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Everest overbooked in F, J & Y

Hagbard Celine

By Hagbard Celine
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Firemans4Horn

Firemans4Horn 18119

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Spent 4 weeks hiking in Nepal in 2010. Had 0 desire to go to Everest base camp due to all the traffic and garbage. And it’s apparently only got 5x worse since then. Government needs to cap the annual permits and require a physical fitness test. Dragging rich people to the top is disrespectful to the mountain. 

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Francisco 2.0

Francisco 2.0 32416

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11 dead now.

https://deadspin.com/colorado-attorney-becomes-the-11th-person-to-die-on-mt-1835052580

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Boulder attorney, Christopher Kulish, added to one of the deadliest climbing seasons in Mt. Everest history, becoming the 11th person to die on the mountain in 10 days. A news release from his brother said Kulish died early Monday morning on his way back down the mountain after reaching the summit earlier in the weekend.

Christopher’s brother, Mark, said the 62-year-old climber arrived at the mountain’s base camp in Nepal seven weeks before his ascent to get acclimated to the climate. He died of cardiac arrest at the camp just below the summit.

 

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Kulish’s death comes during a record-breaking climbing season on the mountain where a total of 381 permits—which cost $11,000 a pop—were handed out, according to the Associated Press. For reference, 346 permits were given out last year. The death also comes days after a 55-year-old American died at the summit—though his death was a result of altitude sickness, the more common cause of death among the 11 who have died so far.

 

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hookemATL

hookemATL 11837

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Reading Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer is as close to climbing Everest as any sane person needs to get. He wrote about all the rich people bullshit and garbage then, and I’m pretty sure that book is almost 30 years old.  I’m sure things have gotten much worse since then. 

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Nueces River Rat

Nueces River Rat 5539

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Reading Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer is as close to climbing Everest as any sane person needs to get. He wrote about all the rich people bullshit and garbage then, and I’m pretty sure that book is almost 30 years old.  I’m sure things have gotten much worse since then. 

Insane just to get an Instagram shot.

I guess the thrill of climbing one the 14ers in Colorado won’t suffice?
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Your Mom

Your Mom 4843

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1 hour ago, hookemATL said:

Reading Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer is as close to climbing Everest as any sane person needs to get. He wrote about all the rich people bullshit and garbage then, and I’m pretty sure that book is almost 30 years old.  I’m sure things have gotten much worse since then. 

Outstanding book. They’ve learned nothing since that disaster. 

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NotActuallyALonghorn

NotActuallyALonghorn 4977

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It's not a particularly difficult mountain in extreme alpine climbing terms, and it's the highest spot on the planet. So it doesn't take a ton of training and experience, just money. So of course it is popular with the rich. And as popular as it is, there are still relatively few people who can say they've summited it.

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deadshank

deadshank 24653

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2 hours ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

It's not a particularly difficult mountain in extreme alpine climbing terms, and it's the highest spot on the planet. So it doesn't take a ton of training and experience, just money. So of course it is popular with the rich. And as popular as it is, there are still relatively few people who can say they've summited it.

According to the pros and per Krakauer’s book, E has a reputation as a “yak trail” to the folks that haven’t attempted it.  Apparently it isn’t extremely technical in nature but once going up the mountain, climbers quickly learn the small window of opportunity, changing weather, altitude, traffic and demands placed on the body makes it difficult to the extreme for pro and non-pro climbers alike. 

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ztejas

ztejas 43528

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3 hours ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

It's not a particularly difficult mountain in extreme alpine climbing terms, and it's the highest spot on the planet. So it doesn't take a ton of training and experience, just money. So of course it is popular with the rich. And as popular as it is, there are still relatively few people who can say they've summited it.

I get what you're saying but it's still really fucking dangerous. One person has died climbing it for every 16 that have successfully summited. It isn't the death trap that K2 is - where one person dies for every four that summit - but it's a farcry from most hikes in the world or other adventure activities that laymen would consider "dangerous".

19 hours ago, VABuckeye said:

8 dead, 3 missing so far this year and they’ve had good weather.  The madness needs to stop. 

This isn't some tragedy. You know what you're getting into if you attempt it. 

