Mount Everest

[Maddy McCall]

I'm captivated by the topic. I'm going to start reading "Into Thin Air" tonight.

I've got a lot of thoughts about the Everest industry. Trying to sort them all out.

Anyone else interested in Everest?

[haf216]

1. That is a great book.

I had never really thought about Mountain climbing, other than to think those guys are crazy. Then someone brought Outside magazine that Krakauer wrote right after he got back from Everest. I was reading this a couple of years later. I then ran out read the book. I have kinda of kept track of the climbers sense then.

[Maddy McCall]

3. I read that article in Outside.

That's what spurred my interest. That and the Discovery Channel show about that ill-fated expedition.

I can already tell that I will NOT like Sandy Pittman. :)

[haf216]

7. Yup,

I did not understand why a few of the climbers where there. It seemed like a lot of them where under experienced. (Now, I know nothing about climbing, so I could be wrong.)

[Maddy McCall]

9. I think that it's the case with a lot of climbers, from what I've gathered so far.

That as long as you have the fee ($65,000) you can climb Everest, even if your climb means that you're going to be physically toted up and down the mountain by a sherpa.

[AlienAvatar]

38. I'm a long time

armchair Himalayan mountain climber. I especially enjoy the stories and history from the earlier days. Say, pre 1985ish or so.

on edit: sorry, I meant to reply to the OP. Second time I've done this today. This crack is better than I thought it'd be. Anyway, that was an excellent book, I've read another book and several stories by JK and enjoyed them all. Good stuff.

[Maddy McCall]

62. From what I'm reading here, he must be a good author.

After I read this one, I'll pick up some of his other books.

:hi:

[ForrestGump]

2. Yep

Grew up around climbers and the like and knew some who went for the summit of Everest back in the Good Old days, when meticulously planned expeditions (usually run under one nation's flag) sent the world's best alpine climbers up there. The commercialization that exploded in the '90s is wrong on every level...most of the people being shepherded up there do not in any way belong there and the whole is a disaster on every level except (for some) financially. For me, returning Everest (and others) to its former status as not available to all with sufficient funds is right up there with barring tourists from Antarctica.

Into Thin Air is a great book (so is another one Krakauer wrote, about a kid who died alone in a trailer in Alaska...forgot the title) and I hope you enjoy it. He's an excellent writer and was always a highlight when I had subscriptions to Outside. I probably met some of the guides on that ill-fated guiding trip, when I was a lot younger, and the New Zealand guide who died up there was a friend of my best friend's family.

Hi, Ms Child.... :hug:

:loveya:

[Maddy McCall]

8. You and I share the same sentiments.

The men who did it without having sherpas shortrope them to the top--the men who were pioneers of the ascent (and descent)--deserve fierce respect.

From what I've gathered from what little I've read of the abundant literature on the topic, anyone with $65,000 can climb Everest, regardless of the state of his (or her) physical or emotional condition, regardless of experience, regardless of any other attribute but the girth of his wallet. (I think I read that the north side assent is much cheaper and unregulated, so that, if you have $5000 and the desire, you can attempt Everest.)

I'm trying to learn as much as I can about the topic, but from what little I know, (example: bottlenecks of dozens of climbers held up by inept climbers on the path ahead of them in the Death Zone--because of bad planning on the part of the expedition leaders) something needs to be done, and I'd agree that closing it to unskilled climbers and commercial enterprise seems to be the best solution for now.

I'm intrigued that bodies litter the slopes--you know me well enough to know that I have a fascination with the morbid. I guess I'll read it in the Krakauer book (and thanks for the rec of the other book...when I finish this one, I'll certainly buy that one), but do you know WHY the bodies are left on the side of the mountain? Is it because there's no way possible to retrieve them? Is it sheer tradition? I read that Mallory's body was found on the north slope recently.

I'm really digging this topic.

Oh, and HI! :hug: :loveya:

[haf216]

13. I think it has to do with it being their

final resting place and tradition, but once again I really don't know that much.

