I watched quite a bit of this last night, i found it fascinating, and disturbing. fascinating, because there are now a large number of very affluent people in the world, who are willing to blow $60,000 (and risk their lives0 to stand on top of a mountain. I was disturbed by the behaviour of the three-man summit team (the sherpa, the frenchman, and the american with the bolted-together spine). They were trying to summit-but were moving too slow-and despite many earnest requests to turn back, they kept on going! also, the huge numbers of climbers who lack basic climbing skills-like the bunch of Koren? climbers who were unable to ascend the ladder (and blocked everybody else).
I plan to watch the grisly fianle Tuesday night-somehow, the whole thing seems surreal-suicide for $60,000-imagine if one of these people made a donation to some 3rd-world orphanage-you could probably feed a few hundred hungry kids for a year with this money!
I started watching it a few episodes in and am hooked. I was sorry to see the Danish climber turn back, but at least he was smart enough to make the correct decision.
However, the narrator whispering “ever…ever…ever…est…est…est” in the background is frackin’ annoying.
there is some serious slinging of baryard product regarding this whole climb and the fact that the discovery channel appears to be downplaying it big-time.
the number of websites talking about david sharp is numerous, to say the least. here’s one:
http://www.mounteverest.net/news.php?id=2092
i have a feeling that sharp’s death isn’t going to go away for quite some time. there may be some serious repercussions in the offing.
Asian teams often field weak climbers. In the past on Everest, this has included teams from Indonesia, China, India and Korea.
Discovery’s Everest show shows what a cluster f*ck the Chinese have made of the northern route, basically encouraging gridlock traffic above the high camp. The American biker-climber who was making slow progress and had to be turned back can blame much of his failure on the Korea team, which slowed everyone to a crawl and sapped their energy. That said, had Tim left camp just 20 minutes earlier–instead of being the last to leave–he probably would have summitted. Nothing like that last little beauty sleep to haunt you for years to come.
Personally, I haven’t followed much about David Sharp’s death apart from some basic info. Even so, I don’t know how much we can begin to accuse the Discovery Channel of downplaying it when I think they were asked by Sharp’s family to not include any footage/audio of his death in the show. I know next to nothing about mountaineering, but that mount.everest site seems like it’s definitely pushing an anti-Brice agenda and I’d be interested in seeing some less biased accounts of what happened.
Anyway, I’ve enjoyed watching the show.
I was watching that last night as well, incredible stuff.
To expand a little bit on the sherpa/frenchman/american trio, the sherpas have a powerful economic and “pride” incentive to get their clients to the top. I don’t think that there was any practical way for the sherpa (Phurba was his name) to force those two guys back down, and in the thin air they were certainly not thinking clearly (I’ve experienced this myself at relatively low altitude - 14.7k) so their team leader was reduced to calling them on the radio and saying “Come back NOW”. Not a pleasant thing to watch, I was talking to the TV and saying “Get your dumb, out-of-your-element ass off that mountain now. Don’t make your buddies have to talk to your widow.”
The teams that were getting hung up on the ladders were maddening - risking their safety and the safety of those nearby. While there’s no way to predict exactly how anyone will perform in that environment nobody should be sending teams of climbers who aren’t in extraordinary shape.
Yes, isn’t this mania for summiting Everest a bit weird? I mean, paying a sherpa to haul an overweight boozer to the top of a 29000 foot mountain is a bit nuch. When Hillary and Tenzing made it to the top, it was an expression of real heroism and courage-somehow making Everest “accessable” to rich Americans doesn’t elicit the same reaction. Anyway, can you imagine climbing this mountain-and walking by the frozen corpses of those who didn’t make it? Bizzarre!
I gather it’s gotten a little bit better since the whole “Into Thin Air” episode; some companies that had basically been advertising it as “You pay us $100K and we’ll get you to the top” did some self-examination. That was part of the problem, you had these real Type-A personalities with a lot of money and a certain amount of mountaineering experience who assumed that that somehow entitled them to summit. They were ignoring advice and instructions from their team leaders and evidently saying things to the effect of “If I don’t make it to the top I won’t pay you” or otherwise pressuring organizers. Mass traffic jams, late starts, bad weather and people who were in over their heads = deaths.
