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Caught On Tape: Dramatic Video & Images From The Mount Everest Avalanche
In the immediate aftermath of yesterday's destructive Nepal earthquake, which has led to hundreds of aftershocks and a constantly rising death toll, currently exceeding 2000, the most visually stunning, if quite deadly, phenomenon was a massive avalanche on Mt. Everest and leading to at least 17 casualties, including a Google executive, and 61 injured.
According to Xinhua, the avalanche began Saturday on Mount Kumori, a 7,000-meter-high mountain just a few miles from Mount Qomolangma, also known as Mount Everest, gathering strength as it headed toward the base camp where climbing expeditions have been preparing to make their summit attempts in the coming weeks, he said. Numerous climbers may now be cut off on routes leading to the top of the world's highest peak.
The avalanche plowed into a part of base camp, a sprawling seasonal village of climbers, guides and porters, flattening at least 30 tents, Tshering said. All of the dead and injured were at base camp.
Terrifiyingvideo from a skier at base-camp - warning - expletive-strewn...
For a sense of the base camp's location relative to the rest of the world's tallest mountain refer to the image below, taken from a May 2014 WSJ story discussing the "dangerous business" of Everest, when 16 sherpas died in what was previously the deadliest disaster in the mountain's history.
Survivors reached over Internet messaging services described a scene of terror as the snow and ice roared through the nearby Khumbu Icefall and into the camp.
The nationalities of base camp victims were unclear as climbers described chaotic attempts to treat the injured amid fears of more landslides and aftershocks that continue to rattle the region. Chinese media "West China City Daily" reported that a Chinese climber and two Sherpa guides were among the dead.
Dan Fredinburg, a Google executive who described himself as an adventurer, was among the dead, Google confirmed. Lawrence You, the company's director of privacy, posted online that Fredinburg was with three other Google employees hiking Mount Qomolangma. Fredinburg served as product manager and the head of privacy at Google X.
Weather.com has further details:
The avalanche — or perhaps a series of avalanches hidden in a massive white cloud — plowed into a part of base camp, a sprawling seasonal village of climbers, guides and porters, flattening at least 30 tents, Tshering said. All of the dead and injured were at base camp.
Survivors reached over Internet messaging services described a scene of terror as the snow and ice roared through the nearby Khumbu Icefall and into the camp.
Azim Afif, the 27-year-old leader of a climbing team from University of Technology Malaysia, said in an interview on the service WhatsApp that his group was in a meal tent waiting for lunch when suddenly the table and everything around them began shaking.
When they ran outside, they saw "a wall of ice coming towards us," and heard the cries of Sherpa guides shouting for people to run for their lives, he wrote. "We just think to find a place to hide and save our life."
The small team planned to sleep together Saturday night in one large tent "to make sure if anything happen, we are together," Afif said. Quickly, though, climbing teams scattered across the camp and began to work together to search for survivors.
Gordon Janow, the director of programs for the Washington-based guiding outfit Alpine Ascents International, said from Seattle that his team had come through the avalanche unscathed. Their first goal was to deal with the devastation at base camp, he said, and they would then try to create new routes to help climbers stuck above the treacherous Khumbu Icefall. The icefall, which is just above base camp, is a key route up the lower part of Everest.
"Everybody's pretty much in rescue mode, but this is different from some independent climbing accident where people can be rescued and taken somewhere else," Janow said. "I don't know where somewhere else is."
Follow some truly epic photos as the avalanche was headed toward base camp...
... as well as a whole series of photos taken by AFP's Roberto Schmidt who was at base camp on Everest when the avalanche hit, courtesy of Telegraph:
Pictures taken by AFP's South Asia photo chief Roberto Schmidt show an enormous cloud of snow and debris cascading down the mountain as survivors recalled the horrifying moment that disaster struck on Saturday.
"I ran and it just flattened me. I tried to get up and it flattened me again," Singapore-based marine biologist George Foulsham told AFP at base camp. "I couldn't breathe, I thought I was dead. When I finally stood up, I couldn't believe it passed me over and I was almost untouched."