[ForrestGump]

21. It's disgusting, isn't it?

Hmmmm...perhaps we should all chip in to see if we can get Karl a trip up Chompalunger as kind of a parting gift..at least the north side. :-)

I remember back when explorers really were explorers and climbers and other men and women of action actually knew what they were doing. Sure, some (plenty on this Web site, it seems...indeed, most such that I've ever encountered were leftist in their political/social thinking) will forever harp on how narcissistic or otherwise self-servingly destructive such people and their activities were or are, but those people will never understand. It was incredible, in my youth, to follow and read the exploits of the likes of Chris Bonington and his British climbers (especially their ascent of the southwest face of Everest) and Reinhold Messner blew many minds when he made it to the summit of Everest sans artificial oxygen supply. There're still people out there, pushing the envelope (my best friend is one of them) in terms of high adventure in the mountains, on the sea, and in the deserts and bush of the world, but on Everest its now down to Disneyesque guided tours, the catch being that the height -- much more so than the technical difficulty -- of Everest makes it a killer when one or two things go wrong at the same time.

I think the main reason why bodies litter Everest is that, where most of them are, it's just too dangerous to try to bring them down. That's got to be true of the ones in the 'Death Zone,' anyway. Maybe some of the rest of it is just custom, or as simple as not being able to find the bodies at first. There's an awful lot of oxygen bottles and other junk scattered across that mountain, too, and around base camp.

Have you seen the film Touching The Void? It's incredible (the special features on the DVD are really interesting, too) and worth a look if you are interested. Just before I watched that I finally saw Vertical Limit, which was basically just a piece of Hollywood crap even though it's always good to see Scott Glenn (don't get me wrong, of course...Hollywood crap is a term that applies to many of my favorite movies, I'm sure, but I can get insulted when a film touches on something I have a connection to and gets the facts all wrong when they could so easily have been represented more correctly with no damage to the story).

[Maddy McCall]

30. Ok...I'm jotting down more authors and titles...

Watching the documentaries I've seen on the topic, I've noticed how many people lose BODY PARTS to frostbite, all to say that they "conquered" Everest. For the rest of their lives, I guess they have bragging rights every time they--sans four fingers--shake someone's hand. "Did that climbing Everest, you know."

Do some of these people just not consider the potential consequences of climbing? Do they think that, if they pay $65,000, they've paid to be kept safe?

I certainly do understand the adventurist mentality. I just don't understand undertaking a feat like climbing Everest when you're aware that you're not physically fit enough, that you're in no way an experienced climber. I guess when you're that rich, there are few things left to buy as awe-inspiring as the climb.

(I'd love to work at a base camp (at the lowest altitude) as a cook or something--just for one season--so I could meet some of these people. Really. That'd be a cool job, (no pun intended) even if the pay sucks. :D) Or to spend a season in Kathmandu. If I had millions of dollars, that'd be the limit to my Everest adventure. :)

[AlienAvatar]

47. Hope I'm not repeating someone's answer but

mostly the bodies are left there because it's totally impractical or impossible to bring them back. Just to dangerous.

[pokerfan]

57. It's not tradition

It's just not physically possible.

Those of you who watched the Discovery Channel series will know Russell Brice. He's an Everest outfitter/guide who prides himself on only taking on qualified clients. Well, whatever. Money talks, bullshit walks.

Anyway, in the last episode he said that he would attempt or have his Sherpas attempt to move David Sharp's corpse off the route. At that elevation/altitude it's probably the most that can be expected.

It's both tantalizing and cruel that we were born on a planet whose highest peak is only just barely within our grasp. And now I am falling back into my climber mentality, "Because it's there!" Another 1,000 feet (three football fields!) and it might be pretty much impossible. A thousand feet lower and we would have multiple tousands of people a year slugging their asses to the summit. But that is what makes Everest special. That it is both so close and yet so far.

It was gruesome in the next to last episode where Russell is trying to convince two struggling climbers (Tim & Gerard) to turn back. He is at the South Col, just below the death zone, but only about a mile away as the crow flies, not that crows fly at 30K ft. But he can see their every move via a telescope and even chides one climber that "you can't climb Everest on your hands and knees. Turn back now!"

In a last bid to convince them to turn back, he points out that they are presently parked next to a corpse. "That is going to be you in about eight hours. Turn back. The mountain's gonna be there next year. Will you?"

