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Highest Strangeness: Everest Oddities, Excesses & Risks

WhistlingJack

Gone But Not Forgotten
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Highest mobile call climb begins



A British climber is in the closing stages of an attempt to set a world record for the highest mobile call.

Rod Baber is making final preparations to scale Mount Everest and make the call from its north ridge.

Following weeks of acclimatisation, Mr Baber is now at base camp recuperating and checking equipment prior to beginning the actual ascent.

The expedition will begin its final push on 15 May and aims to reach the summit about eight days later.

Mr Baber reached base camp at the foot of Everest in mid-April and since then has been trekking up the mountain to get used to living at high altitude.

"It took us three days before we could walk more than 50 steps without running out of breath," he told the BBC News website from base camp in the Himalayas.

In the last few weeks the members of the expedition climbing Everest with Mr Baber have reached altitudes of 7,500 metres - the height at which most people start to need oxygen to continue.

"We've done some of the most physically demanding sections of the route," he said.

The trekking has meant that four members of the expedition have been forced to quit as altitude sickness has left them unable to cope.

Now the remaining members of the team, organised by the HimEx climbing group, is recuperating prior to the attempt on the summit. Mr Baber said he had already lost 11kg in weight and was likely to lose five more by the time the attempt was done.

Making a mobile call from the top of Everest has become possible as a base station installed in nearby China has line-of-sight to the north ridge of the mountain.

Phone reception in the Himalayas has improved as the Chinese army is also at the Everest base camp making preparations to take the Olympic torch to the summit.

Mr Baber said the expedition had a "very good" chance of reaching the summit if the weather stayed calm.

"But," he said, "it's when Everest lets you climb it, not the other way around."

Story from BBC NEWS:

Published: 2007/05/11 09:12:02 GMT

© BBC MMVII
 
Success For Everest Mobile Effort

Success for Everest mobile effort



A British climber has set a world record by making a mobile phone call from the top of Mount Everest.

In the early hours of 21 May, Rod Baber made two calls from the mountain's north ridge.

In the first call Mr Baber described the view, how cold it was and what he wanted to do when back at base camp; he then rang his wife and children.

The calls were made possible when China set up a mobile base station with a line of sight to the north ridge.

Mr Baber set off from the UK for the Himalayas on 30 March and since mid-April has been getting used to living at high altitude.

Prior to 15 May, when the final ascent began, Mr Baber and the other members of the expedition had been trekking up and down Everest to familiarise themselves with the route and prepare their bodies for the punishing ordeal.

To make the call at the summit, 8,848 metres, Mr Baber had to contend with high winds and temperatures of -30 degrees. The call was made to a voicemail account created by sponsor Motorola to ensure the attempt was recorded.

Mr Baber also did not have much time to make the call because those climbing Everest typically only stay at the summit for 15 minutes. Making such a call is dangerous as talking into the handset meant he had to remove his oxygen mask.

Batteries for the Motorola handset he used were taped to his body to ensure they stayed at a high enough temperature to power the phone.

Mr Baber also claimed a separate record for sending the highest text message.

From base camp before making the attempt to reach the summit of Everest, Mr Baber said: "Everest symbolises the greatest challenge to any climber." He added that making the call from the mountain was a "once in a lifetime" opportunity.

Story from BBC NEWS:

Published: 2007/05/22 00:26:37 GMT

© BBC MMVII
 
Earlier this year I came across this article..

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article237731.ece

About a climber who came across an injured climber but was unable to carry someone down from 28000 ft. The following year he climbed again and the body was exactly where he had left her, totally preserved in the -40 degrees temperature.

I've been reading up on this and it turns out that everest is littered with corpses, theres no way of getting them down. Climbers have to take their own oxygen as the air is so thin and you have to be extremely fit to do the climb, anyone who gets into serious trouble is likely to perish and other people often don't have the oxygen to hang around for longer than 5 minutes. Many people describe it as heartbreaking but there is nothing you can do for a climber who can't get up and walk for themself.

The sad thing is that these corpses become route-markers for poeple navigating their way. The most famous was called 'green boots', he has his own entry on wikipedia.

Fancy having a hobby which involves corpse-spotting?
 
As the years pass i find myself agreeing more and more with those who say that Everest is becoming a circus and anyone with enough money can throw their hat into the ring.

Nepalese authorities really need to exercise more control.
 
Trekking permits = rupees.

It's a pretty troubled state.
 
In 2006 a brittish climber called David Sharp attempted the summit for the third time, he was ill prepared, he had 2 oxygen bottles instead of 5. He went with some cheap-skate company.

He got into trouble and died, about 30 people saw hime in trouble and no-one helped.

If you go to http://www.everestnews.com/everest2006/sharpeverest05272006.htm you can see a photo of where he lies (in the photo his corpse has been erased with tipex).
 
Thats really tight! cant they afford an airbrush?

But it would be a shame if these people all stayed at home; our mountains are overcrowded as it is.

My cousin died in an avalanche in the Cairngorms in 1992, he was a proffesiona\l climber, if he had been an amatuer, like as not he would be still alive today.
 
