Posted on 05/24/2019 5:57:07 AM PDT by BenLurkin
The news comes after it was confirmed that an American man from Utah also died earlier this week having reached the summit and fulfilling his life’s dream, his children told NBC affiliate KSL-TV. Don Cash, 55, was a passionate climber who had left his job to join the "Seven Summits Club," — in which climbers attempt to summit the highest mountain on every continent.
Tweeting a picture of a long line of climbers waiting to get to the summit on Wednesday, the British broadcaster and adventurer Ben Fogle, the U.N. Patron of the Wilderness, called on the countries that share Everest to limit the number of climbers on the mountain suggesting instead for a marathon-style lottery system for climbing permits.
Since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people to reach the summit of the mountain in 1953, attempting the 29,029 ft peak has become more and more popular. Expeditions can cost tens of thousands of dollars, according to the British Mountaineering Council. A total of 560 people reached the summit of Everest last year, according to Acharya.
Poudel explained the mountain was busy during peak season. “There’s a long queue during the summertime as there’s a limited window to climb — a lot of people tried to summit yesterday and day before," she said, using a British word for line.
Poudel said that lines to reach the summit started from the balcony area of the mountain but said she did not know how long Bagwan had been waiting there. “Before you reach the summit you have to wait and every minute counts at the height,” she explained, but cautioned that she could not say if waiting there had caused Bagwan’s death.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.google.com ...
I don’t understand the angst over these dead climbers. They knew the risks involved in going up there. Everybody who ever died on Mt. Everest was up there on their own free will.
it’s like disneyland
Don Cashed out.
Dying while on Everest...dying while jumping out of an airplane...why are such things news? OTOH,dying while brushing your teeth *is* news.
They say 5% of those summit perish along the journey..
Don Cash’s grandchildren will never know him, because he had to pursue a teenaged dream. His children can show photos, I guess. “Here’s your late grandfather, Don. He died of stupid at 55. Don’t be like him.”
That is appropriate. Death by stupid as in, “He died of stupid.”
“Died of stupid” is a family saying here. There’s enough unavoidable loss and grief in life without spending tens of thousands of dollars to find it on Mount Everest.
Yes. This in spades!
Why do they bury Everest climbers? Because they’re dead.
You make a choice to climb Everest.
I’ve made choices to drive motorcycles like a maniac. I lived through it. Others didn’t
You make a choice.
it’s like disneyland
all yours for US $250,000 and don’t mind the many mummified bodies by the trail or the hundreds of buckets of human waste in the enormous garbage piles ... a sight never to be forgotten
$250K to tour a garbage dump and cemetery while feeling good at having “accomplished something” because you know you will be just fine unlike those poor suckers ... until ...
“Reaching the top is optional, getting back down safe is mandatory”
Ed Viesturs
Pre-Memorial day traffic?
On Anapurna, I think the number is 25%
K2 is second most dangerous.
In fact they don’t bury the dead on Everest. The dead almost always are left where they die and they are permanent fixtures on the climb to Everest. The bodies are everywhere.
You have to wonder what the final thoughts of these people were as they neared death. Was it “ Gee I was a damn fool to put myself in this absurd position” or was it “ Now I am at peace, I accomplished what I wanted to do. I die content.”
Actually the world is indifferent to whatever they thought. Everest remains and people go on living. Frankly if you are going to risk your life, health and the well being of your family, it ought to be something that is less narcissistic and worthwhile.
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