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Highest Strangeness: Everest Oddities, Excesses & Risks

Recycled1 said:
Queston:- Who pays for search parties, rescue missions, collecting dead bodies etc?

Do the climbers pay into some sort of insurance scheme to finance helicopters and the like?
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Partly. An expensive package expedition will include some back-up.
Specialist travel insurance will also cover some or all the cost.
Helicopter Evac is available - at a price - from Everest Base Camp.
However, unless you're at Camp 1 or below, there are no 'rescue missions' unless you can stand and walk to some extent.
Dead people are sometimes recovered but at the higher levels, it's not possible, so they are often covered, or their bodies moved into a crevasse or similar. Some Nepalese volunteer to do this for little or no pay.
 
Yes, I wasn't thinking solely of Everest expeditions. The recent news about British climbers made me wonder.
It would be a bit unrealistic to go climbing in a foreign country and expect its government to somehow finance a rescue mission if you got into trouble.
 
And now we have cheats!

Four climbers have been caught claiming falsely to have reached the summit of Mount Everest in another blot on a chaotic and deadly spring season on the world’s highest peak.

Three Indian climbers and one from the United Arab Emirates claimed to have reached the 8,848m summit on May 26 but failed to produce pictures or other evidence that they had reached the top. The Nepali government has now cut them from the list of successful summits this season after expedition members admitted that the four had reached no higher than Camp 3, at 7,200m, before turning back.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six...st-claim-false-india-nepal-climbers-7khbmkqh9
 
Now comes the disgusting aftermath of this year's climbing season. The tents mentioned in the title are not the worst of it ...

30 tents abandoned by climbers add to trash pile on Everest

After every party it’s time to clean up and Mount Everest is no different. The record number of climbers crowding the world’s highest mountain this season has left a government cleanup crew grappling with how to clear away everything from abandoned tents to human waste that threatens drinking water.

Budget expedition companies charge as little as $30,000 per climber, cutting costs including waste removal. Everest has so much garbage — depleted oxygen cylinders, food packaging, rope — that climbers use the trash as a kind of signpost. But this year’s haul from an estimated 700 climbers, guides and porters on the mountain has been a shock to the ethnic Sherpas who worked on the government’s cleanup drive this spring.

Moreover, the tents are littering South Col, or Camp 4, which, at 8,000 meters (26,240 feet) is the highest campsite on Everest, just below the summit. The high winds at that elevation have scattered the tents and trash everywhere.

“The altitude, oxygen levels, dangerously icy and slippery slopes, and bad weather of South Col make it very difficult to bring such big things as tents down,” said Dawa Steven Sherpa ...

Exhausted climbers struggling to breathe and battling nausea leave heavy tents behind rather than attempt to carry them down. Sherpa said the logos on the ice-embedded tents that identify the expedition companies were deliberately ripped out so the culprits could evade detection.

“It took us an hour to dig out just one tent out of the frozen ice and bring it down,” said Sherpa. His expeditions have alone brought down some 20,000 kilograms (44,000 pounds) of garbage since 2008.

Sherpa estimated 30 tents had been left on South Col, and as much as 5,000 kilograms (11,000 pounds) of trash. Bringing it down is a herculean task when any misstep at such altitudes could be fatal.

It is impossible to know exactly how much litter is spread across Everest because it only becomes visible when the snow melts. At Camp 2, two levels higher than Base Camp, the campaigners believe that around 8,000 kilograms (17,637 pounds) of human excrement were left during this year’s climbing season alone. ...
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FULL STORY: https://www.apnews.com/fa4daa281ce7420e80aab204228e2409
 
My sister has been to Nepal a couple of time, also to Everest Base Camp. I asked her just the other day if she had seen the recent images of the congo line of climber making the ascent.
She was scathing of the entire Everest climbing industry and just how little money goes to those who risk the most.
 
