21:15:56Z")
> [@Scubaqueen](#): > > With a few minutes of online surfing and fact-checking it doesn’t take long to learn that since 1921, when Tibet opened its borders to outsiders and someone decided to start keeping a record of those who attempted to summit, well over 200 climbers have died on Everest. > > Some records say the death total could be as many as 250, and quite a few (an estimated 189) are still up there because it’s too dangerous for them to be brought down. Or they simply disappeared without a trace like George Mallory and a surprising number of others. > > A look at the timeline since the 1970s to the present is chilling. A whole lot of people have died in just 44 years. **Aspidistra’s** photo upthread certainly shows where the term ‘traffic jam’ came from and why death seems to come to Everest more and more frequently. The reason the absolute numbers are so high, though, is because so many people attempt to climb it. On a fatality rate basis, Everest is actually one of the safer 8000m peaks. Only about 5% have died in the attempt. Compare that to K2, which has a 25% fatality rate, and Annapurna, which is a fairly appalling 40%. I’ve read a number of books by career climbers who have summited Everest and the general opinion seems to be that it’s very tall, but as far as the 8000m peaks go it’s not so much a technically challenging climb. Which of course makes it more appealing to underqualified tourist climbers who wouldn’t have a prayer of sniffing the summit of K2. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-12-sherpa-guides-dead-in-mt-everest-avalanche/686422/47 "2014-04-23T21:22:27Z")
> [@Scubaqueen](#): > > Or they simply disappeared without a trace like George Mallory and a surprising number of others. Mallory’s body was found in 1999, but you are correct that many have never been found. ---
**Author:** ![Scubaqueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Scubaqueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scubaqueen)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-12-sherpa-guides-dead-in-mt-everest-avalanche/686422/48 "2014-04-24T13:08:18Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Mallory’s body was found in 1999, but you are correct that many have never been found. My bad. I thought it was Mallory. Is it Irvine that has never been found? ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-12-sherpa-guides-dead-in-mt-everest-avalanche/686422/49 "2014-04-24T13:37:39Z")
> [@Scubaqueen](#): > > My bad. I thought it was Mallory. Is it Irvine that has never been found? Correct, I don’t think they’ve found his body yet although there have been some unconfirmed sightings. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-12-sherpa-guides-dead-in-mt-everest-avalanche/686422/50 "2014-04-24T14:37:03Z")
[Jon Krakauer writes about the increased risks faced by Sherpas on Everest today.](http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2014/04/everest-sherpas-death-and-anger.html) > [@](#): > > There is no denying that climbing Everest is a preposterously dangerous undertaking for the members who provide the Sherpas’ income. But running counter to the disturbing trend among Sherpas, climbing Everest has actually grown significantly safer for Western guides and members in recent years, according to the available data. This can be attributed to a number of factors. Western climbers now use bottled oxygen much more liberally than they did in the past; many Western climbers now prophylactically dose themselves with dexamethasone, a powerful steroid, when they ascend above twenty-two thousand feet, which has proven to be an effective strategy for minimizing the risk of contracting high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE) and high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE), potentially fatal ailments that are common on Everest; and weather forecasts are much more accurate than they were eighteen or twenty years ago. > […] > The reason the risk remains so much greater for Sherpas can be traced to several things. Sherpas aren’t provided with nearly as much bottled oxygen, because it is so expensive to buy and to stock on the upper mountain, and they tend to be much better acclimatized than Westerners. Sherpas are almost never given dexamethasone prophylactically, because they don’t have personal physicians in their villages who will prescribe the drug on request. And perhaps most significant, Sherpas do all the heavy lifting on Everest, literally and figuratively. The mostly foreign-owned guiding companies assign the most dangerous and physically demanding jobs to their Sherpa staff, thereby mitigating the risk to their Western guides and members, whose backpacks seldom hold much more than a water bottle, a camera, an extra jacket, and lunch. The work Sherpas are paid to do—carrying loads, installing the aluminum ladders, stringing and anchoring thousands of feet of rope—requires them to spend vastly more time on the most dangerous parts of the mountain, particularly in the Khumbu Icefall—the shattered, creaking, ever-shifting expanse of glacier that extends from just above base camp, at seventeen thousand six hundred feet, to the nineteen-thousand-five-hundred-foot elevation. The fact that members and Western guides now suck down a lot more bottled oxygen is wonderful for them, but it means the Sherpas have to carry those additional oxygen bottles through the Icefall for the Westerners to use. It’s also worth pointing out that the government of Nepal seems to be lowballing the families of the victims: > [@](#): > > If a climbing Sherpa dies on the job, his family receives a million rupees (approximately ten thousand five hundred dollars) from the insurance his employer is required to provide. […] > The threat of a work stoppage was provoked by the Sherpas’ outrage over the Nepali government’s offer to provide just forty thousand rupees—slightly more than four hundred dollars—to the families of the Sherpas killed in the avalanche, to defray their funeral expenses. ---
