Everest

SeaFields

pc7 wrote: »

It must be terrifying to be so close to the summit and to be standing in the death zone queuing to get up and down safely.

Something like that would seriously take the concept of adventure out of it for me if I was into mountaineering. As we say in Cork, its like Patricks Street it's so busy! It's more like a box ticking for a lot there I'd imagine.

refusetolose

Hoboo wrote: »

Foundation based in Utah US. Fair be warned.

tuxy wrote: »

Salt Lake City, it has to be the mormons :eek:

In 1988, Apa married Yangjin, then also a resident of Thame, with whom he has two sons — Tenjing and Pemba — and a daughter Dawa. The family moved to the United States with the help of his friend Jerry Mika for business opportunities and to provide better education for their children. They live in Draper, Utah.
In April 2009, Apa founded the Apa Sherpa Foundation, dedicated to the improvement of education and economic development in Nepal. When not on expeditions, Apa works for Diamond Mold, a precision machining and injection molding company in Salt Lake City, Utah, which has also supported his foundation.

josip

sideswipe wrote: »

https://twitter.com/EverestToday/status/1131133006620446725

That's the Hillary Step (no longer a step) in that photo, not the Balcony.

(Photo at the end)
https://www.alanarnette.com/blog/2018/05/15/everest-2018-hillary-step-or-slope/

twinytwo

Sam Quentin wrote: »

Is Mount Everest easier to climb than what we are ' led' to believe!? Like in the last 20yrs or so it seems people are queuing up to give it a go.

99% of people don't climb Everest.. they are led up. Lines/ladders/ routes already placed/planned for them they would never make it.

jam_mac_jam

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Wasn't there some sort of scandal in 2006 with a dodgy tour company.

They were offering a chance to climb it for 7000 USD. For that they got you a permit, basic equipment and transportion to the base camp.


The only hitch was no guide and no radio support after a certain altitude. A good few clients of theirs died that yr, including David Sharp of Beyond the Limit fame.

Davis Sharp climbed without oxygen on his own. I don't think all the blame can be laid at the company. He bought a very cheap package so didn't get the same level of support. He was an experienced climber so would have known the risks.

refusetolose

jam_mac_jam wrote: »

Davis Sharpe climbed without oxygen on his own. I don't think all the blame can be laid at the company. He bought a very cheap package so didn't get the same level of support. He was an experienced climber so would have known the risks.

maybe he thought he was a sherpa with a mis-spelled surname

jam_mac_jam

refusetolose wrote: »

maybe he thought he was a sherpa with a mis-spelled surname

Oh ****! yes....

Hoboo

refusetolose wrote: »

maybe he thought he was a sherpa with a mis-spelled surname

Divad Sharpe, the dyslexic Sherpa

jasper100

SusieBlue wrote: »

That looks terrifying, you couldn't pay me enough to do something like that.

It would make you wonder why anyone would take it on unless they had done dedicated training over a number of years in similar climates & conditions.

Joe Soap should not be allowed up there, neither should hobby climbers. It should be for elite athletes only, but it seems money is more important than safety if that long line anything to go by.

That's all that do it now. Elite athletes either take a challenging route or pick a better mountain.

These bellends think they are high achievers of some sort,
they are about 30 or 40 years too late.

refusetolose

jam_mac_jam wrote: »

Oh ****! yes....

i think sharpe is actually the correct spelling

pc7

That queue, does anyone know if its the same path up and down or is there a separate route? Can you turn round if you decide to get out of dodge?

jasper100

twinytwo wrote: »

99% of people don't climb Everest.. they are led up. Lines/ladders/ routes already placed/planned for them they would never make it.

And somebody else to carry their gear. And fresh fruit helicoptered in daily.

Some porter has to carry their sh!t down the mountain after them in a barrel.

Jim Gazebo

jasper100 wrote: »

That's all that do it now. Elite athletes either take a challenging route or pick a better mountain.

These bellends think they are high achievers of some sort,
they are about 30 or 40 years too late.

You sound like a man with a chip on your shoulder! Mustn't have got the funds to climb everest is it? Jealousy?

Aside from that, this thread has opened my eyes to everest and how it works, really fascinating stories shared, thanks to all. Unfortunate what happened to bring this here, but that is the risk of mountaineering.

For those criticising, I totally understand what you are saying re having a pregnant wife but it is also a once in a lifetime thing, she may have told him go and do it, you don't know the circumstances. I note the criticism is no way as high for the Irish girl with 4 young kids who wanted to go back up?!?!

pc7

Jim Gazebo wrote: »

I note the criticism is no way as high for the Irish girl with 4 young kids who wanted to go back up?!?!