Not that that year was really unique; a number of people die every year testing themselves on that mountain.
I attended a presentation by Jamling Tenzig Norgay (Tenzig’s son), he was on the mountain doing a cleanup trip (picking up oxygen bottles and other trash) when that whole mess occurred, he had photos showing the long lines of people heading up to the summit. Late. In bad weather. Made my skin crawl, it was watching a line of people heading out to die.
bizarre nothing. :rolleyes: it’s completely out of control. as i understand it , if you die up there, most likely you won’t be coming down any time soon - if at all. too dangerous and difficult to bring a body back down. like you said, i can’t imagine what it would be like to pass by all those poor folks and there are a lot of them! horrible.
and above all else, there is NO FRIGGIN’ WAY i would attempt that mountain unless i was in completely tip-top physical shape. and by that i mean at least a year with a heavy-duty personal trainer kicking my ass into shape six days a week.
IMHO these bozos i.e. ‘the overweight boozer,’ are becoming the reason so many people are suddenly dying up there. it’s scary.
i agree everest.net may be gunning for brice (there’s always two sides to a story), but i gotta wonder about 40 climbers just walking right by (or over) that poor sharp guy. what the hell was that all about? no one stopped to help him?
you even hear the audio from somebody in the teaser for tomorrow’s ep, talking about how he thinks this guy is dying. unbelievable!
“and above all else, there is NO FRIGGIN’ WAY i would attempt that mountain unless i was in completely tip-top physical shape. and by that i mean at least a year with a heavy-duty personal trainer kicking my ass into shape six days a week.”
Actually even if you are in excellent physical condition, the altitude can sap every ounce of your strength. Being in excellent physical condition before starting out is absolutely necessary, but it won’t guarantee your getting to the top.
Before going on the Everest Trek I was in excellent physical condition. (I was running 5 miles in under 30 minutes.) Then instead of flying in to Lukla, which is only a few days hike from Everest, I hiked in all the way from Lamasongu. This took 2 weeks and allowed me to slowly acclimate, but when I got to 18,000 feet, I was totally wasted. After taking only taking 2 or 3 steps, I’d have to sit down and rest! I just barely made it up to Kala Patar. And these guys are over 10,000 feet higher than I was! I just can’t imagine how they feel.
An IMHO thread on that subject.
Great doc! But I think just about everyone in it are foolish, selfish idiots, particulary those risking others’ lives, and those with families. :mad:
I read an interesting piece of trivia today. George Everest, whom the mountain was named after, pronounced his name as two syllables (EEV-rest) not three.
Some people trace this fee-for-summit philosophy to Dick Bass’ famous/notorious 1986 (?) climb of Everest, on his quest to nail the Seven Summits. Bass, on his last expedition, wasn’t in good shape, but at about age 57, still had an almost superhuman cardiopulmonary system. The difference between then and now, of course, is that Bass (and David Breshears) did it without fixed ropes and Sherpa support on the last leg.
BTW, if someone is impressed with Hillary’s 1954 (?) summit, imagine the balls it took for Malory and Irvine, back in the mid-1920s–wool clothing, hobnail boots and massively heavy (and primitive) oxygen cannisters.
Getting back down is the thing though.
… And then only when you’ve managed to climb the mountain with style. Maybe 30 years from now, people will queue up for the $1,500 elevator ride up to a pressurized Starbucks cafe at Everest’s summit.
I was completely impressed with Terry the doctor. He never lost his sense of humor, even asking is there was “a carpool lane” while in that traffic jam on the accent. He also looked to still have all his wits about him while on the summit.
I have a crush. I’m ashamed.
Dude, I am so there. 
Watching finale now, climbers are fucking pathetic, sherpas dragging their sorry arses down. Pieces of shiite. That ahole biker apparently is begging for money to try again. Goddamn them all.
Climbing a freakin’ mounting is not an achievement ala working on the Apollo Space Program, there is nothing even redeeming about having a sherpa guiding (dragging) your nonindigenous arse up and down a hill, regardless of how many legs you have. Way to leave the guy dying as 40 climbers went up and down. Selfish, selfish aholes.