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SimonBolivar

SimonBolivar 10958

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7 minutes ago, Al_4_ISU said:

I've climbed ~40 Colorado 14ers, and I have absolutely zero interest to do Everest.  I read "Into Thin Air" shortly after I got into hiking/climbing and that pretty well drove home the point of what a folly it is.

Yeah fuck that and realllly fuck K2 and Annapurna. I have no desire to climb any of those.

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JimmyHoffa

JimmyHoffa 1188

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43 minutes ago, ztejas said:

I get what you're saying but it's still really fucking dangerous. One person has died climbing it for every 16 that have successfully summited. It isn't the death trap that K2 is - where one person dies for every four that summit - but it's a farcry from most hikes in the world or other adventure activities that laymen would consider "dangerous".

This isn't some tragedy. You know what you're getting into if you attempt it. 

 

This. A good friend of mine went a few years ago just to the base camp. And they had to leave behind several in their group for mostly for altitude issues along the way just to get to the base camp. 

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wild_turkey

wild_turkey 3181

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14 hours ago, hookemATL said:

Reading Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer is as close to climbing Everest as any sane person needs to get. He wrote about all the rich people bullshit and garbage then, and I’m pretty sure that book is almost 30 years old.  I’m sure things have gotten much worse since then. 

Reading Into Thin Air (and watching that Discovery Channel series Everest Beyond the Limit in the mid-2000s) actually gave me an interest in climbing Everest. That was many years ago and any personal interest I had has waned with the increasing crowds.

Even though the 1996 disaster was in part due to the pressures of commercial guided expeditions, it did not have nearly the same problem with overcrowding that Everest has today. The number of people currently attempting to climb Everest has become a significant problem and it's kinda sad that the mountain has been tainted by this.

Not hard to understand why people would want to do it though. It's the same reason people run ultra marathons or an Ironman. People like to push themselves to extreme limits and try to achieve things that set them apart from others. In general I applaud people for those types of goals, but in terms of Everest, something obviously needs to change. This commercialization is not sustainable.

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VABuckeye

VABuckeye 2472

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5 hours ago, ztejas said:

I get what you're saying but it's still really fucking dangerous. One person has died climbing it for every 16 that have successfully summited. It isn't the death trap that K2 is - where one person dies for every four that summit - but it's a farcry from most hikes in the world or other adventure activities that laymen would consider "dangerous".

This isn't some tragedy. You know what you're getting into if you attempt it. 

Wasn’t trying to insinuate it was.  If you want to be a diver you get certified then you have to undergo additional training to go deeper.  For Mount Everest you just need to be stupid enough to pony up the money.  I don’t have sympathy for those that fail. 

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VABuckeye

VABuckeye 2472

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3 hours ago, wild_turkey said:

Reading Into Thin Air (and watching that Discovery Channel series Everest Beyond the Limit in the mid-2000s) actually gave me an interest in climbing Everest. That was many years ago and any personal interest I had has waned with the increasing crowds.

Even though the 1996 disaster was in part due to the pressures of commercial guided expeditions, it did not have nearly the same problem with overcrowding that Everest has today. The number of people currently attempting to climb Everest has become a significant problem and it's kinda sad that the mountain has been tainted by this.

Not hard to understand why people would want to do it though. It's the same reason people run ultra marathons or an Ironman. People like to push themselves to extreme limits and try to achieve things that set them apart from others. In general I applaud people for those types of goals, but in terms of Everest, something obviously needs to change. This commercialization is not sustainable.

1996 was two competing companies trying to be first to the summit.  This was compounded when one of the leaders became ill and a horrible storm descended on the mountain after very late summits. 

Ive read Into Thin Air and I believe there are less biased accounts of what happened.  Krakauer decided he wanted a villain and he chose Anatoli Boukreev.  Most other accounts paint Boukreev in a different light as he was the one person who went back out in the storm to help. 

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Braff Zacklin

Braff Zacklin 13650

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When it comes to climbing Everest in particular and extreme mountaineering in general, I lean on the wisdom of a fellow Texan, Beck Weathers, who wrote:

Quote

If you don’t have anyone who cares about you or is dependent on you, if you have no friends or colleagues, and if you’re willing to put a single round in the chamber of a revolver and put it in your mouth and pull the trigger, then yeah, it’s a pretty good idea to climb Everest.

