Everest Deaths 2016
Discussion
el romeral said:
A Dutch mountaineer somehow reminded me of the Jamaican bobsleigh team.
Sad story but when it is time to meet your maker, it is time to meet your maker.
this seems to have a similar level of stupid to the saudi drifters ... you see people make it back alive so you set off .....Sad story but when it is time to meet your maker, it is time to meet your maker.
glazbagun said:
Good old PH, where even dying near the summit of everest won't spare you from a dig if you're vegan.
Reports I've read are four dead in four days- including a Sherpa who fell near the summit on Thursday:
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/22/asia/everest-cli...
Sounds like a grim expedition. I think it would probably have recieved less press attention before the earthquake, though- dying whilst trying to climb Everest is hardly an unimaginable outcome, but it's always a sad thing to hear.
From memory I *think* it's something like 1 in 10 people who attempt the summit (and aren't sherpas) die in the process of going up or down. It's pretty horrific. Reports I've read are four dead in four days- including a Sherpa who fell near the summit on Thursday:
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/22/asia/everest-cli...
Sounds like a grim expedition. I think it would probably have recieved less press attention before the earthquake, though- dying whilst trying to climb Everest is hardly an unimaginable outcome, but it's always a sad thing to hear.
I remember listening to a lecture in our TA Centre as part of our OTC at university where an ex-SAS/SBS chappie (can't remember which) who was well into his mountain climbing expeditions was telling us about the attempts he and other friends had made to climb Everest. He did something like 4 expeditions, each time there were about 10 experienced people, they only made it to the top once, and on only one expedition did someone in their group of NOT die
ETA: just checked - it seems up until 1996 something like 1 in 7 died trying to get to the summit, then things got a bit safer. the lecture I had was in 2002 or so, so at that stage it was still about 1 in 10. It appears to be about 1 in 30 now.
Edited by Mario149 on Tuesday 24th May 10:04
Anyone interested in Everest and the effect that the altitude has on your body and mind should read Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air https://www.amazon.co.uk/Into-Thin-Air-Jon-Krakaue... . It's the account of the 1996 expedition that the recent Everest movie was about.
If you die anywhere near the Death Zone, above 26,000 feet then no one is going to recover your body, it's far to dangerous for anyone to risk their own lives to do so. Even Mallory's body is still there, his summit attempt was in the 1920's!
What's very sad is the amount of people that die coming down, climbers spend years training and thousands of pounds to get the opportunity to reach the summit and that is where their focus is. Along with the your severely depleted capacity to reason and assess risks many people will push for the summit when either they are too tired, injured, the weather is closing in etc and should turn back.
They end up reaching the summit but haven't got the physical or mental reserves to get down safely and there are stories of people coming down just wandering off cliffs, going completely mad as well as just sitting down to die.
Strangely a number of the bodies that people encounter on Everest are semi naked. Apparently in the final stages of hypothermia where you body has restricted the blood flow to your extremities it suddenly opens all your arteries up, the victim will feel very hot and try and take off their clothes to cool down, quickly followed by death.
If you die anywhere near the Death Zone, above 26,000 feet then no one is going to recover your body, it's far to dangerous for anyone to risk their own lives to do so. Even Mallory's body is still there, his summit attempt was in the 1920's!
What's very sad is the amount of people that die coming down, climbers spend years training and thousands of pounds to get the opportunity to reach the summit and that is where their focus is. Along with the your severely depleted capacity to reason and assess risks many people will push for the summit when either they are too tired, injured, the weather is closing in etc and should turn back.
They end up reaching the summit but haven't got the physical or mental reserves to get down safely and there are stories of people coming down just wandering off cliffs, going completely mad as well as just sitting down to die.
Strangely a number of the bodies that people encounter on Everest are semi naked. Apparently in the final stages of hypothermia where you body has restricted the blood flow to your extremities it suddenly opens all your arteries up, the victim will feel very hot and try and take off their clothes to cool down, quickly followed by death.
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