A spokesman for Nepal's tourism department, which issues the permits to climb the world's tallest mountain, said the death toll had risen to 17 and could increase further. "Seventeen have been reported dead so far and 61 are injured," said Tulsi Gautam. "Those who are able are walking down. Others are being airlifted to Pheriche." Here, rescuers use a makeshift stretcher to carry an injured person after an avalanche triggered by an earthquake flattened parts of Everest Base Camp.
Expedition guide Pasang Sherpa searches through flattened tents in search of survivors
An injured porter is transfered onto a makeshift stretcher
Rescuers tend to a sherpa injured in the avalanche
Many had traveled to Nepal for the start of the annual climbing season, which was cancelled last year after 16 sherpa guides were killed in what was previously the deadliest disaster in the mountain's history
People look on at the devastation
Another makeshift stretcher for another casualty
Nepalese Sherpas look up towards an area from where an avalanche descended
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Is it an optical illusion that LHOTSE appears taller than Everest? Anyway, speaking of illusion, no doubt we'll hear sad tales about Google execs getting killed in this avalanche, but not a peep about any sherpas.
Is it an optical illusion that LHOTSE appears taller than Everest?
No. You're right it is taller. I too often base my observations of the real world off of drawings, caricatures, and comic books.
I can tell you, once the news gets out, there is going to be at least one person who sounds like a moron.
My fucking point is that if you're going to do a drawing whereby the tallest mountain peak in the world is a well known fact, why would you illustrate it differently? How the fuck hard is it?
If I had millions to blow on recreation, the first thing I would do is to challenge myself by freezing my ass off climbing a rock that was already climbed by a guy that Hitlery was named after / after she was named.
..not
It's the snow which attracts them to the mtn, it's the height which attracts them to Everst.
Everything is SO AWESOME!
Let's all go climb Everest!
We have the right to do it!
Yeah - yeah let's go sleep on the frozen turds and garbage of the thousands of rich people who came before us.
An avalanche in this situation is Nature pulling the flush chain.
Gee.. maybe it’s just me
but not withstanding the sub zero temperatures..
that lack of oxygen thing above 9k feet seems a little less than appealing
I have rented a beach shack on Hayman..
Way more better.
And even the thought of a formerly moist but frozen at altitude thong strap in the crack is disturbing.
:-D
Anyone who likes a bit of historical fiction and is interested in the history/subject of Everest and it's earliest climbers, go read "The Abominable" by Dan Simmons. You won't be dissapointed!
And here I had finally gotten my 1.5% loan approval to start my Everset Snow Cone business :(
VC guys had already signed on after looking at the untapped market potential
Hmm..
I got my loan straight from the Fed.
They are paying me .088 pct. for my new snow cannon business on Everest.
Let them eat snow! Snow for everybody!
Climbing Everest is a human right. We must bubble wrap the mountain - for the children.
Fucking douche canoes.
Fredinburg's last words:
"Enslavement or death for the Sheeple"!
<< go read "The Abominable" by Dan Simmons >>
What are you crazy?!
Read?!
Reading novels is so old fashioned.
Twittering, Face Booking, Twerking and surfing for porn is all the Rage!
Strange thing is that just last week there was a "Gettiing Nepal Ready for the Big One" gathering in Kathmandu.
All the world's top geologists were there.
Kind of like the drills in the west. Too weird.
Tick-tock for the world as we know it...
Meanwhile, guitar stroking and skin thumping for those thusly inclined...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcuIThFpV6E
ORI,
You seem like a pretty free thinker..
I am curious..
Whilst I am pretty convinced that the whole fracking thing and a number of other planet abusing practices have harmful effects –
Do you subscribe to the thought that all of the Cadillac Escalades, Hummers, Jeep Grand Cherokees, Toyota’s and old ’57 Chevy’s are more responsible for the vicissitudes of climactic action than volcanoes, termite methane and the two octillion ton fusion gas ball in the sky (creds to A. Barnhardt) ?
(And.. if it is the ’57 Chevy’s fault, we are going to need to bomb the hell out of Cuba.)
ManT, I think the gaggle of guzzlers you mention has terrible local and super local effects in my view. As do fracking et. al. (larger locality of course).
But AGW?
Hah!!!!! Haaaahaaaah!
Heck, I am more likely to believe good data that it has been all the heat generated by WAR in the last 150 years, such incendiary wars miiiiiiight have something to do with it.
In which case, great, stop global war, stop Global Warming...
