‘It Was Like a Zoo:’ Death on an Unruly, Overcrowded Everest

NY Times ^ | May 26, 2019 | Kai Schultz, Jeffrey Gettleman, Mujib Mashal and Bhadra Sharma

[wgmalabama]

Assume you mean bicycle and street riders. I drive on a back country 2 lane road with hills ( dips and rises) just high enough to not see the heard of cyclist 4 wide 10 or so deep. BTW it’s a 50 mph road. They are going 15 maybe. Cars slamming on breaks, swearing to miss them. Cyclists giving people the bird constantly if we get to close to them while passing.

Here is the question I haven’t figured out. What time do these uppity twits get off work. Got to take forever to get all those special clothes on, ride out miles from their subdivision, meet up and get in my way.

[Captain Peter Blood]

I think back to 1923 when George Lee Mallory and his friend attempted to climb Everest. I don’t think they know yet whether either ever made it.

It once was a romantic notion of adventure, to do something no one had done.

Now a beautiful mountain has been destroyed and become a tourist attraction. No telling how much trash and debris is there, how many bodies are there and yet they keep coming in bigger numbers contributing to the destruction of the mountain they claim to love and want to preserve.

What a mess and gross amount of hypocrisy.

[grey_whiskers]

There is no more selfish a person on earth than a mountain climber.

Can you imagine a trans-, Crossfit, Vegan, Bernie-bot, mountain climber? (shudders)

[Bonemaker]

[Bonemaker]

[tflabo]

Traffics jam of people, cold conditions, possible severe weather changes and greater chances of dying just to climb a damn mountain. Nope!

[PIF]

Back in the 90s the cost of that ego trip was $250,000 ...

[moovova]

Yep...bicycle riders. Most are quick to ignore traffic laws in my area.

I’m also quick to say...I never wore spandex...just shorts and a t-shirt...when I rode.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Demonstrate your rugged individualism by joining a convoy of people all paying to do the same thing.

That’s the ticket!

[Texas Eagle]

I fail to feel your pain, Doc.

[Bonemaker]

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The “Like” part is superfluous.

[Sirius Lee]

Cyclists giving people the bird constantly if we get to close to them while passing.

That dickhole behavior on the part of the spandex clad, butt sniffing, gear queers is the reason I quit the roads altogether and went back to mt. biking.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

I’ll believe it when it’s done. Much easier to make a sketch of something like that than to build it.

[Bonemaker]

John Wayne and the bicycle question

[Bonemaker]

[KamperKen]

"...just to prove that Peary’s disputed claim about reaching the North Pole was actually possible."

It was possible since Frederick Cook probably did attain the north pole. Peary was a fraud and a despicable human being as well. Outside of the National Geographic, one of Peary's original backers, no polar expert backs his claim.

[Jane Austen]

lol

[PIF]

There was a guy, Fred A. Birchmore, in 1935 that climbed the Matterhorn bare handed because he was curious to see the top, but had no idea that it had only been climbed once with the best climbing gear of the time.

The guy discovered a wristwatch at the top, and took it with him. When he got to a local gusthaus, he showed the watch, told the keeper were he had found it. No one believed him, but when contacted the owner who was as the first guy to climb the mountain ...

The guy then went on with his one speed bicycle (Bucephalus) around the world - when he was in Egypt some one stole a petal nevertheless he kept going - even over the Himalayas.

Around the World on a Bicycle
by Fred A. Birchmore

[Tammy8]

It does not sound like the doctor from Arizona was expecting it to be like that. I can’t even begin to imagine.

In my mind I thought it was such a hard thing to do that few people were doing it. I imagined each climber and their guides with no one else around.

Not something I would ever want to do but I wonder how many would be going if they knew this is what it is like? Now that the story is out I would guess some making plans may decided not to.

I did read that it is not like this all the time but certain windows of good days to make the climb mean traffic jam.