Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'm not sure it's real either, honestly. It looks like they're all standing on a balance beam. With everyone able to nudge each other, I'm surprised tempers didn't flare with all that waiting around and they didn't knock each other (accidentally or not) off to their death.
Yep, and then they'd all go like dominoes. In the blink of an eye. Even faster, at that altitude.
Impossible in the world I used to know. Then I remind myself that half the world IS nuts today, after all. Still, I'm not buyin' it in the absence of about 10 other confirmation sources that I know and trust. And I doubt there was a one of them on that mountain.
Yep, and then they'd all go like dominoes. In the blink of an eye. Even faster, at that altitude.
Impossible in the world I used to know. Then I remind myself that half the world IS nuts today, after all. Still, I'm not buyin' it in the absence of about 10 other confirmation sources that I know and trust. And I doubt there was a one of them on that mountain.
There are photos from previous years that suggest it's no hoax. Unless, of course, you think they are too.
Death toll grows on world’s highest summit as climbers face challenging conditions
Elia Saikaly, a film-maker, reached Hillary Step, the final stage before the summit, on the morning of 23 May, where he said the sunrise revealed the lifeless body of another climber. With little choice at that altitude but to keep moving, his team – including Joyce Azzam, the first Lebanese woman to climb the world’s “Seven Summits” – made it to the peak a short time later.
“I cannot believe what I saw up there,” Saikaly said of the last hours of his climb in a post on Instagram. “Death. Carnage. Chaos. Lineups. Dead bodies on the route and in tents at camp 4. People who I tried to turn back who ended up dying. People being dragged down. Walking over bodies. Everything you read in the sensational headlines all played out
Quote:
This year’s Everest climbing season is so far the fourth deadliest on record, with mountaineers blaming poor weather, inexperienced climbers and a record number of permits issued by the Nepalese government, which, along with a rule that every climber has to be accompanied by a sherpa, led to there being more than 820 people trying to reach the summit.
Insane. When I was a kid an someone told me about people climbing Mount Everest or similar, and what an ordeal it was, I said, "Why don't they take a helicopter up?"
I don't understand the appeal. But really, if the world were left to people like me, we'd all be hanging out at home on weekends snuggling dogs and reading books all day. While I appreciate such zeal and ambition, I think if a friend told me they were doing it, I'd ask "But wouldn't you rather come over for sandwiches and tea and talk about books in front of the fire? I promise there will be no frozen poo or corpses."
Insane. When I was a kid an someone told me about people climbing Mount Everest or similar, and what an ordeal it was, I said, "Why don't they take a helicopter up?"
Helicopters don't operate or maneuver reliably at such low air pressures. There isn't really space to touch down and the wind is usually a problem.
Helicopters don't operate or maneuver reliably at such low air pressures. There isn't really space to touch down and the wind is usually a problem.
Yes, the thin air is troublesome for humans and for helicopters. But in the 1996 Everest tragedy, IIRC,
a Nepalese military pilot managed to fly his chopper up to one of the high camps, and evacuate
two seriously-ill climbers. Apparently that had never been done before. It was pushing the outer
limits of what the little copter could do at that altitude, so much so that he had to fly them out
one at a time... he made two trips.
Not an original point on my part, but I heard someone on the news today saying how you have to run a qualifying marathon time to submit an application to run the Boston Marathon. They could do something like that for climbing Everest, you can't submit a request for a permit without proof of a recent climb on some other designated mountains. Obviously they won't be as high as the highest mountain but it will still be some evidence of ability to successfully summit Everest.
And of course, they need to put a limit on the number of permits that are issued each season, if the qualification process doesn't automatically reduce it down to something more manageable.
They don't need to do anything -- "they" is the poor country of Nepal and it's about money. If people are dump enough to pay the fees - then they are going to keep handing out the permits. People don't need to be saved from themselves - they know the risks.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