Cool..
it may be that everyone out there isn't nuts after all.
but the peace prize winner may still go after those '57 Chevy's
BTW..
my Jeep GK is a model year 2000 and has less than 45K miles on it..
I only drive it in hill climbs or pristine wilderness. :-0..
just kidding.. (about the pristine wilderness)
and oh.. since I am feeling so vocal.. a Jeep Wrangler on the muddy, rutted precipice trails of the Koloki ridges on Lanai is to die for.
Too bad all google execs aren't "adventurers."
Extraordinary coincedence:
7.8 Quake Strikes as CERN Powers Up Beamshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN6fDP9lHK8
Much tampering with our planet's equlibrium and frequncies:
CERN/ACTIVATING WORLD COLLIDERS/PT.1https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4mdKvLJm7Q
...another chapter in the book of "Way Dumb Billionairs Get Dead."
I do have to laugh how so many rich end up dying when their hand-built aircraft folds up like an accordian in flight, eaten by a Swamp Bear, crashed in a balloon, killed by snow. It is to laugh.
Me, I've decided not to 'die stupidly.' No jumping from aircraft, hang gliding, visiting biker bars.
Were I rich and vain enough that the trite experience of slogging around on Mt. Everest appealed to me, I'd hire some double and have him do it instead. Get a bunch of photos, and tell everybody about my *Heroic* tribulation. Meanwhile I'd be on a beach somewhere.
Hell I'd hire a dozen doubles and have them adventuring around the globe in my stead. Imagine that Christmas Letter!
"Wait, you climbed Everest, Ran the Boston Marathon, did the Dakar Rally, and killed a Swamp Bear with your bare hands? All in one year?!"
Reclining with my G&T at my cabana, "Naw, I did all that in one week."
..I take exception to that biker bar self-deprivation :-)
peeps die at the beach all the time.
Yep, I saw the documentary.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2Ecwm7Alrc
When you tire of the shack on Hayman, walk over the hill to blue pearl bay and don a snorkel and goggles. swim out to the overhang and dive down under it( 30Ft) Meet Fred the largest Grouper in the Witsundays. You will then mutter much of what Ze German did in that clip. He will then swollow you whole and spit out the rubber bits. Fred loves Newbies to Hayman. Hint: most of what lives in Nature in Australia either wants to Kill you or Eat you. Mind the Crocs mate
https://www.flickr.com/photos/2minutes/7332330830/
Everything is SO AWESOME!
Let's all go climb Everest!
What can go wrong? Go on before it's too late forever! Avalanche never comes down. This time it's really different!
Show everyone that your life is full of deep personal achievements, and real meaning.
"...product manager and the head of privacy at Google X."
Does that mean that he was liaison guy with NSA?
"privacy at Google" - that just set off my oxymoron detector
What a disappointment. When I saw 'Executive at Google', my first hope was this is the fucktard behind the 'new' Google Maps. Karma can't even get it's shit together these days.
Joe, his job brief is to make sure there isn't any..
(war is peace etc)
The "Head of Privacy" is entasked with capturing maximum personal data while remaining "legal".
It was a typo.
What they meant to say was: "Head of Piracy."
Someone needs to state what everybody is thinking: FUCK GOOGLE. Also fuck all the adrenalin-tards who ever got themselves and others killed doing dumb shit.
Darwin Awards for the wealthy. It's not just for Billy-Bob and his makeshift meth lab any more.
... head of Privacy...
So - nothing lost then...
(which wasn't in any case well lost already)
Don't imagine they will be in any hurry to appoint a replacement - wot...
Head of "privation of privacy" at Google.
Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission.
I wonder if all the dead bodies, garbage and feces came off the top of the mountain.
Retards climbing the mtn have turned it in to a toxic waste dump of garbage, dead folks, shit and UR-ine.
That's what makes it so spiritual
DO NOT EAT YELLOW SNOW.
Addendum: DON'T EAT RADIOACTIVE SNOW EITHER. h/t Tepco and GE
Everest strikes back:
optical illusion...
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/chilean-captures-giant--mythical--human-emergi...
as west, so east...
Gaia strikes back.
“it's the height which attracts them to Everst.”
..so it must be like that 02 deprivation choking thing the kids sometimes do.
