Posted on 05/19/2019 2:42:22 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
A man who was part of Saray Khumalo’s Mount Everest climbing team has died.
Indian national Ravi Thakar was found dead on Friday morning after reaching the peak of the highest mountain in the world on Thursday.
It’s being reported that Thakar was found dead inside his tent on Friday morning, but details surrounding the cause of his death were not yet known.
Thakar and Irish Professor Seamus Lawless, who is missing, were among team members who reached the peak of the mountain on Thursday together with Khumalo, who became the first black African woman to achieve such a feat.
The search and rescue operation on Mount Everest for 40-year-old Lawless was called off on Friday.
The Irish professor has been missing since Thursday after he reportedly fell during the descent with Khumalo.
Rescuers took the decision to call off the search for Lawless due to high winds and chilly temperatures of -27 degrees.
Lawless reportedly fell from an altitude of 8,300 metres on Thursday.
He was attempting the climb to raise money for a charity dedicated to helping seriously ill children and their families.
Despite the emotional pain of losing their fellow climbers, Khumalo and her five other teammates must now continue with the dangerous journey down Mount Everest.
This is part of the reason why I don't go to Kathmandu. Then there is the $100k...
Where are the holier-then-thou eco-nuts who are constantly berating and harrassing average people as they go through their lives? These mountain climbers are wealthy egotistical people who apparently despise Mother Nature by despoiling the environment. Garbage, human waste, dead bodies and so forth are an insult to Nature. Shouldn’t the eco-nuts be demanding that they shut down this travesty? Shouldn’t these mountain climbers be held accountable for their crimes against Nature?
I believe these wealthy, egotistical mountain climbers sound like DNC members, so they are forgiven by the environmentalists...just like Algore and his jetting off to Davos.
“but details surrounding the cause of his death were not yet known.”
Calling Captain obvious, I’m thinking he froze to death!
No kidding?
Why don’t you detail to me how you justify 320 tons of refuse left on the mountain. Someone dragged it up there, but no one drags it down. Whee! We climbed the mountain, we’re outa here. Yeah I get the issues about bringing dead bodies down, but this latest one is far from The “death zone”. I really didn’t expect posters on the FreeRepulic defending entitled asshats in their “look at me ain’t I great” behavior.
Yup, Everest is a giant garbage and shitsicle. If it ever melts there will be a flood of brown effluent coming off it.
Luv it!
Hey, there’s the angle! Global Warming has an upside — it’ll clean off Mt. Everest!
Only 6,288 feet but said to have the worst weather on earth. Not sure how true that it but it is pretty nasty up there - even in June. A typical summer day is 45-50 degrees and gale force winds. In winter, there's pretty much no way up or down the mountain except by Bobcat. Sort of like the movie "The Shining".
It's a fairly easy technical climb (depending on what trail you use) so you don't necessarily have to be in great physical shape to do it. However, many people making the climb have absolutely no business up there. Fortunately so many people are on the trails that if you get in trouble, you can get help pretty quickly.
Anyway, climbing Mount Washington that one time cured me of any notions of serious mountain climbing. These days, I just stick to flat trails with some hills. Spent a few hours this morning at Lover's Leap Park in New Milford, CT - that's enough hills for me!
320 tons of refuse arrived at the top of Mount Everest before Saray Khumalo’s Mount Everest climbing team. Whats the big whoop all about....black female???
Of course, all true in spades. But what is the objection [aside from greed] to requiring some serious physical and psychological tests before allowing someone on the mountain? I know nothing about the criteria [if such exist] other than a bankroll.
Nothing about a black female, just a general comment.
I believe I posted this story at one time but really need to more formally write up what I believe to be my near-death experience while hiking - also in New Hampshire.
In a nutshell, it was in the mid 1990s and I had planned a long hike the weekend my wife and her mother had the kids down in Disneyland (as an aside, I HATE Disney and always looked to avoid going - especially when in in-law is involved). But I digress. I rented a time share up there, a suite with a hot tub. The plan was to take this hike in the middle of winter on a Saturday and then spend Sunday sitting in the hot tub watching playoff football.
I had planned this for months so when I got up there Friday afternoon and heard about a snowstorm the next day, I was rather bummed. Later that night, the forecast changed and the storm was not supposed to hit in full force until late afternoon. So I took a shot at it, getting up early and was at the trail head just before sunrise. 7 hours was what I reckoned it would take and I had a good nine hours before it started getting dark again so had a cushion built in. I was in best shape of my life and walked that trail before (not too many hills) so wasn't worried. It was a loop trail in that you made a large circle and ended up where you started.
Suffice to say, the storm moved in hours earlier. As I was eating my lunch at about the 3/4 point, I looked up and saw that the horizon was a wall of white - the snow was moving in.
Very quickly, it turned to near whiteout condition and I lost the trail as the markers were coated with snow. Had to use my compass to head east, where I knew there was a north-south highway. After a couple hours of stumbling around in the woods, I finally came out onto the road and then had to guess whether my car was north or south of my position. I guessed north and turned out right but I almost walked right past the trailhead as several inches of snow covered everything and it was nearly completely dark.
I was incredibly exhausted and not thinking too clearly. I also had a bit of an adventure getting out of the trailhead parking area as my car got stuck in a snowdrift getting on the highway. Fortunately I had a shovel in my trunk and was able to finally get out of there.
Another hour or two out there in those conditions, I think I would have just collapsed and not been found until spring.
Never told my family about this because the result would have been years of I-told-you-so type behavior out of them as they had always nagged me about how stupid it is to go into the deep woods alone. But I love solitary hikes. There's something about getting out into the wilderness all by yourself that appeals to me.
I saw a show on Nova or something similar this year and they showed the ladders being lashed together and placed across the wide crevasse then a man going across to secure it. They talked about who died earlier doing this. A day or so later an avalanche happened and killed many people on the mountain where these Sherpa’s had been. They escaped but others did not.
#17 I saw a episode of The Simpsons where Homer’s dad Abe used a dead guy to toboggan down off the mountain on. The crowd that gathered saw bite marks as if Abe may have had a snack.
No thanks.
It’s “Khumbu.”
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