Pretty cool interactive Mountaineering site. I havnt delved deeply into it, but did check the Hillary Step…
Sounds like a brand of mattresses. Or caskets.
Another missing on Everest.
Another death today. Five still missing.
Has anyone ever gone missing and then been found?
Beck Weathers in 1996 comes to mind.
Wyoming physician calls off Everest bid due to weather, overcrowding:
“Long lines, changing weather patterns, large groups of unskilled climbers, some unethical behavior of theft at high camps and illness in the team all played a role,” McGinley wrote.
I think I’m most stunned by the allegations of “theft at high camps”. I would have thought an extreme place like that to be one of the safest from petty crimes.
You have a bunch of hyper competitive douchebags whose brains aren’t fully functioning because of low oxygen and they “need” something of yours or they won’t get to attempt the last climb. I believe it.
I’ve done hikes that we joked about “being in a conga line” (I’m looking at you Mt. Si), but those pictures look like a literal conga line. Yeesh!
My general rule for hiking is to try to find the lengthy remote trail that goes to nowhere and then to go there.
That’s my general rule too, and it’s easy to do around where I live. But I used to have to travel to Seattle for work occasionally and I would find hikes to do while I was over there. The first part of that Si hike was great. I went up something called the Kamikaze Falls trail (steep MFer), made my way up to Mt Teneriffe, then did the ridge over to Si. Up till this point, it had been solitary. Not anymore. I’d also spent the night in the very large Si parking lot wondering why it was so huge. On the trail down from Si, I fully understood why.
You are correct that empathy and cooperation tend to increase the further out you go into remote areas. But much of that effect is because there are usually very few people around in remote areas. We all instinctively know that in a small community of people, we need to maintain good relationships.
But on Everest I think it’s now crowded to a point that it’s anonymous. With so many people around, a willingness to commit theft is psychologically similar to the reluctance to offer help of the bystander effect. And people have an astonishing ability to rationalize that their want for something is an urgent need that makes stealing it justified.
The theft is primarily (exclusively?) oxygen bottles that Sherpas have brought up for their team. People probably rationalize it that there are some extras, and I’ll die if I don’t have more oxygen.
But if people were in trouble and trying to get themselves down, oxygen would be given freely. The fact that it has been called “theft” can only mean that people are taking other people’s oxygen in order to continue upwards.
If I get to Camp IV on my summit push and the bottles that were supposed to be waiting for me are gone, I’m calling it theft whether they were taken by people going up or down.
The main reasons people don’t have enough O2 is because they didn’t plan, they assumed others would help them, or they kept going up when they should have turned around. That’s theft.
People also aren’t thinking so good up there; sometimes people just see oxygen bottles in front of them and take them. Not excusing their behavior, but they may not be completely aware of what they’re doing. Many climbers are pretty out of it at altitude and are just responding on instincts or following directions.
More on the dead Vancouver doctor:
Usual stuff from the family about pursuing his lifelong ambition, etc.
Today marks the 70th anniversary of the first successful ascent of Everest by Hillary and Norgay.
Also the 70th anniversary of the first oxygen theft on Everest.
They’ll be partying like it’s 1953.
It looks like this season will end with 17 dead as there is little chance any of the missing 5 could still be alive.