I've always speculated that smokers are going for O2 deprivation, as well. Betcha there ain't many smokers making the trek up Everest.
<< that 02 deprivation choking thing >>
" Robin Williams could not be reached for comment. "
If I had millions, I would work on a permit to climb Kate Upton's Peaks.
I would be happy to just wander the valleys. :-D
That brings up a good point. I wonder if there are any associates of the Clintons who happened to be up there, who can be added to the Clinton Body Count.
This sort of mountaineering is the epitome of pointless, wasteful selfishness in the name of vanity. Everest has become a monument to wealthy egomaniacs who literally walk past dying mountaineers to summit. I've no sympathy for any them, however I do have sympathy for the Sherpas eeking out a living catering to these nuts. The only thing that surprises me is that there weren't more "Google executive" types on the mountain that day.
For most expedition clients, it's not mountaineering in any real sense of the word any more. It's business. No experience required, just cash. However, there are still alpine teams and experienced climbers without trust funds who do climb closer to traditional mountaineering and on different routes.
Why is it that you don't see hundreds people backed up on the ropes waiting in line to summit K2 or Anapurna like you do on Everest? I wonder....
For a good look at expedition life at Everest basecamp, see Jon Miller's video blog at http://www.therestofeverest.com/ Start with episode 1.
Somehow narcissistic personality disordercomes to mind when i read about these people.
Not gonna "ride out" of that one
You are spot on AIIB. 1st thing I noticed. Good name btw.
It's not a drawing, its a photograph and if you look at the photographs on the internet taken from that angle and distance they all look similar.
right?! here, let us introduce you to a concept called perspective...
I apologise for breaking in here when you are discussing artistic perspective: I did not care to page further.
What floors me is the chatter of the idiot that if he was a decent humanoid would have never allowed the whining potty mouth to appear on widely distributed media.
I do hope that the recording was a posthumous discovery for the sake of those that didn't become unglued as he did.
The twerp couldn't STFU and take it like a man and just do some sort of a non-subjective description of getting bowled over. I'd be mortified if my chicken crap narrative such as that made the light of day.
I truly hope that he died while gasping, "Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck" and other worthwhile descriptions. This knob is an embarrasment to men and women that would never think of whining as embarassingly as that display.
<-- Drama queen
<-- Entitled CEO
Based on the number of down votes you received for this comment, there's at least 4 people that think shorter mountains should be drawn taller than ones that are actually taller.
I for one, am not one of those people. I agree with you completely.
my point is it's a drawing.
edit: it's a picture. I guess that's what happens at different perspective. I guess it freaks some people out, like being afraid of spiders, or dirt.
Fuck off you
It's just a quirk of mountains. For instance, standing on the top of Scafell Pike -- the highest mountain in England -- one would think that it's nearby neighbour Sca Fell -- a mere kilometre away -- is higher. Despite Sca Fell being 30m shorter.
True, its very hard to judge the hight of the mountain just from looking at it, sometimes you can be off my hundreads of meters. Sometimes when I am at 1200m and am looking at nearby (say 10km away) mountain I think, they are almost on my level but I know they are say 500m+ higher afer looking at a map. A little change in perspective can add/substract 10-30% of the absolute height.
Not only a google exec, but one that was in charge of "privacy". I guess nail guns are in short supply.
Smothered by an event described by the name of the guy who uncovered them
T
Mountaineering of this kind is so stupid. A quarter of all people who attempt to scale Mount Everest DIE.
Fun fact: you have a 50% chance of dying climbing K2.
No, you have a 2-3% chance of dying on Everest. If you are over 60 then your odds are closer to 25%. K2 is closer to 25% for all climbers.
Death rate 6.5% (http://climbing.about.com/od/mountainclimbing/a/Death-On-Mount-Everest.htm). Permanent body damage rate about 75% including embolisms, retina damage, and frost bite.
To the past 3 comments. Close enough for government work.
The death rate for all mountain climbers is 100%.
Survival rate for all ZH'ers is 0%
..on a long enough..
..nevermind
Falling in the ice cold snow makes my head hurt.
ladies & gentleman take my advice, pull down your pants & slide on the ice!
There are old climbers, and bold climbers, but old bold climbers are rare. You could probably insert "investors" in this chestnut.