Besides, Everest is an ugly mountain. Want to see a pretty mountain? This is a pretty mountain:




Though, for me this is an even prettier mountain 'cause I've actually climbed her. Highest point on earth I've ever reached. So far.

[buddhamama]

72. Into The Wild

is the title of the book about the kid who died alone. It WAS a great book. So too, was Into Thin Air. :hi:

[haf216]

4. Even Under the Banner of Heaven,

is good and it has nothing to do with climbing. I'm rereading right now and picking up more then I did the first time.

[Redstone]

5. Be prepared to be depressed. It's not a pretty story.

Redstone

[Maddy McCall]

10. Thanks for the advice.

:(

[AlienAvatar]

43. No, it's not.

He wrote another, earlier, book called "Into the Wild", about a remarkable young guy's experience in Alaska. Fascinating story that was also on the grim side and had a tragic ending. I really liked it though.

[Zomby Woof]

6. Everybody's Got A Mountain to Climb

Everybody's got a mountain to climb,
This road we travel gets a little tough sometimes,
Sometimes I know you feel like you can't go on,
Need somebody help you get back home,
Need a friend to help you find your way home.
Reverend Pearly Brown say there's peace out on the water at night,
Big sun going down, Lord it's a pretty sight,
Red and blue across the water makes a wonderful song,
Listen to it all night long.
Everybody's got a mountain to climb,
Don't be discouraged when the sun don't shine,
Gotta keep on pulling, you gotta keep on tryin',
Everybody's got a mountain to climb,
Everybody's got a mountain to climb.
Who'd cross the face of a little smilin' child?,
Take away the loser's one last chance?,
Who wouldn't linger down by the old river for a while?
You know the whole world loves you when you're dancin'.
So, hey let me tell you what I'm talkin' about,
You can't go around with your lip stuck out.
Life ain't all good but it sure ain't bad,
Anyway it's the best old life I ever had.
Everybody's got a mountain to climb,
Don't be discouraged when the sun don't shine,
Gotta keep on pulling, you gotta keep on tryin',
Everybody's got a mountain to climb.
Everybody's got a mountain to climb,
Don't be discouraged when the sun don't shine,
Gotta keep on pulling, you gotta keep on tryin',
Everybody's got a mountain to climb.

--- Dickey Betts, 1994

[Maddy McCall]

11. Happy Impending Wedding Day!

Hey!

:hi:

[Zomby Woof]

12. I expect a full-blown celebration here

While we're away... I want you all to PARTY. ForrestGump can wear that Elvis lampshade with the gold epaulets I bought him for St. Swithin's Day last year.

[Maddy McCall]

15. You do still want him and me to sing the Islands in the Stream duet?

I'm ready to reserve my plane ticket right now.

;)

[ForrestGump]

23. Hey, doll(y)...

if you keep insisting on "Islands In The Stream" I'm going to have no choice but to repost my version of "To All The Girls I've Loved Before"... :D

[Maddy McCall]

33. You do that, and I'll record "Love is Like a Butterfly."

Maybe you could sing "To all the Girls" while I sing "Love is Like a Butterfly." Perhaps like people sing Row Your Boat in staggered fashion.

We might be on to something. :D

[ForrestGump]

41. I don't think I could stop staring at your

cleavage, though...




Darn this testosterone that so curses me! :grr:

[ForrestGump]

22. It makes a nifty skirt

Thanks! :hi:

[idgiehkt]

14. only as a spectator.

That is a great book. I watch all the Everest specials that come on; someone almost always dies. I'm facinated by snow and death, apparently, I watched Fargo about 5 times in one weekend and I really like that movie "Alive" where they have to eat some people. I also like the documentary on the Donner party; there's cannibalism on that one too. That might be by that guy that looks like a kid that does all those other docs on PBS.

[Maddy McCall]

16. *jotting down titles*

Thanks for the info. I need to update my Netflix queue now.

[ForrestGump]

25. Hi!

:hug:

Have you seen touching The Void? It was a pretty amazing story. Sometimes human survival is just incredible -- as easy as it can be to die (fall off a horse wrong, get out of bed and just die, etc), it can also be totally amazing how much the human body can sometimes take and still keep going.

