Posted on 05/21/2012 5:18:41 AM PDT by King_Corey
A German man died on Mount Everest where he was helping clear the world's highest peak of rubbish, Nepalese tourism officials announced. His death brings the season's toll to five.
The 61-year-old doctor, Eberhard Schaaf, died on Saturday of extreme altitude sickness while descending the south side of the mountain, Ang Tshering Sherpa of the Kathmandu-based Asian Trekking adventure agency said.
"Climbers spend their energy on the ascent and they are exhausted and fatigued on the descent," Tshering explained.
Daily newspaper Bild said Schaaf, a passionate mountaineer from Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, was taking part in the "Eco Everest Expedition", a clean-up operation that since 2008 has cleared over 13 tonnes of rubbish from the mountain.
But severe altitude sickness caused Schaaf to develop swelling in the brain, which killed him.
"After assessing the symptoms, the medical staff at the Himalayan Rescue Association believe the cause of death to be High Altitude Cerebral Edema," a press release from Asain Trekking said.
"Our thoughts go out to the family of the deceased at this moment and we offer any assistance at this difficult time."
The mountain, which lies in the Himalayas, Nepal, also claimed the lives of a South Korean woman and a Nepali-born Canadian woman over the weekend. A Chinese climber and Nepali mountain guide are still missing.
Sherpa said South Korean Song Won-Bin, who had been missing since Saturday, died at "The Balcony", an area near the top of the 8,848-metre (29,029-feet) peak.
According to the wiki article on K2 that is about right but Annapurna has the highest rate of death. It does mention that K2 has never been climbed in winter unlike other 8000 meter plus mountains.
I remember visiting Colorado in the ‘90s (had been there long enough to acclimatize to the altitude) and had driven up as high as over 12,000 feet and spent the night in such places as Leadville & Cripple Creek, both over 10,000 feet. After leaving the latter place, we drove down to Colorado Springs, which is a “lowly” 6,000 feet. Stopping at “Garden of the Gods”, we encountered a busload of New York City firefighters, all of whom were in good shape physically, but huffing and puffing just merely strolling across a small parking lot like they were out-of-shape fatties. I wasn’t exactly the model of health then, but I was snickering that I was (at least at that moment) better able to handle the high altitude than all these strapping guys.
I have been going to Colorado and New Mexico every few years since I was a child. It was only on 2 of those dozens of trips that the altitude affected my heart. I might be a little out of breath or feel like my feet were heavy at 10,000 feet but never had my heart act like it did on those 2 trips. The most recent was about 5 years ago and then on a trip 10 years before that. This last time I should have gone to the ER, I’ll bet they would have given me a portable oxygen tank.
Yeah... you’d better stick to low-altitude states. =8-0
To bad and it’s sad, but in a way, good for him.
I hope that some day I kick the bucket while doing something I love (flying). Some people live safe lives but never lived, nor will they leave a legacy. Anything worth succeeding at, is also a place where you can fail, and that’s true in love, adventure, business, even our finances and how we raise our children. Men like him tend to have accomplished great things in life and while they died on a mountain, their name and accomplishments live on and frankly not even their death is as horrible as it may appear since they were doing what they loved.
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