Don't correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems pretty clear that the principal challenge of Everest is oxygen deprivation. Therefore, if all of said asstards would simply sit on chairs in an empty room, with plastic bags over their heads, taped at the neck, and maybe a pinhole for a fighting chance, the "challenge" would be, in every important way, identical. The same people would die, and the same people would rupture blood vessels, suffer edema, etc., as in the actual bona fide commercialist cluster fuck on the actual face.
You also have to find a big freezer to run around in while the bag is taped over your head. O2 deprivation plus physical exertion.
LOL You guys are dark.
The sherpas carry fat NY'ers of dual shitizen type up Everest all the time. They complain the whole way. Everest is a joke. Toxic waste dump. I wish the mortality rate was closer to 80%. Because all the retards shit up there and leave Wal Mart garbage.
Please don't compare Everest with K2. The mountains are in two completely different leagues. In fact, no mountain can be compared to K2. Everest is for rich want-a-be tourists. K2 is the most difficult and beautiful mountain in the world.
I'm kind of partial to Mt. Crumpet. Only the Grinch & Max (his dog) have ever made it to the top of that one.
Mount Rainier in Washington State is a lot more interesting than Everest, Mt. Ranier is a fucking volcano which can explode at any moment and will explode someday. You don't have to even climb it to be killed by it, just live near enough to it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me_s0b-w7FY
And you talk about earthquakes...the Pacific Northwest is constantly shaking
What about the early teen boys that read of the stories of horny schoolmarms and the lad's climb to the promised land of Mons Veneris?
Well, will anybody talk about Annapurna and Kangchenjunga?
Unlike Annapurna, the mountain with the highest fatality-to-summit rate (191 summits and 61 fatalities),[5] K2 has never been climbed during wintertime. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K2)
The Annapurna peaks are among the world's most dangerous mountains to climb, although in more recent history, using figures from only 1990 and after, Kangchenjunga has a higher fatality rate. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annapurna)
An ascent of Everest can be moar difficult than an ascent of K2, irrespective of any differences in the mountains themselves. The relative difficulty and danger simply is a function of route selected, any options intentionally excluded by the climbers, and mother nature.
The west face of the Eiger is a relatively easy climb, but since I moved back Switzerland after giving up serious mountaineering- I've never had any strong urge to try the Mordwand (death wall) despite Grindelwald being only a 2-hour drive from here.
And regardless of the technical difficulty, even the best climbers in the world sometimes die on routes that are considered laughably easy.
As to the rich wanna-be tourists... yeah perhaps Everest is a bit touristy compared to other summits (because it is the highest peak in the world), but the people submitting it aren't simply People-of-Walmart with Walton-sized wallets, despite often being egoists with excess cash. The People of Walmart would have an obscene fatality rate even spending a day rucking with a 30kg pack in my neighborhood, where the roads and footpaths don't get much above about a 35° incline.
OK then................ next Davos gathering on K2!
I had a friend killed on K2, a professional climber.
I do not know about the 50% factor, but it's high. Evn higher in an earthquake.
K2 Kanchenjunga lies in India and Mt.Everest lies in Nepal .
...and Hillary ("I was named after Sir Edmund") lies everywhere...
K2 lies on the Pakistan China border
the locals in China call it Qogori...
we treked over Aghil pass
into the Shaskum river valley up the Orge river
to get to north side base camp K2
we saw no one for 24 days
just our crew and 30 camels
hard fun..
One in four climbers who climb or attempt to summit K2 perish.
Enough with the idiocy. K2 is the most dangerous ascent. Death rate is around 25%.
I understand if people don't get why people climb, especially at these extremes, but hey, it's their life to do with as they please. I've done a bit of climbing myself, nothing like Everest or K2. My peak elevation is 16,000 feet, and that wasn't even on a mountain. LOL Still, my hats off to those who pursue the desires of their heart. They know the risks. I'd love to climb Everest or even K2, but as I've become older, the risks just aren't worth it to me, especially these days. 15-20 years ago when it was less of a cattle call and somewhat safer imo, I'd have been more inclined, but for now, I'll have to make do with photos and film of these spectacular places that few in history have seen or will ever see.
My condolences to the families and friends of those who lost their lives in this tragic natural event. May the dead RIP.
Finaly a sane comment!
