Everest 2019

[Janne]

Incredible if the deaths have happened the last few decades.

 

[Robson Valley]

Of course it "may be" careless.
You get the shirt beat out of you in an avalanche of snow, ice chunks the size of houses and a bunch of rock for gravy.
The snow is packed so far down your throat, it's coming out of your whazoo.
"Did they carry ID?" Who the Hello knows?

Here at my place, the Search & Rescue people do try to get to you as quickly as is safe to do so.
Otherwise, the wolves and coyotes and Ravens and Eagles will dig you up and they will eat you.

 

[Janne]

My point is - they must have a list of people that got 'lost'.
Trekking on those peaks has been controlled for decades.

Every body (part) has DNA.

Maybe they just do not care. But I feel sorry for the body rescuers. The latest troop are para military. I hope they have a skilled unit psych.

It is not a nice job. My regiment was involved in a couple rescue missions when serving. If nothing was found, the Airforce (helicopters) gave us ideas where to find them spring time.
Me and my plutoon never did a spring time retrieval myself, Praise the Gods!

I

 

[Brizzlebush]

It’s sad on so many levels - Pen y Fan is less busy on a Bank Holiday though hopefully less people will die there this weekend.

As a coincidence, I’m sat here having a coffee wearing a very old Mountain Equipment fleece with a label proudly proclaiming that they have equipped 35 Everest Expedition!

The world has got a lot smaller, less than half a century ago Everest was the domain of mountain gods like Bonington, Scott, Haston, Whillans and Brown - people who lived and breathed mountains and had earned the right to stand on the top of the world having devoted their lives to climbing. Now anyone with a few (well quite a few) £s, a reasonable level of fitness and a burning desire to take a selfie to make their friends jealous can sign up to a trip and get a Sherpa to push them to the top.

The 1950s, 1960s and 1970s were a golden era of mountaineering and underwater exploration (my other passion) - today mere mortals can stand on the shoulders of giants and that is not necessarily a good thing!

Moan over - off to bang some fence posts in while looking over at Pen Y Fan on the horizon, which as close as I want to get this time of year!

Nicely put sir.
I agree with all of that, and couldn't articulate it better. So I won't try!

 

[petrochemicals]

Here, I need to go up to the top floor on the excellent Kimpton Hotel. Or have a window seat on the babord side of the bA flight.
A good view of Cayman.

Not much to see here, to be frank.
I Norway, I will be able to see into three fjords once everything is finished.

You need a mountain with a good view.

Snaefell on the Isle of Man is fantastic. You can see the whole island laid out at your feet, plus England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland upon the Horizon.

I will have to go to the Isle of man, it sounds good. The azures and tenerife give great views like that, you'll have to hop over Janne.

 

[Robson Valley]

This size of avalanche is cheap as chips here. I can see then across the valley now (top melt)
with my buck-naked eyeballs or a Nikon spotting scope from the dining room.
Suppose you got caught near the top. When this stops, where are you?

 

[Tengu]

Yes, I think there will be a list. (Except rogue climbers who go on holy mountains...But I guess no one is looking there)

Shipton knew who it was when he found Wilson, didnt he?

(But Wilson had his diary with him)

But it could be grim. I have heard that many of the people who fell a long distance are now in pieces.

A big pile of pieces.

 

[Janne]

Excellent video. It was interesting to see how close the potential Raven Food stepped to the edge, not thinking it might crumble.

Lot of Power Mama Nature has!

 

[Robson Valley]

Dead people in avalanches don't look too pretty. Not gonna be an open casket thing.
Here in the winter, many of the dead refuse to let go of their snowmobiles
and the sled beats them to a pulp.

That's a very late spring avalanche, you can see the melt back and layering at the beginning.
The implication is that the grizz will be out along the chutes, foraging.

When somebody topples off the summit ridge @ Everest, nobody has the physical or mental strength
to make a hop, skip and a jump down the cliff face to help out.

 

[backpacker]

I had heard the stories but never realised it was this crowded!
View attachment 54010
Image taken by Nirmal Purja at first I thought it was some clever time-lapse or simply Photoshopped but alas no, just another day on the mountain during climbing season.

Hi Bishop,
To be honest it wasn't much better in 2017 I was with a support team at base camp and the team of 8 climbers that was due to summit had a lot of trouble due to the overcrowding, in the end they gave up after being in the Death Zone too long and decided to come down for safety reasons, one thing for sure the team noticed there was quite a few inexperienced climbers there were a couple of French Climbers that have never climbed a mountain of this height, the problem is there are companies out there that charge big money to get these people to the top of Everest regardless of the consequences, there will only be more deaths on the mountain unless the authorities regulate the amount of climbers wanting permits to climb!