From that page:
David attempted Everest by himself.
I read about this elsewhere. They reckon up to 40 people walked past him before he died, and some did help.
Most respectable climbers haven't gone near Everest for years, it's a rubbish strewn theme park where something like 10% of the punters die, with base camp firmly on the gap-year backpacker itinerary and commercial expeditions the norm, and Nepal is far too busy with their crazy royals and Maoist terrorists to do anything about it. Most of the people up there, by the sound of it this guy included, shouldn't really be there.
 
On that photo you can also see some of the used oxygen bottles which litter the mountain, like 'hundreds and thousands' on a trifle.
 
Nope real mountaineers go somewhere else

such as K2

(this must be a Fortean place, the mountain which refuses to be named.
 
I like the idea of all the corpses up there. Like in an adventure movie where you are walking into a ancient temple, and see the corpses of all the previous adventurers who were killed by the death traps.

I´m more concerned with the constant littering that happens in Everest. There´s tons of trash up there, on what is supposed to be a holy mountain.

As for nobody helping that dying guy, I was also outraged when I first read the story. Then I read on further and found that people had been trying to help him, but he was too far gone. Also he had brought too little oxygen, just for the thrill of it so his own bloody fault. I believe his sister admitted as much, that nobody could have done anything.
 
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/170 ... death-zone

Interesting piece on the topic. the Express really does do some fascinating features.

The bit about Hannelore Schmatz is particulary chilling.


And for years the body of German climber Hannelore Schmatz, who reached the summit in 1979 but died of exhaustion on the way down, sat leaning against her pack with her eyes open and her hair blowing in the wind. Eventually high winds pushed her remains over the edge.
 
NOTE: This extended discussion has been moved from the "WTF" thread in Chat into its own thread.

This photo (dated 22 May) completely blew my mind ...

The notion of having to wait in a queue to stand on Everest's summit is surreal enough, but the idea this waiting probably contributed to two deaths elevates it to 'WTF' status ...

mt-everest-queue-052219.jpg

Everest traffic jam creates lethal conditions for climbers

Two mountaineers have died on Mount Everest after crowds of people became stuck in a queue leading to the summit of the world's highest mountain.

Indian climber Anjali Kulkarni, 55, died on her way back from climbing to the summit of Mount Everest Wednesday, her son Shantanu Kulkarni told CNN. She had become stuck in the "traffic jam" above camp four, which, at 8,000 meters (26,247 feet), is the final camp before the summit.

American mountaineer Donald Lynn Cash, 55, also died Wednesday after fainting from high altitude sickness while descending from the summit, according to the Nepalese expedition company Pioneer Adventure Pvt. Ltd.

Climber Nirmal Purja posted a picture on Instagram of the heavy human traffic on the mountain Wednesday, showing a dense trail of climbers huddling on an exposed ridge to the summit. He added that there were roughly 320 people in the queue to the top of the mountain in an area known as the "death zone." ...

FULL STORY: https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/24/asia/everest-climbers-intl/index.html
 
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It's getting ridiculous.
 

But, the WTF reaction is certainly merited here.
It wasn't so very long ago that scaling Everest had a Herculean and heroic mystique about it. The sight of hundreds of climbers queuing for their couple of minutes (and obligatory selfie) on top of the world, kinda destroys that, despite the queue being in the "death zone" rather than at a theme park.
 
But, the WTF reaction is certainly merited here.
It wasn't so very long ago that scaling Everest had a Herculean and heroic mystique about it. The sight of hundreds of climbers queuing for their couple of minutes (and obligatory selfie) on top of the world, kinda destroys that, despite the queue being in the "death zone" rather than at a theme park.

That's a very nice summation. What a bizarre image. Mt Everest would be the very last place I'd expect to see a human traffic jam.
 
This photo (dated 22 May) completely blew my mind ...
The notion of having to wait in a queue to stand on Everest's summit is surreal enough, but the idea this waiting probably contributed to two deaths elevates it to 'WTF' status ...
FULL STORY: https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/24/asia/everest-climbers-intl/index.html

It gets worse - Climber reveals Everest 'carnage' as people step over bodies to reach summit
Roughly three hours into the climb, his group was forced to walk over another dead mountaineer.
"It was incredibly bizarre... every single climber making their way to the summit had to step over this person - absolutely devastating."
 
It gets worse - Climber reveals Everest 'carnage' as people step over bodies to reach summit
Roughly three hours into the climb, his group was forced to walk over another dead mountaineer.
"It was incredibly bizarre... every single climber making their way to the summit had to step over this person - absolutely devastating."
From what I’ve read, the route to the top has been littered with corpses for years/decades. It’s incredibly difficult and dangerous to remove the dead off the mountain.
 
I was astounded when I saw that photo of Everest. I suppose I still was under the impression that Everest was only climbed once in a while by rare, super-experienced climbers or something. But from the looks of that, is it a case of anyone and everyone does it nowadays??

I can't see how there's room for people to come back down... assuming they come down the same route, that is... what if you feel ill or something, and can't get past everyone? What if someone moves and knocks someone else off the path?

It's... well, just so astonishing.
 
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