So what? It's an individual choice. You buy the ticket, you accept the risk, but it's not nearly 25%. For most expedition clients, you're wrong to refer to climbing Everest "mountaineering." It's not, it's business. Get 'em up, get 'em down.
No matter how smart, how skillful, how wonderful you are: When you reach the top of the mountain, there is simply only one direction where you can go ....that's just how it is ....
basically any muppet can climb a mountain
with a hired guide and proper equipment
climbing down the mountain, to save your life
is an entirely different game..
It's a microcosm of forshadowing the worlds financial system are about to see
The Google exec was part of their privacy team. I hope the tragic loss doesn't hamper their ability to collect all of my search, location and personal data and hand it over to the government.
Talk about Instant Karma.
- and we all shine on, like the moon & the stars & the sun.
It is automatically handed over to another govt that controls Congress.
"including a Google executive"
That's the main headline on Yahoo unnews, poor lefties can't help themselves, their lives are so boring they hang on every move someone they deem "important" makes.
No mention of the 10,000? dead. I guess in a loons eye they are meaningless!
Sad Little Morons!
What in the HELL are you talking about? Oh, you are still playing blue vs red? Should not you be at Huffpost or drudge or some other propaganda rag? ZH'ers should be smarter than this.
"ZH'ers should be smarter than this." Indeed they should. They should be smarter than to tell another what to do. Oops, just did it myself. Beware the prog impulse-it's in everyone.
There is no blue or red anymore. It's a mindset.
You would think, but there is really no where else on teh internets for the xenophobic 'libtard' haters to post and still get upvotes.
Unfortunately, there aren't many other places we can go to get actual reporting, so we have to endure the incessant bullshit and ignorance (insert Obama is muslim and hates america comment here).
So the rumors are true - the world really is just a proggie echo chamber and love-in. And I thought I was only being..."xenophobic".
...Not to mention the thousands dead and dying and displaced from shelling as the Banderans break another Donbass cease-fire, even firing on the latest humanitarian aid convoy... Shall we go on?
Google has a position called Head of Privacy????
Yes and I hear they are looking to fill it.
BING! Good one.
I see what you did there
Beheaded! Mount Everest is as vengeful as those Raqa fanatics.
Maybe there is a subliminal message to Google : don't give a free head or free hand to head of privacy !
Imagine a corporate session of Google executives learning how to give free head or free hand to head of privacy on the slopes of Mount Everest!
That would really, really piss off Zeus and Thor for stealing their thunder!
I hope this guy gets buried with all the honours due to a Roman head of legion like Varus. "He died with his boots on but never betrayed his oath of privacy."
The silence of eternal peaks after God's vengeance on Man.
"You don't just climb MT Everest."
Best of luck with relief operations.
Of course now Yemen is old news so they're fucked.
My condolences to the families of the deceased
One phrase in the article stuck out for me
You need a permit to climb a mountain?
Yes I guess its their main source of revenue..Alike entry fee to natural reserve. I guess they justify it with the cleanup effort undertaken.
The permit is so they know you are missing.
Yeah - it's basically so they have a manifest of who's supposed to be there so they know when they can stop looking for bodies. Same situation going down into the Grand Canyon and the Subway in Zion National Park - you need a permit. I was told by a Ranger in the Grand Canyon that they have an average of one death a day during the summer season, and with the Subway, it seems like a few people get swept away every year or so - flash floods and all....
Too bad this wasnt a Google Field Trip. Would have been nice to see a little more Karma meted out on those slimy fuckers.
Grand Canyon rangers have a tough time. There are a huge number of people (a disproportionate number of whom are German) who insist on hiking to the river and back in one day, which is a hard hike in friendly weather if you are in very good shape. Many rescues, many cases of heatstroke, a lot of barfing on the trail. There are signs all over the place in many languages warning about dropping too far below the rim (my favorite says "descent is optional, return to the rim is mandatory"). Folks think those signs aren't for them. I was on a 3 day backpacking trip in there about 10 days ago, and was amazed at the number of ultra-runners doing the "new thing", which is "rim to rim to rim" as a run. That is about 45 miles: a 5000 foot drop, a 6000 foot climb, a 6000 foot drop, a 5000 foot climb. Lots of puking. These folks are in bare running clothes with a couple water bottles tacked on. Insane. Nevertheless, I respect their right to do it, I just wish the rangers would stop rescuing them.
