Sorry I missed your answer last year. Tim Madsen — one of the survivors in “the huddle”, the group caught in a fierce blizzard on the South Col that fateful night in May 1996. It was dark, and with visibility near zero they did not want to stumble in the wrong direction and fall off the nearby Kangshung Face — a drop of many thousands of feet. Later that night during breaks in the stormy blizzard they were able to make their way with some help to Camp IV.
Here’s a picture of Beck Weathers, ”left for dead” that night on the south col, at a local venue where he talked of his experience and then with my wife and me afterwards:
After his presentation, when the auditorium was emptying, I entered a backstage door and there he was. It was nice meeting him and he was gracious enough to be in our picture.
The family of Seamus Lawless who disappeared near the summit last week has raised nearly a quarter of a million dollars to try and recover his body before the climbing season ends. The challenge of putting together such a recovery operation in the few short weeks left in the climbing season seems insurmountable.
Yeah, there are a lot of people questioning just what is going on with that Gofundme page. It wasn’t set up by the family but supposedly by somebody who worked with the deceased. It was presented as raising funds for search and recovery of a still alive but missing climber and raised a lot of money from people who clearly didn’t realise that there was practically no chance of him still being alive. When anybody tried to point this out their comments were deleted, and days later it was still being sold as a search for a missing man.
Even if the fundraising is genuine people still know damn well that any recovery would be dangerous and could cause further loss of life, but the page is still looking for more money regardless.
Its gofundme so there will be practically zero oversight of what happens the money, frankly I think it is a scam in all but name.
I’m with Biotop on this. I find Everest, even more than other mountains like K2, fascinating. Not just the mountain, but the psychology, the ethics. What causes people to do things with a high risk of death? Since we’re all going to die eventually anyway, are they better than me for having taken the risk for big reward? I don’t know. And Everest is the whole discussion in a nutshell.
K2 is much more of a technical climb, and far fewer people do it. You have to be skilled. No amateurs there. Yet, I watched a video where a guy came rolling down the mountain at high speed to his death. Was it worth it? I don’t know.
The stories about people like Shriya Shaw seem to focus on those that died. I guess that makes for more interesting copy, but it only tells part of the story.
The linked video quoted her husband that she was “looking for something” on Everest. (people are really looking for things in themselves, but they have to go to extremes to find it.) But I am curious about the rest. As of this year there have been over 4000 different people that have summited Everest compared to the 300 that died.
What are the stories of those who successfully made it and returned? I bet many of them could be described as “looking for something”. I would like to know how many of them found what they were looking for. Did their lives change? Or did they instead return to lives of quiet desperation?
What happened to them when they didn’t find what they were looking for? Or they didn’t like the answers they found? For those that tried and failed, was it worse living with their failure? Did climbing Everest and succeeding (or and failing) make a difference, for either better or worse, in their lives?
This is what fascinates me. I admit, I feel the call. I want to test myself. I want to prove to myself that I am as good as those that made it. I want to stand on the top of the world. But unless someone builds an escalator, I know I’ll never see the summit. I have accepted it. Am I better or worse than those that tried?
There are stories of/from those who lived to tell the tale. Sometimes they came back very changed (Beck Weathers for example, nearly died and lost body parts to frostbite), others not so much but still have a story to tell (Jon Krakauer). The mainstream press tends to focus most on the disasters and maiming, but if you look you can find the stories of those who went up and came back down with all body parts intact. Some of them more than once.
It varies, of course.
One forgotten group are the Sherpas - THEY have a lot to gain by risking the hazards of Everest. Some of them have pulled their families out of dire poverty, were able to send their kids to schools, and otherwise vastly improved the lives of themselves and their families, sometimes by working just one or a few seasons on the big mountain.
But since the 4000-5000 people who have tried to climb Everest are a group made of individuals their stories vary considerably. Many different reasons to climb, many different outcomes from complete disaster to uplifting and motivating.
I think there is a LOT to be said for knowing your limitations.
