Everest, Part Deux

As I ranted in the last Everest blog, as is my want as 'Jumblerant', I did actually have a point to make! And it seemed to me that it was a simple one.

So what was I really moaning about last time? The stupidity of people in wanting to climb Everest at any cost. And that cost may not only be their lives, but also their rescuers' lives too.

A good, if not great, book to read on Everest and climbing the heights of the world is 'No Shortcuts To The Top' by Ed Viesturs.

Ed starts explaining his love for climbing, how he started out as a local climber, then local guide and then international expedition member, guide and then leader.

He has opinions on all matters Everest and is not afraid to share them. The main quote that sticks in my mind is a basic one;

"Reaching the summit is optional. Getting down is mandatory"

This to me sums up all that is wrong with paid hikers, as opposed to experienced climbers, going up Everest. Repeatedly on the Everest based TV shows climbers gravitate to the peak of the world forgetting that they have to get back to shelter if they are going to live to tell the tale.

Turning away from the peak 250 meters is an option because it means you live to try another day but many amateurs forget this, and as expedition companies sell more spaces depending on how many people reached the summit the year before, they are always ready to give in and risk numerous lives.

Sending a 13 year old up into the Death Zone may not be the cleverest thing a parent may do but adults also get all discombobulated by the peak of Everest looming over them;

Bonita Norris and her long ordeal in Everest's dead zone

Fellow climbers tell how the youngest British woman to scale summit was rescued frostbitten, semi-conscious and close to death

She was very lucky indeed. Many, if not most of those afflicted with anything life threatening over 28,000 are left to die a slow and painful death because at that height you cannot have a pal sit next to you and cheer you on as they themselves need to get back to where they can breath air not from a bottle.

They need to get down to a warm drink and a place to relax because most people coming down from the peak have been awake for close to 24 hours.

Don't take my word for it, listen to Dr. Kenneth Kamler who was a part of the 1996 disaster on Everest:



Let's be careful out there...


kthanxbai!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Young Brit Achieves 'Crazy' Everest Dream (news.sky.com)
• How Young Is Too Young to Climb Mount Everest? (learning.blogs.nytimes.com)

Yours sincerely, Disgusted of Kathmandu

I read this morning the great news that 13-year-old Jordan Romero became the youngest climber to reach the top of Everest on Friday.
Good for him. A lifetime goal for many has been trounced by a 13 year old who will be able to look back on it forever and apply what he has learned to structure his adult life.

But I blame the parents.

It was a foolhardy and, some might even say, stupid thing for them to do.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not some limber climber who spends every waking moment dreaming of climbing Everest or hiking to it's Base Camp. I'm an armchair athlete who is happy to comment on almost anything. I do have an interest in Everest though.

As most of the English speaking world knows, there was an horrific day on Everest back on May 9th 1996. Its well written about repeatedly but my favorite book about that day, and climbing Everest in general, is Jon Krakauer's 'Into Thin Air'. Its a great read and was the first book that I know of that brought out the subject of people paying to get to the top of Everest, irrelevant of skill or experience.

'Into Thin Air' had a lot of critics. There was little proof of what happens above 28,000 feet in The Death Zone and armchair expeditionists and family of those that died, were up in arms about getting to the truth.

Anatoli Boukreev, who had been one of the main characters in 'Into Thin Air' spoke from the grave* with his book 'The Climb, Tragic Ambitions on Everest'. This is probably one of the least read books about Everest, even though it was a 'National Bestseller' because it is written in an arrogant, stuttered manner. But the truth, or Anatoli's version of it, lays there and needs to be read.

So whats all the noise about? Its a mountain. You go there, climb for a bit, have an energy bar or two, climb for a bit more and then put on a bottle of oxygen and get to the top. Smile for the camera - phone your Mum, and back down in time for tea and crumpets with the charwallwahs.

First of all I'd like to point out that a number of people die every year on their way to Everest Base Camp. Its not like they're going to hike up the mountain itself, they've gone to see it from a long way away and the altitude sickness kills them. So Everest is a killer from afar too.

There are TV shows all about Everest such as 'Everest Beyond The Limits', 'Everest' and 'Bear's Mission Everest'. And they all repeatedly state the bare facts:
People die on Everest.
People die easily on Everest.
Sending your 13 year old to climb it seems like the crappiest Bar Mitzvah present I've ever heard of.

My further thoughts of climbing Everest in Part 2.

kthanxbai!


*Anatoli died in an avalanche on Christmas Day 1997.