Nepal raised $14 million in climbing fees last season. Currently it's a 10+ year wait list to get a permit. So if you want to go, you have to buy a spot in an expedition that already has a permit. Nepal and China (Tibet) both regulate the number of people on the mountain because it has become big business. It's no longer mountaineering in any sense of the word. China has actually built paved roads to basecamp on their side.
Wow
Hopefully many more idiots can win the Darwin Award in the coming years. Hopefully Google will pay for more execs to climb Everest.
I didn't know they were fracking in Nepal.
/s/
The unforseen consequences of .... Keynesian socialism and Global warming .... at the same time !
Point taken. So often now things HAVE to be connected with something bigger than just being a local earthquake. It may have caused by fracking...in the United States.
reposted below
Hmm, when did climate change become associated with plate tectonics? The ignorance of the denial set shines through again.
somebody ignorant makes the connection everytime there is an earthquake now.
Were any of the Red Chinese soldiers .... on the Nepal border .... hurt ?
Mother Nature ultimately gets the upper hand. The assholes in charge should be mindful of that. What goes up, must come down, it's just a matter of time.
why everybody has to go there? To show what? conquer the mountain?
They're empty inside, and looking to all the wrong things to fill the void in their soul.
I always wanted to do it actually.
These folks know it's deadly. Funny to see the reporting tho. "Man dies climbing Everest!"
Yeah, okay.
"In other news Kim Kardashian for President!"
You have to have no life to still want to do it as an adult. You know the trek just to base camp is 3 weeks? You would be bored out of your mind by the third day of walking.
You probably alreaady know this, but an interesting factoid nonetheless: most deaths due to mountainclimbing occur during the descent NOT the ascent. Descent can end up in darkess if poorly timed, and climbers are much closer to exhaustion coming down than going up.
Sounds like a zip line could be a good money-maker.
They should stick to good whiskey and fast horses like the rest of us.
No Sherpas neccessary.
How is putting a date on a future calendar to embark on an epic journey and the ultimate test of strength an empty or soulless choice ? For all stating these people are narcissists or egoists perhaps you are the ones who are afraid, deep inside to put yourself to the iron and determine who and what you really are, ? Everest IS the ultimate challenge. It will turn you inside out or like a snake shedding its skin and leave you after the fact, a deeply changed person or dead or missing some toes and fingers.
In the early 1800's everything West of the Cumberland was the "Wilderness", uncharted and full of unkonwn hostiles. And yet strong men went West. People wanted a better life and wagon trained across the country, at times making only a few hundred yards a day, and again they went. Someone said let's go to the moon and against all odds in a tiny metal can, they went.
Of course it is dangerous but isn't life from birth to death dangerous ? The tall mountains are our anceint gods. Wouldn't you want to, if you could, stand shoulder to shoulder with a god ? Why is so difficult to want to be at the top of the pyamid instead of at the bottom with everyone else ?
We hold out sympathy for some of the dead and yet in the same breath mock the death of others. Some still go to churches and places of worship to commune with whatever they believe. I would wager most of these dead feel that way about the mountain. Mock, jeer, make rude comments, I'm certain some of these climbers were true a-holes, but at the end of the day everyone of them has my respect.
Its not everybody. The people that go there are athletes that have climbed their fair share of peaks before attempting Everest. Next you´ll ask why do people go to picnics.
I hope that google fucker's Google Glass is located and was taping so we can get a laugh out of seeing and hearing how his ass went bye-bye. Given they love to share all our info with people who have no business in it, I figure they can return the favor this once.
Why the fark do people climb dangerous mountains or run ultramarathons? Do they all do this because they are actually insecure inside?
Bragging rights.
And yes- that stems from insecurity and it's related affliction- narcissism.
Almost everything is driven by insecurity.
Almost everything is driven by stupidity.
Its not an affliction, just a personality trait.
Stupid.
I imagine it's just a "want to see if i can do it" kind of thing. after running a few half-marathons I'm wanting to try a full, just to see how i do. these things start out small and but then you keep testing yourself to find your limit.
Obama to comment from the golf course , the world awaits the "great oral" .
If Obama had a presidency it would look just like that avalanche.