**Author:** ![Scubaqueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Scubaqueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scubaqueen)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-12-sherpa-guides-dead-in-mt-everest-avalanche/686422/51 "2014-04-24T14:46:16Z")
> [@chizzuk](#): > > The reason the absolute numbers are so high, though, is because so many people attempt to climb it. On a fatality rate basis, Everest is actually one of the safer 8000m peaks. Only about 5% have died in the attempt. Compare that to K2, which has a 25% fatality rate, and Annapurna, which is a fairly appalling 40%. I’ve read a number of books by career climbers who have summited Everest and the general opinion seems to be that it’s very tall, but as far as the 8000m peaks go it’s not so much a technically challenging climb. Which of course makes it more appealing to underqualified tourist climbers who wouldn’t have a prayer of sniffing the summit of K2. That’s a fair point. You DON’T hear much about neophyte climbers on those other mountains much at all - because as mentioned above they already know they don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell. 40 percent fatality rate??? :eek: Everest seems to get all the press, good or bad. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-12-sherpa-guides-dead-in-mt-everest-avalanche/686422/52 "2014-04-24T14:59:59Z")
The Khumbu Icefall - Russian Roulette, with glaciers. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-12-sherpa-guides-dead-in-mt-everest-avalanche/686422/53 "2014-04-24T15:11:55Z")
Normally, you could avoid the Khumbu Icefall completely by going the north route instead of the south route (although that has its own problems)… only no one is able to do that these days because of the political situation in Tibet, making the most dangerous part of the mountain even more crowded than it otherwise would have been. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2015, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-12-sherpa-guides-dead-in-mt-everest-avalanche/686422/54 "2015-04-25T22:07:20Z")
And now, exactly a year and a day since the last post in this thread, here we are again. This time it is a tragedy amidst an immensely larger disaster. I’ve read anywhere from 13 to 18 deaths known so far on Everest, but the total is likely to be higher, thus making today the deadliest ever on the mountain. News coming off Everest is spotty at best. I wonder if there are any resources available to reach the trapped or injured higher up on Everest? I would assume most helicopters would be transporting lifesaving supplies to areas where the number in need is so much higher. I remember reading once that if you are are high enough on Everest and something truly bad happens, you might as well be on the moon with regards to rescue. I can’t imagine the terror of trying to negotiate the Khumbu Icefall after the known passage through has been destroyed and where there are constant earthquake aftershocks. I think climbers were probably not at the highest level on the mountain yet because the peak summit date is still a couple of weeks away. But how high up is too high too be rescued right now? What a terrible day. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2015, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-12-sherpa-guides-dead-in-mt-everest-avalanche/686422/55 "2015-04-25T23:06:05Z")
The resulting avalanche hit base camp - that’s where a number of injuries and deaths have been reported. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2015, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-12-sherpa-guides-dead-in-mt-everest-avalanche/686422/56 "2015-04-26T00:47:05Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > The resulting avalanche hit base camp - that’s where a number of injuries and deaths have been reported. Can somebody link to an article? Was the avalanche caused by the earthquake? [Never mind](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/26/world/asia/everest-climbers-killed-as-nepal-quake-sets-off-avalanche.html?_r=0). ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2015, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-12-sherpa-guides-dead-in-mt-everest-avalanche/686422/57 "2015-04-26T01:30:59Z")
The death of the Sherpa guides is sad, no doubt, but it must be put in perspective. More than 1300 people were killed in that earthquake today. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Joker\_and\_the\_Thief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e79b87/32.png) [@The\_Joker\_and\_the\_Thief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Joker_and_the_Thief)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2015, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-12-sherpa-guides-dead-in-mt-everest-avalanche/686422/58 "2015-04-26T01:32:08Z")
> [@Biotop](#): > > I wonder if there are any resources available to reach the trapped or injured higher up on Everest? I would assume most helicopters would be transporting lifesaving supplies to areas where the number in need is so much higher. I remember reading once that if you are are high enough on Everest and something truly bad happens, you might as well be on the moon with regards to rescue. In the book “The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest”, the author says that landing a helicopter at Camp I (elevation: 20,000-21,000) was essentially at the absolute upper limit on what was possible. However, that was 15 years ago, and the flight altitude record for a helicopter is a whopping 40,000 feet, so make of it what you will. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2015, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-12-sherpa-guides-dead-in-mt-everest-avalanche/686422/59 "2015-04-26T01:50:05Z")
It has been somewhat frustrating today getting news out of Nepal today. Of course with the devastation that is certainly understandable. I suppose I am fairly surprised that the networks and CNN are not covering this more thoroughly. The Everest situation is but a small part of the overall horrific earthquake story, but they are spending more time today on Bruce Jenner than a tragedy with likely thousands of deaths. The best TV coverage has been on Al Jazeera. ---
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2015, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-12-sherpa-guides-dead-in-mt-everest-avalanche/686422/60 "2015-04-26T02:49:25Z")
This blog seems to have links to many of this year’s climbing teams: [Everest 2015 Coverage | The Blog on alanarnette.com](http://www.alanarnette.com/blog/everest/2015-coverage/) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-12-sherpa-guides-dead-in-mt-everest-avalanche/686422.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-least-12-sherpa-guides-dead-in-mt-everest-avalanche/686422.md?page=4)