[idgiehkt]

37. "get out of bed and die"

:rofl:

I haven't seen Touching the Void, I'll have to look it up. I miss snow, if there's snow and someone dies, I'm there.

I think I'm going to get in bed and die...so sleepy... :hi:

[ForrestGump]

40. Well, just make sure that, in the morning, you get out of bed and

LIVE! Like, as in life to its fullest. :loveya:

In the meantime, sweet dreams of masseuses with strong fingers...

[merh]

17. I'm not too keen on cold

Wearing ski pants and ski jackets and carrying skis while wearing ski boots was just way too much work for the fun (spills, bruises and sprains).

I couldn't get into all that gear to say I climbed to the top. :shrug:

It's not that I am lazy, I'm just not crazy nuff.


Now scuba - that's the experience worth the equipment and the danger and the gear. :thumbsup:

[Maddy McCall]

20. I'm too claustrophobic for scuba.

:scared:

[merh]

24. See that's just it.

You think you are, but I bet you aren't. I am claustrophobic and I thought I would be the same way.

The first time I got in a cloudy pool with full mask and tanks and had to sit on the bottom just breathing, I thought I would go ape shit. But then I just remembered the training and relaxed and it was truly relaxing. Then in the waters, the gulf, on ship wrecks, etc, it is like being on another planet. It is so beautiful and so peaceful and so close to flying - just floating with the BC keeping you above the ground. They don't use scuba to train astronauts for nuthin' -- it is weightlessness.

Scuba is the closest thing to heaven on earth. It is glorious.

I'm at home in water, at peace.

Dayum, I need to get back to it one day. x(

[ForrestGump]

26. And she can always SCUBA dive nude, if it helps her feel better

Of course, I'd feel compelled to go along as a guide... :D

[merh]

27. This is true

nude diving is an option she should consider, especially if you will be there to hold her hand or fins or whatever! :silly:

[ForrestGump]

28. Oh, yes

Putting the skin back in skindiving. :evilgrin:

[merh]

34. Just think, if you dive nakkid

you definitely avoid the coral! :silly:

[ForrestGump]

44. Ouch!

Fire coral!

Corallomorpharians!

Mantis shrimps!

Bitey fishes of all kinds!

:scared:

[Maddy McCall]

35. I'm also afraid of big morray eels.

:wow: :scared:

:rofl:

[ForrestGump]

42. Don't worry

I'll keep my dive suit on....

[begin_within]

18. Someone should make a horror film about it... how about "My Dinner Was Andre"

[merh]

31. Ick!!!

x(

[Oeditpus Rex]

19. Mt. Everest — forbidding, aloof, terrifying

The mountain with the biggest tits in the world.





Start again! :eyes:

[electricmonk]

29. After you read Into Thin Air

read The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest it tells another side of the same story.

[idgiehkt]

32. wow.

I never understood that controversy. Krakauer published letters from one of the people pissed (and they were really PISSED) with his accounting of the story but I could never piece together the conflict...

"The Climb" is Russian mountaineer Anatoli Boukreev's account of the harrowing May 1996 Mount Everest attempt, a tragedy that resulted in the deaths of eight people. The book is also Boukreev's rebuttal to accusations from fellow climber and author Jon Krakauer, who, in his bestselling memoir, Into Thin Air, suggests that Boukreev forfeited the safety of his clients to achieve his own climbing goals. Investigative writer and Climb coauthor G. Weston DeWalt uses taped statements from the surviving climbers and translated interviews from Boukreev to piece together the events and prove to the reader that Boukreev's role was heroic, not opportunistic. Boukreev refers to the actions of expedition leader Scott Fischer throughout the ascent, implying that factors other than the fierce snowstorm may have caused this disaster. This new account sparks debate among both mountaineers and those who have followed the story through the media and Krakauer's book. Readers can decide for themselves whether Boukreev presents a laudable defense or merely assuages his own bruised ego.
http://www.amazon.com/Climb-Tragic-Ambitions-Everest/dp/0312965338/sr=8-38/qid=1166854531/ref=sr_1_38/002-7400194-4364063?ie=UTF8&s=books

[seemunkee]

60. Definately read Boukreev's book

Boukreev was a highly respected climber, Krakauer is a good journalist but I find him a bit of a sensationalist. You might also want to read Beck Weathers book.
Ed Viesturs just wrote a book about climbing all 14 8K meter mountains without supplemental oxygen. He was on Everest in 96 with David Brashears filming an IMax movie.
Are you watching the Everest series on Discovery?