Nirmal Purja, an ex-Gurkha & ex-Marine has managed to ascend to the summit of the world's 14 highest mountains in just over 6 months, breaking the record by around 7 years. Apparently he climbed Everest, Lhotse and Makalu in five days, but it could have been fewer - had he not stopped for two nights "to have a drink" :boozing:

From the BBC yesterday: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-50217376

"A Nepali mountaineer and former British Marine has climbed the world's tallest 14 peaks in six months - beating an earlier record of almost eight years.

Nirmal Purja reached the top of his 14th mountain, Shishapangma in China, on Tuesday morning.

Purja, 36, joined the British Army in 2003 and became a Royal Marine in 2009."
 
Apologies if this has already been mentioned.
Crazy Dutchman Wim Hof came close to scaling Everest wearing just shorts and shoes.
A foot injury, rather than hypothermia or hypoxia, forced him to abandon the summit push.
He has also climbed Kilimanjaro similarly (un)attired and has run a marathon in the Namibian desert without water.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wim_Hof
 
Long but very interesting article about one of the searches for Andrew Irvine's body and the camera he is thought to be carrying which might prove one way or another whether he and Mallory went to the summit.

https://www.nationalgeographic.co.u...everest-to-try-to-solve-its-greatest-mystery?

Jamie McGuinness, our guide and expedition leader, looked hard at me with sunken, bloodshot eyes. He had slipped off his oxygen mask and removed his sunglasses. Several days of gray stubble covered his chin. His skin had a sallow, corpselike pallor.
]We were sitting on a pile of rocks at 27,700 feet on the Northeast Ridge of Mount Everest—the Chinese side, away from the crowd in Nepal. A couple of hundred feet below us was the GPS waypoint that could solve one of the greatest mysteries of mountaineering. New research indicated that British mountaineer Andrew “Sandy” Irvine – a name that has passed into Everest legend – may have tumbled and come to rest at that spot. Was his body still there?
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(continues at length)
 
Of course.

Its going to look wonderful when they find Irving and discover he has no camera on him...

Im reading Ghosts of K2 by M Conefrey, -I have never had much respect for Everesters (even before this latest Conga-line farce) but plenty for K2 people.

Even Crowley.

But, is it the worlds most deadly mountain? Anapurna springs to mind and I have head some of the Andes are nasty.
 
Kondoru said:
Of course.

Its going to look wonderful when they find Irving and discover he has no camera on him...

Im reading Ghosts of K2 by M Conefrey, -I have never had much respect for Everesters (even before this latest Conga-line farce) but plenty for K2 people.

Even Crowley.

But, is it the worlds most deadly mountain? Anapurna springs to mind and I have head some of the Andes are nasty.
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Annapurna 1 in Nepal, IIRC, has the highest death rate of all the 8,000m+ peaks at about 30% ish
 
Yipe. Thats is scary.

Puts Everest into prespectve eh?

I doubt the people who went anywhere near Annapurna were casual climbers either...
 
Thought you might like to see a photo taken by my other half December 2011 from Sarangkot near Pokhara, Nepal of the Annapurna massif with 'Fish Tail' (Machapuchare) mountain in the foreground and Annapurna I marked. Many years ago he went as far up as Annapurna Base Camp (when he was a young and skinny trek guide and wearing just trainers!)

Machapuchare has theoretically never been climbed, although people cannot agree as to exactly why. Some say it's sacred religiously, some say it's off-limits culturally. It has a distinctive double summit feature that viewed from some angles does look like a fish's tail.

Edited to add: Wikipedia page for Machapuchare, with a good photo of the summit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machapuchare

It's a lovely view to wake up to on clear days :)

AnnapurnaI.jpg
 
Wonder how covid has affected the climbing season this year - a lot of trips must have been cancelled, a chance for the mountain to breathe maybe but what of the local community working from the industry?

Enjoy reading / watching anything to do with mountain climbing, the heights, dangers & challenges fascinate me - Everest is the last place you'd find me though, the same reasons i enjoy reading about it are the same reasons i'd never ever want to attempt it! Enjoy a trip to the bouldering wall at my local climbing centre but that's enough for me...
 
