Make that 8.
New trails are constantly being blazed.
Don’t give anyone any ideas.
That’s assuming they didn’t wear it under their gear, anyway.
Some guy just set the record for a non-Sherpa with his 17th ascent.
Now 9 deaths and a likely tenth.
Climbing Everest: worth being unemployed for.
“A graduate of Boston University, Rebecca Long quit her job in financial services in Boston to take the Everest trip after her boss wouldn’t allow her to take leave”.
As a geezer, that woulda surprised me when I was younger. But I have seen enough younger people these days who seem to be marketable enough that they switch jobs frequently with no apparent adverse consequences. One of my kids has discussed possibly saving up and then taking 6 months off from work to do one of the long US hikes. If she can’t get a leave of absence, she says she’ll just quit and look for work when done. She’s had something like 3 jobs in the past 5 years, each of them a significant promotion from the last, and has never been out of work between jobs other than a couple of weeks by choice.
Not what folk did 20-30 years ago, but today, doesn’t strike me as all that odd. Me, I’ve been with the same employer for 36+ years! 
Well, they’ve already got a gay guy.
Could be. But the financial sector (where she worked) is in contraction right now, and summer isn’t the best time to be out looking for work.
I can respect that guy, and that record. That is dedication. And he knows more about that climb than anyone other than the Sherpas (he probably knows as much, if not more).
You’re supposed to give up on your life’s dream for a job?
ETA: I had to leave a job in the mid-1990s when they refused to give me any maternity leave or even an unpaid leave of absence. Should I have stayed and not had children?
I don’t. People die waiting in line to get to the top. He’s been 17 times and it’s so important to him that he has to keep going and adding to the congestion and the trash? There are (a few) other mountains out there. Maybe he could try something new.
Totally agree
My daughter did that. She quit her job to take 5 months for a road trip through all 49 land-connected states. Me, before I recently retired I worked for a company for 20 years.
Kids are different today, I hear every mother say…
My friend took a six month leave of absence from his engineering job to travel through Central America…in 1992
And now a deaf/mute climber has gone missing.
Yes, good points. I have climbed the same mountains multiple times (nothing like Everest), but I’ve typically done so from different approaches. Not sure why I didn’t think through my statement more.
A deadly week.
The Himalayan Times must struggle for headline stories outside of the April-May Everest climbing season.
“No Deaths On Everest This Week”
“Sherpas Prepare For Next Climbing Season”
So is that another first?