[Maddy McCall]

36. Will do!

Thanks for the suggestion.

:hi:

Haven't looked at the link yet...does it give a positive perspective to that 1996 expedition.

[electricmonk]

45. I read it when it was first published

So to be honest I can't remember many details. Krakauer is definitely the better writer though. I thought his Eiger Dreams was a better book though. Not as gripping but more enjoyable I guess. There's a couple other books about the same Everest tragedy but I haven't read them. My favorite Everest book over all is Everest: Expedition to the Ultimate by Reinhold Messner and Audrey Salkeld about the first Alpine style ascent of Everest.

I have a small mountaineering book collection and need to get back into acquiring more. Chessler Books is the best resource anywhere to find books on the subject.

[AlienAvatar]

46. I forgot about that one

earlier I mentioned his "Into the Wild", and forgot "Eiger Dreams". I too, think that might be the best of them. I enjoyed it the most, anyway.

[electricmonk]

48. Eiger Dreams

Was a compilation of his articles so maybe it's not really fair to compare it the single subject books. I don't currently have it in my collection but I would like to read it again. My favorite story in it was his account of climbing the Thumb in Alaska. He had me laughing out loud with that one.

And a correction for my above post: It was Messner's book CRYSTAL HORIZON: EVEREST - THE FIRST SOLO ASCENT that was my favorite about Everest.

[cwydro]

74. Thanks.

I just ordered that.

[Ilsa]

39. Wow. I need to go dig that book up.

Good reading. Jon writes so well.

[AlienAvatar]

49. If you don't mind:

Two more recommendations.

Galen Rowell, "In the Throne Room of the Mountain Gods", about an expedition to K2 in the 70's, and Peter Boardman's "Sacred Summits". Three accounts of climbs in the late 70's or early 80's. Kangchenjunga, GauriSankar, and Carstenz Pyramid. "Sacred Summits" might be my favorite book on Himalayan climbing.

[electricmonk]

50. I'll second the Rowell recommendation

That's an excellent book and the photos are breathtaking. I think that was one of the first books about expedition climbing that really got into the personality clashes between climbers that happens during major climbs like that. I've read books from the 50's and 60's that make it seem like everyone was just one big happy family on the mountain and the only problems were with the mountain itself. Throne Room showed that even the little things can set you off when confined to a tiny tent during a storm. In other words reality.

Sacred Summits sounds familiar but I'm not sure if I've read it.

[AlienAvatar]

51. Sacred Summits is a lot

like your description of Rowell's book. It's a very readable climbing book and it too, has stunning photos. Peter Boardman was an excellent writer. He died on Everest a year after Sacred Summits was published.

on edit: by "readable" I mean it's not like some of the earlier accounts that were a bit stiff and technical, and tended to skip over the personalities. Half the drama is what's going on in these people's heads.

[AlienAvatar]

52. That's a really nice photoblog you have there.

I checked it out. Great pictures!

That's a drag about the crashed hard drive. I had a similar experience this year with 2 drives, each with 70+ gigs of data. I was crushed. I'm sure you've tried just about everything, but, just in case you missed it, let me recommend a solution. It's a program called File Scavenger. It recovers data from crashed HD's. They claim something like a 94% success rate. It worked like a charm for me and I recovered EVERYTHING. God bless File Scavenger!

[electricmonk]

53. Thanks!

As for the hard drive the circuits that actually control the drive are fried. I'm pretty sure the data is still intact. I've read that if you can find the exact same drive with the exact revision number and all that you can take the circuit board off and replace it to recover the data. I've been keeping an eye on ebay so hopefully I can try that some day.