Jacket_Potato said:
Wonder how covid has affected the climbing season this year - a lot of trips must have been cancelled, a chance for the mountain to breathe maybe but what of the local community working from the industry?

Enjoy reading / watching anything to do with mountain climbing, the heights, dangers & challenges fascinate me - Everest is the last place you'd find me though, the same reasons i enjoy reading about it are the same reasons i'd never ever want to attempt it! Enjoy a trip to the bouldering wall at my local climbing centre but that's enough for me...
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Tourists are very thin on the ground this year on the Nepalese side of Everest, indeed anywhere in Nepal. The Nepalese government put in place strict lockdown and closed the borders in April-May and are now only allowing repatriation flights from other countries.
 
There's a new item on the list of Everest climbing risks - COVID-19. The first infection at Base Camp has been confirmed.
The First Case of COVID-19 at Everest Base Camp

Hopes for an Everest season unaffected by the pandemic dimmed last week when the first member of an expedition at Base Camp tested positive for COVID-19, according to a source at camp who asked to remain anonymous.

The infected patient was originally thought to be suffering from high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) and was evacuated by helicopter to a hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal. Upon arrival, the person tested positive for COVID-19. The rest of their expedition team then began quarantining at Base Camp.

While only a single case of COVID-19 has been identified here so far, an outbreak would have disastrous consequences. ...

The virus threatens the summit aspirations of climbers, the economic security of Sherpas, and the health of both.
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FULL STORY: https://www.outsideonline.com/2422521/first-case-covid-19-everest-base-camp
 
Despite the obviously worsening situation next door in India re. Covid-19, the Nepalese government has issued 408 Everest permits this year! In my opinion the Nepalese govt. loves climbers' money just a little too much.

April-May is usually the best time to attempt Everest (Sagarmartha)... however the situation in Nepal is now looking very similar to its giant neighbour. The hospitals are full, medical O2 in short supply and to be honest I would be utterly nauseated if any climber thought it appropriate to undertake such a personal challenge whilst the nation around them is suffering so much. At least the health minister has the decency to say they just cannot cope at the moment and “Our health system cannot sustain this level of infections” although they are trying.

https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-designates-more-hospitals-for-covid-19-treatment/

Wild fires are also raging in some areas after an especially dry pre-monsoon April and in May the monsoon arrives, often bringing landslides, fatal floods and washing away roads. I am praying for my family's safety.
 
He never rests.

A Sherpa guide has scaled Mount Everest for the 25th time, breaking his own record for the most ascents of the world’s highest peak.

Kami Rita and 11 other Sherpa guides reached the summit on Friday evening, Department of Tourism official Mira Acharya said.

They are the first group of climbers to reach the summit this year and were fixing ropes on the icy route so hundreds of other climbers can scale the peak later this month.

Everest was closed to climbing last year on its southern side, in Nepal, because of the coronavirus pandemic, but permits have been issued this year to 408 foreign climbers.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/world/arid-40283987.html
 
Get Kraken said:
I'll go to everest when they install a ski lift and a restaurant at the top.
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Snowdon railway FTW! (Although of course it's actually a terrible example* of humanity's desire to subjugate nature.)

* The worst thing about it? It's a bit steep. I mean, have you seen the price of the tickets?
 
The 2015 film Sherpa, based on the events of the 2014 climbing season, is available to watch on Netflix in the UK - we watched it last night and it was fascinating - though the behaviour of some of the climbers left a lot to be desired. The sense of entitlement some of them showed, and the lack of respect for the Sherpa's was shocking.

Review of the film from the Guardian here:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/dec/19/on-strike-8848-metres-sherpa-film-everest-revolution

Article about the film in more detail:
http://filmint.nu/everest-jennifer-peedom/

And from today's Guardian, it seems the climbing season hasn't got off to a good start
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/13/two-climbers-die-on-mount-everest
 
Stay home and watch TV like the rest of us? I'm glad there are people going out, pushing the boundaries.
 
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