Nepal/China - 10 People in 9 Days Die on Mt. Everest as 320 pack dense trail "death zone", May 2019

[Snoods]

'Delays caused by crowding could be fatal': British climber
shared his worries about overcrowding on Everest hours
before he became the tenth to die on Everest in nine days

Jesus. You need to change the title.

 

[Trudie]

NEW DELHI — Ed Dohring, a doctor from Arizona, had dreamed his whole life of reaching the top of Mount Everest. But when he summited a few days ago, he was shocked by what he saw.

Climbers were pushing and shoving to take selfies. The flat part of the summit, which he estimated at about the size of two Ping-Pong tables, was packed with 15 or 20 people. To get up there, he had to wait hours in a line, chest to chest, one puffy jacket after the next, on an icy, rocky ridge with a several-thousand foot drop.

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

 

[drama_farmer]

I think that "summit fever" effects many who understand, but easily forget that the summit is not the real end of the climb. It's only half way. Moo

 

[Snoods]

Interesting article posted by @Trudie.

Fly-by-night adventure companies are taking up untrained climbers who pose a risk to everyone on the mountain. And the Nepalese government, hungry for every climbing dollar it can get, has issued more permits than Everest can safely handle, some experienced mountaineers say.

Some climbers did not even know how to put on a pair of crampons, clip-on spikes that increase traction on ice, Sherpas said.

Others were simply not fit enough to be on the mountain in the first place.

He (Dohring) even had to step around the body of a woman who had just died.

Sounds like fun.

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

 

[Snoods]

NEW DELHI —
Climbers were pushing and shoving to take selfies. The flat part of the summit, which he estimated at about the size of two Ping-Pong tables, was packed with 15 or 20 people.

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

RSBM We need a separate thread strictly for people who die taking risky selfies.

 

[Trudie]

RSBM We need a separate thread strictly for people who die taking risky selfies.

For sure. Seems like a daily event.

 

[gregjrichards]

I do not understand the appeal of climbing Everest it is not something worth risking your life over. I would not do it even if paid any amount. The video of the queue at the top is absolute madness

 

[mickey2942]

I do not understand the appeal of climbing Everest it is not something worth risking your life over. I would not do it even if paid any amount. The video of the queue at the top is absolute madness

It looks like the line for a ride at Disneyworld. They should set up a "fastpass" system.

 

[Trudie]

It looks like the line for a ride at Disneyworld. They should set up a "fastpass" system.

Maybe two lines, depending on one’s vitals?

Even a few kids have climbed. That’s nuts. Talk about child abuse. Iirc, an 11 or 13yo made it a couple years ago.
Maybe his parents used his college fund.

 

[mickey2942]

Maybe two lines, depending on one’s vitals?

Even a few kids have climbed. That’s nuts. Talk about child abuse. Iirc, an 11 or 13yo made it a couple years ago.
Maybe his parents used his college fund.

At least the Nepalese government has decided that Everest is no longer ADA accessible to blind and double amputee climbers.

http://www.ladbible.com/news/news-t...l-no-longer-be-able-to-climb-everest-20171230

 

[Snoods]

It looks like the line for a ride at Disneyworld. They should set up a "fastpass" system.

Soon people will be pushing their infants and toddlers up Mt. Everest in oversized strollers. Wearing puffy jackets, of course. Because safety.

 

[mickey2942]

Soon people will be pushing their infants and toddlers up Mt. Everest in oversized strollers. Wearing puffy jackets, of course. Because safety.

The grossest part is that people have to pass dead bodies of others on the way up to the top. It is hard enough for people to climb in the "death zone", evacuation of dead bodies just isn't going to happen. And now, there are 10 more, new "landmarks".

 

[Snoods]

Nothing about any of this sounds appealing. IMO.

A 2013 National Geographic article wrote about the dangerous overcrowding and disgusting pollution on Everest.