[pokerfan]

54. Always interested in Everest

I tend to follow it each spring and the interent coverage gets better each year.

I climbed back in the eighties when I was a member of the local mountaineering club but never anything even approaching the Himalayas. Just the "little" peaks in the northwest: Rainier, Baker, Adams, Hood (everyone knows about Hood now, I guess), Glacier Peak, and numerous non-volcanoes. Even climbed with Roskelly once, which probably pins down my home town.

I did have an opportunity to climb Denali but I couldn't get the time off from work. That *might* have put me on a course for Everest but I don't know. I never considered any of my climbs to be especially risky. But Denali, K2, Anapurna, etc. Those are truly killers, not saying that smaller mountains aren't. But look at the numbers. I could look it up but I think just over 2,000 have summited Everest and about 200 have died trying to summit.

And even if the hill doesn't kill you, it can still maim you. I suspect that this thread is somehow related to the recent Discovery Channel series on Everest. Did you get a good look at that fellow's missing fingers at the end? It's certainly not worth that.

Like I said, I could have seen *maybe* attempting it twenty years ago but now, when you have twenty or thirty teams on the mountain at the same time, everyone trying to summit on the same day or two when the weather clears. No, thank you. Now it's an just a crowded mix of real climbers, professional guides and tourists.

Into Thin Air is an excellent book. You might also want to read 'The Climb' by Boukreev, who feels he was treated somewhat unfairly by Krakauer. I don't have strong feelings either way. I will say that I would think that anyone serving as a guide should probably be on O2. But he wanted to climb sans oxygen. It's one thing when you have only yourself to worry about, probably something else when you have paying clients to look after. But the ethics get a little funny in the death zone.

Look at the David Sharp fatality from this season. Had I seen him going up, I probably would have abandoned in a futile attempt to rescue him. But I'm pretty certain that it would have been futile. But I have to look myself in the mirror in mirror every day, or at least every other day.

These days, I mostly just backpack and canoe. I'm very keen on canoeing because I can carry a lawn chair.

[YankeyMCC]

55. You mean Sagarmatha

Or Chomolungma if you prefer :)

I like to use the local names for such impressive natural features.

It is fascinating. Part of me would love to climb it but I don't think I would even if I had the $40K it takes.

I watch bits of a couple of episodes of a reality mini-series the Discovery channel did and it bothered me (I can't yet put it into words exactly what is wrong with it) to see the tourists essentially being carried up by the Sherpas - that's not really fair it still takes a lot of work but it still seems that the relationship between Sherpa and these people in the show is not as a collaborative climbing team but master/servant where the servant is actually doing the more impressive work. I speak only as someone who's observed so if there's someone here who's done this I would certainly listen to their wisdom of experience.

I was also bothered with two particular scenes. There was a 'traffic jam' at one point near the top where there were so many (dozens I think they said) people trying to go up that some people who'd made the summit and were working their way down were in danger of running out of o2 as they waited for the jam to clear. So many people in this isolated place is part of what seems wrong.

Also, at one people a tourist climber who was suffering from o2 deprivation and not thinking clearly asked a Sherpa to put a hand-warmer in his boot. The Sherpa relented and tore off the packaging and just let it fly. Now I know he had bigger things to worry about but putting that together with the traffic jam of people in the earlier scene (and the other stories I've heard about the numbers of people that now climb the mountain) it means that there are probably many scenes like this one where a Sherpa or other climber has bigger more immediate problems they must deal with like a delusional climber and how many packages get tossed into the wind at those moments?

[Maddy McCall]

63. Yes, and those are the things that bother me about it.

On the ill-fated expedition in 96, there were two sherpas whose duty was to go ahead of the climbers and affix ropes. One of them, though, shortroped Sandy Pittman and was literally dragging her to the top. Her selfishness in taking that sherpa on as her personal assistant endangered the whole group and, from what I've read of Krakauer's writings, was probably the most detrimental decision made that day that resulted in so many members' deaths.

I agree with everything you said--I think the things that you identified as bothering you also bother me.

