Tragedy on Mount Everest

This is very sad, they all know you risk your life climbing Everest, but this.

Kathmandu - At least 12 Nepalese guides preparing routes up Mount Everest for commercial climbers were killed on Friday by an avalanche in the most deadly mountaineering accident ever on the world's highest peak, officials and rescuers say.

www.sport24.co.za...


www.theguardian.com...

a reply to: nighthawk1954

It is indeed sad. Such a risky pass time and dangerous work by the sherpas as well.

I hope they find the other missing persons soon.

a reply to: MissBeck

has anything like this happened before, like one or 2 killed by avalache while clearing the trails up there?? ....that is sad....

I haven't seen statistics, but I would imagine that climbing Everest has got to be one of the most dangerous endeavors one could undertake.

a reply to: research100

In the Guardian article, it says 8 died last year, including a popular guide, but it doesn't say if it they were clearing the route, or on an actual climb.

It is very sad indeed. These people are very special in my opinion.

May they rest in peace.

At least, it was a short trip to heaven....

a reply to: nighthawk1954

It is sad. but why does this story get such press when right here there were

US Avalanche Fatalities
2013-2014 SEASON
26 US fatalities

so far ... the season isn't over yet.

that's up two from last year but there was 34 people killed in Avalanches the year before.
Source for stats

These kinds of things happen all the time right here at home and they don't get the same kind of press coverage.

a reply to: samsamm9

I loved that: "...short trip to heaven". That is such a treacherous job. May they rest in peace. I hope death came quickly.

Mt. Everest is a freeze-dried graveyard. From what I understand, one of the most daunting aspects of the climb is that you frequently pass frozen dead bodies of people who failed to make it. They're just left there because it's too hard to bring them back down.

originally posted by: Blue Shift
Mt. Everest is a freeze-dried graveyard. From what I understand, one of the most daunting aspects of the climb is that you frequently pass frozen dead bodies of people who failed to make it. They're just left there because it's too hard to bring them back down.

Theres been times when people climbing Everest have found people hurt but still a live but they just have to carry on climbing because they dont have enough oxygen to help them.

Some climbers leave those in trouble to die, some don't

2006: Controversy

Double-amputee climber Mark Inglis revealed in an interview with the press on 23 May 2006, that his climbing party, and many others, had passed a distressed climber, David Sharp, on 15 May, sheltering under a rock overhang 450 metres (1,480 ft) below the summit, without attempting a rescue.[116] The revelation sparked wide debate on climbing ethics, especially as applied to the arduous conditions in the death zone of the highest 850 m of Everest. The climbers who left him said that the rescue efforts would have been useless and only have caused more deaths. Much of this controversy was captured by the Discovery Channel while filming the television program Everest: Beyond the Limit. A crucial decision affecting the fate of Sharp is shown in the program, where an early returning climber (Max Chaya) is descending and radios to his base camp manager (Russell Brice) that he has found a climber in distress. He is unable to identify Sharp, who had chosen to climb solo without any support and so did not identify himself to other climbers. The base camp manager assumes that Sharp is part of a group that has already calculated that they must abandon him, and informs his lone climber that there is no chance of him being able to help Sharp by himself. As Sharp's condition deteriorates through the day and other descending climbers pass him, his opportunities for rescue diminish: his legs and feet curl from frostbite, preventing him from walking; the later descending climbers are lower on oxygen and lack the strength to offer aid; time runs out for any Sherpas to return and rescue him. Most importantly, Sharp's decision to climb without support left him with no margin for recovery.

As this debate raged, on 26 May, Australian climber Lincoln Hall was found alive, after being declared dead the day before. He was found by a party of four climbers (Dan Mazur, Andrew Brash, Myles Osborne and Jangbu Sherpa) who, giving up their own summit attempt, stayed with Hall and descended with him and a party of 11 Sherpas sent up to carry him down. Hall later fully recovered. Similar actions have been recorded since, including on 21 May 2007, when Canadian climber Meagan McGrath initiated the successful high-altitude rescue of Nepali Usha Bista. Recognizing her heroic rescue, Major Meagan McGrath was selected as a 2011 recipient of the Sir Edmund Hillary Foundation of Canada Humanitarian Award, which recognizes a Canadian who has personally or administratively contributed a significant service or act in the Himalayan Region of Nepal.

Link

originally posted by: nighthawk1954
This is very sad, they all know you risk your life climbing Everest, but this.

Kathmandu - At least 12 Nepalese guides preparing routes up Mount Everest for commercial climbers were killed on Friday by an avalanche in the most deadly mountaineering accident ever on the world's highest peak, officials and rescuers say.

www.sport24.co.za...

www.theguardian.com...

Ok, so where is the TRAGEDY as you put it??

These people spend there time messing about on Mt Everest. The is one big mountain covered in snow!!! So when you mess about on something like that you will one day find out why its such a natural wonder.

You do a dangerous thing long enough and you will suffer the obvious outcome!! Period!

This would be like me being an official guide on busy highway, showing people how to get across during busy traffic. One day my luck will run out!!

I spent time in the area in May of last year (although I never got to Base Camp). Sherpas work very hard for very little money, and the grand majority of people would never even see the upper part of the mountains if it wasn't for them. Just because they have a very dangerous job doesn't make this any less tragic. I hope that they will be able to find their bodies, if anything just for their families. Sadly they were probably too far up to be retrieved.

a reply to: nighthawk1954

As someone who really loves climbing this is indeed a tragic event.
My thoughts and love to the families.

In May some guy is planning on jumping from the top of everest wearing a wingsuit,es televised live. I wonder if he is going all the way to the bottom or what? I know this news must be on his mind as he approaches the date. May 11th I think? I hope he makes it cause I wanna see that footage. The air is so thin up there... can a helicopter even go up there? Maybe a specially modified one designed to give more lift to make use of less molecules in the air?

This is different because 12 people died in one event. That's different than the cumulative number of deaths a quarter of the way through the year in a nation the size of usa with all the mountains we have. Both are tragic but of course the largest number of deaths ever in one event at the largest mountain in the world is going to get some press. That's just basic common sense for any news source. It's a guiness world record. And not for just the most jumps on a pogo stick or the longest fingernails. So, if some people cannot see the news worthiness of it then I just don't know what to tell you.

And for someone to say these are just some jackasses fooling around on the mountain i have nothing to say to you either.

very sad.

the worst thing was, they probably knew it was coming and couldn't do a thing about it.