I don't think she did go back up in the end, but with 4 kids aged 6-11 I think she was nuts to do this at all without doing a few 8000 m climbs first (or at all).



Like others mentioned, it should be something like scuba diving, all climbs recorded, you have a license and can only do the big ones with experience (not money)

Muahahaha

Sam Quentin wrote: »

Is Mount Everest easier to climb than what we are ' led' to believe!? Like in the last 20yrs or so it seems people are queuing up to give it a go.

Yes it has got a bit easier in the last few years, mainly because the hardest part of the entire route used to include a 12m high sheer vertical rock wall known as the Hillary Step. This rock wall collapsed in the 2015 earthquake so the Hillary Step section is no longer the huge obstacle it once was.

The Hillary Step was the section of the mountain that prevented some of the previous attempts to scale Everest by other climbers. British expeditions had been trying for 30 years without success. They got within a few hundred metres of the summit but they couldn't find a way past this vertical rock face until in 1953 Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay finally managed to get over it. Now that the obstacle is no longer there as a vertical rock face the final push for the summit has gotten considerably easier than it was before the 2015 earthquake.

pc7

Muahahaha I know you mentioned you've climbed quite a bit, has Everest ever called to you?

wrestlemaniac

wrestlemaniac wrote: »

Why are they morons? They made a free choice to go up, each to their own.

There is nothing unique about climbing Everest.
Morons do things without a care for consequences.
Most morons will leave a ton of litter up there.

tuxy

pc7 wrote: »

Muahahaha I know you mentioned you've climbed quite a bit, has Everest ever called to you?

This post is a good read so I'll quote it in entirety.

Muahahaha wrote: »

I've 'climbed' Mera Peak nearby to Everest and can confirm it is a trekking peak, it is known as the highest place in the world you can get to just by walking up with no technical climbing ability required. You wear crampons and are trained in using your ice axe to arrest a fall but the trail to the top is relatively wide with little to no chance of falling off the side. Neighbouring Island Peak (6,139m) is the same bar needing to be roped for the last 200m or so. Neither of them are technical climbs and both are very popular with trekkers who want to summit a big mountain without too much risk.

Anyway I once had lofty ambitions of giving Everest a go myself but gave those up after going up Mera Peak. It wasnt the hike up that bothered me but the thinness of the air. The top is 6,476m and up there you only have about 50% oxygen available to your lungs, so every breath is like half a breath which tires you out very quickly. I can only imagine what it would be like at the top of Everest at 8,848m where you have only 30% available to you.

As mentioned further up the thread Seamus 'climbed' both Island Peak and Mera Peak as training for Everest. He also summited Denali in Alaska (6,190m) which is a more technical climb than Island or Mera but still not all that high in relation to Everest. The reason why they say you should always climb an 8,000m mountain in practice for Everest is so you can see how your body handles the altitude at 8,000m. If you feel good then Everest is a possibility for you, if you don't feel good at 8,000m then getting to the 8,848m of Everest is going to be a very risky proposition.

There are 14 peaks of 8,000m+ in the world with nine of them being in Nepal. Typically someone who wants to summit Everest needs to summit one of these first so they can find out what they are like at truly high altitudes. The 'easier' ones that are circa 8,100m are Cho Oyo and Manslu which is where the guiding companies bring clients to see if they would be able for Everest. Seamus skipped this step and instead went from 6,000m+ mountains to trying for the highest mountain in the world. This was not good planning on his behalf imo and a part of me feels he put way too much currency in his ambition to not only to summit Everest but also to do it by the age of 40, with his 40th birthday falling due in July of this year. He put himself under time pressure and mountaineering does not work like that. He probably had visions of his 40th birthday party and the craic telling his mates about his tales from Everest and just decided to go for it despite being relatively inexperienced and a complete novice in the 8000m+ death zone.

It seems to me he put an unnecessary time constraint on himself and as a result he never truly tested himself out by climbing a different 8,000m+mountain, many of which are just a few kilometers from Everest. Had he taken an extra year and done that expedition he might have realised that Everest wasn't for him at all. I know I realised that after Mera Peak but he went straight from Mera to Everest. It was a step too far and he was in too much of a rush imo.

jasper100

Bam Bam Mickey wrote: »

There is nothing unique about climbing Everest.
Morons do things without a care for consequences.
Most morons will leave a ton of litter up there.