[YankeyMCC]

75. Just happened to come across this story today that is kinda relavant

(snip)
BRUNSWICK, Maine --Hundreds of adventurers have been drawn to Mount Everest by the challenge of climbing to the top of the world. Jeff Clapp was drawn by the trash they leave behind.
Article Tools

Inspired by a documentary about Everest's rubbish, Clapp traveled to Nepal and brought a load of discarded oxygen bottles back in 2004.

He has created a business of transforming those banged-up, aluminum containers into gleaming bells, bowls and ornaments with a goal of inspiring people to do more to clean up the environment in their own small ways, just as he has.

"One guy can make a difference," he said, whether by transforming trash into treasures, turning off lights or installing insulation.
(snip)

http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2006/12/24/maine_artist_turns_everests_trash_into_treasures/

[cwydro]

56. Fantastic book.

[Puglover]

58. You can get a wonderful sense of Sagarmatha

trekking in the Khumbu. The Everest Base Camp trek is 18-20 days. But if you just want a view the mountain you can see it (weather permitting) shortly out of Namche.

www.trekinfo.com Has tons of pics and a great amount of info.

For my money Ama Dablam is by far the prettiest of all of them.

[Maddy McCall]

64. Thank you for the link.

Bookmarked it for later reading.

:)

[bullwinkle428]

59. Very interesting link detailing the death of David Sharp last year - the climber

that was passed on the way up and way down by a large number of other climbers. Definitely a scathing indictment of the expedition leader:

http://www.mounteverest.net/news.php?news=15288

[Maddy McCall]

65. Thanks!

I've read a little about the David Sharp incident. I'll certainly read this.

[bikebloke]

61. In Nepal about 20 years ago

Everest was overbooked then. Especially treks to the base camp. Some Dutch friends made that. I trekked the Anapurna circuit instead.

[Maddy McCall]

66. Awesome!

Was your trek grueling? Did you do it with a group or by yourself?

[bikebloke]

67. I trekked independently

A Kiwi chick and I, who I met at the airport in Bangladesh, went on our own. We had a guide book (the latest filled with outdated and misinformation) and a rough map. It was an arduous trek. In the beginning when we asked the Nepalese how far to the next village (giving in walking time rather than distance) they'd say 1 hour for them and 3 hours for us. By the end of the trek, we were making time like the locals. There were groups along the way. Two French blokes who had 4 porters and a guide. I christened them as the "Great White Hunters". The said they wanted the best chance to finish the trek. There was an monied organized group from Poland with plenty of food and camping gear. Approaching the last village before Thorong Pass, one of them practically knocked othere trekkers off the trail, rushing to snag beds for themselves. A collection of independent trekkers ended up snuggled in a barn, while snow fell that night. I grew skinny during that crossing. We heard there was an Israeli group somewhere ahead. One of them kept littering the trail with Elite (Israeli brand) candy wrappers. Also, a middle aged English couple who were former mountaineers.

I'm turning my old travel photos into videos for vlogging. I suspect I'll get to the Nepal trek this winter sometime if you want to bookmark my vlog address in my profile.

Summit shot atop the Thorong Pass.

[merh]

68. wow, this thread generated a lot of interest

the proverbial mountain out of a molehill ;)

:hi:

[shanti]

69. oh man

i've been watching that everest thing on discovery channel for about a month now. it's riveting! i wouldn't do it in a million years, but just watching it is so interesting!

[Redneck Socialist]

70. One of my biggest regrets

Is not pursuing my interest in climbing to the point where I could attempt big mountains (20,000+ feet)

I've done tons of hiking, some rock and ice climbing, nothing major, but the appeal of truly big mountains is undeniable.

Be sure to read The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev for another perspective on the '96 tragedy on Everest.

[blitzen]

71. I'm fascinated by Everest, but do think that the climbing has become absurd...

or, "ridiculous"--as the Lebanese guy in "Everest: Beyond the Limit" kept saying in last night's episode, after he had to leave that guy to die near the summit

[buddhamama]

73. after reading Into Thin Air

i recommend reading The Climb, co-authored by Anatoli Boukreev- He gives his account of the expedition.

i am interested in Everest and those who climb.

Discovery channel has a show called Everest. You'd like, i think.

Hi Maddy! :hi: :hug: :)