Don’t recall the exact show, but there was (yet another) documentary about a group climbing Everest and one of the members had asthma. Now, he’s still an athlete and it seemed to me (from what was shown and also from what I know as a person with asthma) that he had it under control but he did not make it to the top. At a certain point he said “this is my summit” meaning he didn’t have it in him to go higher. So he turned around and went back down. And you know what? I’ve got a LOT of respect for that guy, for having the good sense to know when he reached his limit, accepting it, dealing with it, then going on to other goals in life. He’s just as much an achiever as anyone who stands on the top of Everest because he sought his own limits AND had the good sense to realize when he got there.
A little bit of a tangent - I have an internet friend who started skydiving. But after a few jumps and witnessing an accident (just injury, no fatalities, although it was still serious) he started feeling uneasy about things and was berating himself for being a coward for not continuing. I said no, you’re not a coward. You are making an informed decision that you no longer find the benefits worth the risk to you personally. There is nothing cowardly about that, it’s actually being pretty smart.
Sure, I’d love to stand on the top of the world, but I know better than to try it. For me, Everest base camp would be as high as I’d care to struggle. There are other things I want to put my life and energy into more than struggling up the world’s highest mountain. It’s not about being better or worse than someone who chooses to try that mountain, it’s more about what your priorities are. There are a lot of things I prioritize over climbing mountains. For others, climbing Everest is top on the list. I wish them well, I *really *hope they get the training and conditioning they need to make a successful go of it, and hope they have a successful attempt should they actually get a chance to try it.
Two Indian women have died in separate incidents on Mount Everest yesterday and today. Kalpana Das was 49. Anjali Kulkami was 54. Both died just after descending the summit, just as did Don Cash and Seamus Lawless earlier. Ravi Thakar died in his tent at Camp 4 after descending.
The major issue this year seems to be the crowds at the summit. After reaching the top, the descent is taking to long because so many people are coming up the ropes that those in trouble above are having to wait too long for the opportunity to come down. There is too much time being spent simply waiting in the death zone.
Perhaps here there could be agreement on regulation. Instead of leaving it up to the individual groups to coordinate the number of climbers attempting to reach the summit, perhaps there could be a governing body operating from base camp that would limit the number of attempts on a given day. If the weather does not allow for the opportunity for all groups to ascend during the climbing system, then it doesn’t.
There’s a point in the video linked above that shows the crowds at a different point on the mountain (see 39:47). It starts out looking OK, then just keeps panning and panning.
I assume there is simply no way to have adjacent ropes or different routes on the Step bottleneck for uphill versus downhill. I’d like to think it might be more possible since the Step changed in the 2015 earthquake to more of a slope, but obviously I am incorrect in that, or they’d be doing it.
A fine idea, but the problem with this is it’s much easier to get permits and labor on the Nepalese side. China (Tibet) can afford to limit the number of permits and access; Nepal is a third-world country with a barely functioning government of dubious stability, and they will enthusiastically rake in cash from anyone who wants to give it to them.
The Tibet side sees about 40% less climbers than the Nepal side. The death rate of the two major routes are similar, at 3.3% (Tibet) and 3.4% (Nepal). Major causes of death on the Tibet side are falls, acute mountain sickness, exposure, and exhaustion. Major causes of death on the Nepal side are overwhelmingly avalanches and falls, on the mountain and in the Khumbu Icefall, along with almost identical numbers as Tibet for acute mountain sickness, exposure, and exhaustion.
Perhaps the two countries could come to some sort of an agreement about having one route be “UP ONLY” and the other route “DOWN ONLY,” but I doubt that will ever happen.
ETA: I know, there are a lot more than just two routes.
Seems pretty intractable because don’t the different routes have different camp locations? You’d either have to haul your stuff with you to the summit or hope that someone taking the other route left you enough supplies.
This photo is why I think permits should be limited: 320 people in a “traffic jam” approaching the summit. One person died. You won’t find 320 people in line for a ride at Disneyland, and Everest ain’t Disney. Sure, Nepal is poor and desperate to make money, but I still think raising the fee to four times its current amount wouldn’t reduce the number of applicants by more than 3/4, so Nepal wouldn’t suffer any loss.
I’m fascinated by Everest, too. I love to read about it, watch documentaries on it, and dream of what it’d be like to summit. But even when I was younger, I wouldn’t have tried to climb it any more than I’d try to break the record for trekking to the South Pole. The mountain is over-climbed. More of us who love it should stay home.