A lot of them also do it without doing anywhere near enough proper training, then when they get into trouble somebody else has to risk their life trying to sort out the mess they made.

pc7

tuxy wrote: »

This post is a good read so I'll quote it in entirety.

Thanks Tuxy, the whole thing is fascinating (Everest/K2 etc.)

Jim Gazebo

Bam Bam Mickey wrote: »

There is nothing unique about climbing Everest.
Morons do things without a care for consequences.
Most morons will leave a ton of litter up there.

It's only the highest mountain in the world sure what's unique about that.

blackwhite

Muahahaha wrote: »

Yes it has got a bit easier in the last few years, mainly because the hardest part of the entire route used to include a 12m high sheer vertical rock wall known as the Hillary Step. This rock wall collapsed in the 2015 earthquake so the Hillary Step section is no longer the huge obstacle it once was.

The Hillary Step was the section of the mountain that prevented some of the previous attempts to scale Everest by other climbers. British expeditions had been trying for 30 years without success. They got within a few hundred metres of the summit but they couldn't find a way past this vertical rock face until in 1953 Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay finally managed to get over it. Now that the obstacle is no longer there as a vertical rock face the final push for the summit has gotten considerably easier than it was before the 2015 earthquake.

1953 was the first time a British expedition attempted the Southern approach - all of their attempts in the 1920s and 1930s were via the Northern Ridge. They never would have encountered the Hillary Step.

Maybe you're thinking of the 2nd Step on the northern ridge?


The Swiss in 1952 were the first expedition to attempt the Southern route.


EDIT:

the reason being that Nepal didn't allow foreigners enter until the 1950s

Hoboo

Jim Gazebo wrote: »

It's only the highest mountain in the world sure what's unique about that.

The mountain is unique, the climbing of it isn't.

Jim Gazebo

Hoboo wrote: »

The mountain is unique, the climbing of it isn't.

If the mountain is unique, then climbing it and summiting it is by default something unique. How many of you have summited everest? Case in point.

redmgar

It really comes across as "I would climb Everest tomorrow, only its for kids" begrudgery, in reality they would struggle up the Sugarloaf.

A pub bore, who is an expert in everything such as government funding, mountain climbing and tax due on charity donations. The faux concern for the wife and kids of Lawless and the family of the Sherpas masking a bitterness of people who actually get up off their couch to try something.

maxsmum

redmgar wrote: »

It really comes across as "I would climb Everest tomorrow, only its for kids" begrudgery, in reality they would struggle up the Sugarloaf.

A pub bore, who is an expert in everything such as government funding, mountain climbing and tax due on charity donations. The faux concern for the wife and kids of Lawless and the family of the Sherpas masking a bitterness of people who actually get up off their couch to try something.

I'm guessing you're not a parent.

bucketybuck

redmgar wrote: »

A pub bore, who is an expert in everything

And the pub contrarian, who thinks anybody is listening to him.

pc7

redmgar wrote: »

The faux concern for the wife and kids of Lawless and the family of the Sherpas masking a bitterness of people who actually get up off their couch to try something.

Not sure who that is targeted at. I genuinely feel empathy for the wife and children left behind over this tragedy, its awful. As someone with two young kids I would dread to think I wouldn't get to see them grow or be there for them. I would hate to read of more families left without loved ones due to an attempt to recover a body in extremely dangerous circumstances.



I'm not bitter at all, I'd have no interest in climbing Everest/K2 but I do find the whole topic amazingly interesting. Especially K2 the more I read which seems to be a real feat or triumph due to the hazardous nature of it.

ToBeFrank123

Never climbed it and no real desire to and I have no sympathy for any westerner who comes a cropper on it no more so than someone who drives fast for example. If you dice with death as a way of showing off or becoming a legend you're on your own.

Lawless seems to have been hopelessly naive going into this. He didn't show Everest the respect it deserves and put himself before the welfare of others. The strongpoint of most professors is research, something he didn't do or probably didn't have time to do.

The only positive that can come from this is it will give other have a go heroes second thoughts.

Snow Garden

blackwhite wrote: »

1953 was the first time a British expedition attempted the Southern approach - all of their attempts in the 1920s and 1930s were via the Northern Ridge. They never would have encountered the Hillary Step.

Maybe you're thinking of the 2nd Step on the northern ridge?


The Swiss in 1952 were the first expedition to attempt the Southern route.


EDIT:

the reason being that Nepal didn't allow foreigners enter until the 1950s

And the Chinese closed the northern routes after the 1949 revolution.