Climbers leave behind thousands of pounds of human excrement each season and discard tons of debris on the mountain.

Mount Everest has become the world's highest rubbish dump with increasing numbers of big-spending climbers turning it into a 'disgusting eyesore', experts claim.

Fluorescent tents, climbing equipment, empty gas canisters and even human excrement litter the well-trodden route to the summit of the 29,029ft (8,848-metre) peak after being dumped by people paying little attention to the environment.

The real problem is the tons and tons of plastics, beer cans, whiskey bottles, steel food containers, and other solid waste the lodge owners import.

The human waste generated each season at the Everest base camp is dumped into pits in seasonal water courses, and this accounts for the large numbers of visitors getting sick.’

The two standard routes, the Northeast Ridge and the Southeast Ridge, are not only dangerously crowded but also disgustingly polluted, with garbage leaking out of the glaciers and pyramids of human excrement befouling the high camps,” mountaineer Mark Jenkins wrote in a 2013 National Geographic article on Everest

Shocking images reveal how tourists have transformed Mount Everest into a ‘disgusting’ wasteland | Daily Mail Online

The shocking true impact of tourism on Mount Everest | Metro News

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ount-everest-a-fecal-time-bomb/?noredirect=on

 

[Trudie]

If someone tells you “I’m dying to climb Mt Everest”,
take him at his word, I guess.


Not sure if this was posted:
Everest climber who warned of overcrowding becomes 8th person to die on peak this year

 

[Trudie]

Soon people will be pushing their infants and toddlers up Mt. Everest in oversized strollers. Wearing puffy jackets, of course. Because safety.

Yes, I can see this happening one day. To get the ultimate family selfie. Kids will be correctly strapped in their snow-stroller, right?

 

[human]

Maybe it can be made as socially unacceptable as smoking.

The area needs money. So what else can they do? Something must be done for this absurd situation

I feel the same way about marathon runners. Nice for them but who cares!

They throw empty cups of water that they are given along the route. They poop in people’s yards. They do contribute financially for hotels and other tourist things but to me it is very self centered.

 

[Trudie]

Maybe it can be made as socially unacceptable as smoking.

The area needs money. So what else can they do? Something must be done for this absurd situation

I feel the same way about marathon runners. Nice for them but who cares!

They throw empty cups of water that they are given along the route. They poop in people’s yards. They do contribute financially for hotels and other tourist things but to me it is very self centered.

Ita.
I think I heard of yet another death on Mt. (Deatherest) Everett. Need to check the news to be sure.

 

[angelainwi]

Ita.
I think I heard of yet another death on Mt. (Deatherest) Everett. Need to check the news to be sure.

I heard the same. It was either on CNN or MSNBC, the 11th death

 

[Trudie]

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - An American climber died on the descent from the summit of Mount Everest on Monday, a Nepalese official said, taking the number of dead or missing mountaineers on the world’s highest mountain to nine on the Nepali side during the current climbing season.

Christopher John Kulish, 61, scaled the 8,850 meter (29,035 feet) peak from the normal Southeast Ridge route in the morning but died suddenly at South Col after descending from the summit, Mira Acharya, a Nepal tourism department official said.

American climber dies on descent from summit of Mount Everest - Reuters

If this continues, Vegas will take bets on how many die in May climbing excursions, I’m afraid.

 

[mickey2942]

Maybe it can be made as socially unacceptable as smoking.

The area needs money. So what else can they do? Something must be done for this absurd situation

I feel the same way about marathon runners. Nice for them but who cares!

They throw empty cups of water that they are given along the route. They poop in people’s yards. They do contribute financially for hotels and other tourist things but to me it is very self centered.

Interesting perspective. And very perceptive. People who are in training for a personal goal often have tunnel vision, ignoring family members. Hours of training, money, travel, all for the personal goal...ignoring family needs.

Not unlike a couple who climbed Everest several years ago, both died, leaving their child an orphan.