Posted on 05/22/2023 2:20:08 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Two more climbers have died on Everest, expedition organisers said on Thursday (May 18), bringing the number of deaths on the world's highest peak this spring climbing season to seven.
The latest fatalities were a 58-year-old Indian woman who said before her expedition that she had a pacemaker, and a Nepali member of a team clearing trash from the mountain.
Suzanne Leopoldina Jesus died at a hospital in the Nepal town of Lukla after the Indian mountaineer was airlifted from base camp due to illness.
(Excerpt) Read more at channelnewsasia.com ...
That’s some light footing.
Many of the bodies are never recovered. Many of those that are recovered are buried on the mountain .
Call me crazy but a 58-year old with a pacemaker should not be attempting to summit Mt Everest.
They went up a different face of the mountain that was more difficult. Most people do not use the route.
These are adults who go into this well aware of the risks, and have to pay big money to do so. Many experienced climbers die on Everest too.
“Most likely the do not that got them was, do not allow the battery to get too cold, a la electric cars.”
The pacemaker battery is implanted in the body. If anything, it was very warm due to the exertion. Warm at night also, all bundled up.
I don’t think they have ever found Mallory’s body for instance (he of the ‘because it’s there’ quote).
The slopes of Mount Everest are covered with the corpses of highly motivated people. There’s over 200 bodies up there. They can’t bring them back down... maybe they could but the mountain is unforgiving at higher altitudes, and the logistics involved with retrieving corpses is technically insurmountable.
For the Sherpas it’s a high paying gig, certainly by Nepalese standards. That doesn’t make it any safer however.
I attempted Everest in 2002. Prior to that, I’ve been up Denali, Vinson, Aconcagua, Elbrus, and Kilimanjaro. We did not summit Everest on two separate attempts due to weather.
Aside from the adventure and the accomplishment, climbing above 20,000 feet is not a fun experience. Along with the fatigue, my attempts and ascents on Everest, Aconcagua, and Denali were accompanied by entire weeks of skull-splitting headaches. This is not a sport for tourists.
There’s far too many unfit amateurs that inhabit this sport — many with way more money than sense…
I got a bad headache at about 9000 ft staying at a Holiday Inn in Frisco Colorado.
Right, I think it was the North Face? PLUS they (or at least Mallory) were attempting it w/out oxygen.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Boots
Indian climber, name unknown, known for his bright green climbing boots, been an Everest landmark since 1996.
The easiest way to get a woman to do anything is to tell her she either can’t do it or is not allowed to do it. See Eve in the Garden of Eden.
“...are still up there frozen solid”
They even use them as a point of reference.
“Base Camp - come in. We just passed ‘green boots’ and everything is fine.”
Personally, if I had enough money to climb Everest (and pay the Sherpas), I’d rather buy a Tesla and keep it in my garage.
Either way it sends the SAME MESSAGE, which is that I am better than you, and I can PROVE IT.
FYI
Everest isn’t a climbing problem, it’s a logistics problem. Recognizing that fact was how Hillary conquered it.
At least two 80-year-old men have summitted Everest. And at least one 70-year-old woman. If there were no snow and it was at sea level, any reasonably fit 18-year-old man could make the climb in board shorts and flip-flops.
Everest is unclimbable 50 weeks of the year due to constant gale and hurricane force winds. But every year, for about two weeks in May, just at the start of the monsoon season, there is a truce between the air mass trying to come down from China and the weather coming north from the Bay of India and the winds subside (at least part of the time). And that’s the window the climbing world waits for.
But it’s still colder than a demoncrat’s heart, and the air is too thin for a human to survive there indefinitely. That’s why it’s called “the death zone.”
You have to get there weeks early to spend time living at altitude so you’ll have more red blood cells if you get your shot at the summit. When you’re sitting at Base Camp, if your O2 sats are 60% or higher, you’re one of the lucky ones. With that little oxygen in your system, your body barely can burn the food you eat. You’re slowly starving, not because you have no food, but because there’s too little oxygen for your body to burn it.
And there you sit and wait for the weather to clear, praying that you’ll be one of the ones who gets a shot when it does. And that some tourist who couldn’t climb the Eiffel tower doesn’t get in your way and scupper your attempt.
If you want to climb a REAL mountain, one that takes serious climbing skill, go to K2. Or Nanga Parbat. They’ve killed more people than the plague.
Causes of mortality on Everest
avalanches - 77 people (25.2%)
falls and falls - 71 persons (23,2%)
mountain sickness - 36 people (11,7%)
exhaustion - 26 people (8,5%)
frostbite and freezing - 26 people (8,5%)
illnesses (cold, flu, pneumonia) - 25 persons (8,2%)
collapses on Khumbu Ice Falls - 15 persons (4,9%)
falls in cracks - 11 people (3,6%)
lost without a trace - 9 people (2,9%)
other reasons - 7 (2.3%)
stone falls - 3 people (1%)
Yes, I agree.
“I saw a National Geographic documentary some years ago about two British accomplished mountain climbers, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine who tried to summit Everest without oxygen and perished. It was 1924.”
The thing is, they DID have oxygen, but the devices were rather primitive compared to what we have today.
I got physically sick after driving up Pike Peak at 14,000 feet. Couldn’t wait to get back down.
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