Admittedly, gaining this bit of wisdom cost Weathers a nose, a hand, all of the fingers from his other hand, and parts of both feet, but they're still very good words to live by.

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wild_turkey

wild_turkey 3181

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For Mount Everest you just need to be stupid enough to pony up the money.  I don’t have sympathy for those that fail. 


Not necessarily singling you out because this seems to be a common attitude, but why is there is an assumption that people climbing Everest are stupid?

Yes, it is expensive, crowded, and dangerous. It’s always been expensive and dangerous, which can be said of most mountaineering or adventure sports. The only thing that has changed is the number of people trying to do it.
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Nueces River Rat

Nueces River Rat 5539

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3 hours ago, wild_turkey said:

Reading Into Thin Air (and watching that Discovery Channel series Everest Beyond the Limit in the mid-2000s) actually gave me an interest in climbing Everest. That was many years ago and any personal interest I had has waned with the increasing crowds.

Even though the 1996 disaster was in part due to the pressures of commercial guided expeditions, it did not have nearly the same problem with overcrowding that Everest has today. The number of people currently attempting to climb Everest has become a significant problem and it's kinda sad that the mountain has been tainted by this.

Not hard to understand why people would want to do it though. It's the same reason people run ultra marathons or an Ironman. People like to push themselves to extreme limits and try to achieve things that set them apart from others. In general I applaud people for those types of goals, but in terms of Everest, something obviously needs to change. This commercialization is not sustainable.

There was a Real Sports episode on HBO  not too long ago about this.    It's a huge cash cow for the Sherpa and the Nepal Government, so they  will milk it for a long time to come.  The Real Sports segment did  an interview an elder  Sherpa (and former climber who might have been associated with Tenzing Norgay)  who noted the insanity needs to be stopped in part thanks the pollution being left behind and people not being conditioned for the mountain and dying or coming close to dying.

This is from the BBC,   and it notes the average Sherpa working the climb zone can earn up to 10 times the average Nepali.  And I bet someone gets a cut of what the average guide gets both on the local level  (kind of like a Patron)  as that's the way many of these poor countries operate.  And this is on top of the fees the Nepal Federal Government get per climber.    Until the "fad" fades away, it will probably won't stop.   

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/27130467

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Onboard 2.0

Onboard 2.0 9083

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8 minutes ago, Nueces River Rat said:

There was a Real Sports episode on HBO  not too long ago about this.    It's a huge cash cow for the Sherpa and the Nepal Government, so they  will milk it for a long time to come.  The Real Sports segment did  an interview an elder  Sherpa (and former climber who might have been associated with Tenzing Norgay)  who noted the insanity needs to be stopped in part thanks the pollution being left behind and people not being conditioned for the mountain and dying or coming close to dying.

This is from the BBC,   and it notes the average Sherpa working the climb zone can earn up to 10 times the average Nepali.  And I bet someone gets a cut of what the average guide gets both on the local level  (kind of like a Patron)  as that's the way many of these poor countries operate.  And this is on top of the fees the Nepal Federal Government get per climber.    Until the "fad" fades away, it will probably won't stop.   

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/27130467

That's good, that way we'll have a continuing stream of these kinds of threads.

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HouTex

HouTex 1889

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1 hour ago, VABuckeye said:

1996 was two competing companies trying to be first to the summit.  This was compounded when one of the leaders became ill and a horrible storm descended on the mountain after very late summits. 

Ive read Into Thin Air and I believe there are less biased accounts of what happened.  Krakauer decided he wanted a villain and he chose Anatoli Boukreev.  Most other accounts paint Boukreev in a different light as he was the one person who went back out in the storm to help. 

When I read the book I considered the real villain to be that awful rich bitch from NY that just had to get to the summit.  They accommodated her and it threw off the timing and then disaster struck.  

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Hate

Hate 20136

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I've climbed ~40 Colorado 14ers, and I have absolutely zero interest to do Everest.  I read "Into Thin Air" shortly after I got into hiking/climbing and that pretty well drove home the point of what a folly it is.


I’ve climbed 4 of them (Massive, La Plata, Democrat, and Lincoln) and that scratched that itch. This were all relatively easy climbs, but they were enough to scratch any itch I had of doing a “real” climb.
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