Mount Everest Climbers and death toll

angelburst29

The Living Force
Some confusion, if this initial "first report" is valid?

The bodies of four climbers turned up inside a tent at the highest camp on Mount Everest, raising the death toll this climbing season to 10 in the latest disaster at the world's highest mountain, officials announced Wednesday.

Mount Everest tragedy: 4 bodies found in tent at highest camp
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/05/24/4-bodies-found-inside-tent-at-highest-camp-on-everest.html

May 24, 2017 - The bodies were found by a team of Sherpa rescuers who were there to recover the body of a Slovak mountaineer who died over the weekend, Tourism Department official Hemanta Dhakal said.

The four climbers may have died from carbon monoxide poisoning after turning on stoves inside the tent without sufficient ventilation, Reuters reported, citing climber and blogger Alan Arnette.

Officials did not immediately reveal the identities of the dead climbers.

Mingma Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks, who was coordinating the recovery of the Slovak climber's body, said the Sherpa rescuers found the four bodies on Tuesday night.

The bodies were at Camp 4 at South Col, located at 26,247 feet, which is the last camp before climbers make their summit attempt. Any recovery attempt would require many Sherpas, who would have to bring the bodies down to Camp 2, from where they can be winched by helicopter.

Six climbers already have died this year trying to reach Everest's 29,035-foot summit. Adding to the dangers, a British climber claimed the rocky outcrop known as the "Hillary Step" near the summit had collapsed, though Nepali climbers later disputed that.

Indian climber Ravi Kumar, American doctor Roland Yearwood, Slovak climber Vladimir Strba and Australian Francesco Enrico Marchetti died over the weekend, and two climbers died earlier. The climbing season begins in March and runs through the end of May to take advantage of the best weather conditions in the harsh environment on Everest.

With 10 deaths, this season has exceeded what mountaineering officials say is a typical toll of six. Recent decades have brought improvements in climbing equipment, weather forecasting and reducing other dangers to climbers, keeping the death toll much lower than in the early decades on Everest.

The Nepalese Tourism Department issued a record 371 permits this year to people to scale the mountain. The increased number of climbers this year is likely because many people were unable to climb in 2014 and 2015, when deadly avalanches disrupted the climbing seasons.

Climbers who had permits for the 2014 season were allowed to receive a free replacement permit until 2019, while climbers with 2015 permits were given only until this year. The permits normally cost $11,000.


The same people that reported 4 bodies – 2 Sherpas, 1 foreign woman and 1 foreign male – were found at the South Col now say they got it all wrong.

Everest 2017: South Col Dead Body Report was Wrong
http://www.alanarnette.com/blog/2017/05/25/everest-2017-south-col-dead-body-report-wrong/

May 25, 2017 - I spoke live with both key sources last night.

Managing Director at Seven Summit Treks, Mingma Sherpa, who provided the the information to Himalayan Times reporter Rajan Pokhrel who wrote the story. Both now say it was a mistake and were no 4 new bodies.

I also confirmed with another Nepali operator Navin Trital plus long time Everest climber and guide, Willie Benegas of Benegas Brothers contacted me from the South Col and said no new bodies. He said he checked every tent.

Too Many Bodies?

The best explanation is that the Seven Summits Treks Sherpas somehow “confused” seeing one body and thinking it was four. Assuming good intentions here, perhaps an analogy with the “fog of war” is apt.

The six Sherpas were sent to the South Col to retrieve the body of Slovak climber Vladimir Strba who died between Balcony and South Col while climbing as independent with no Os. That retrieval was successful.

Seven Summits Treks was also involved in retrieving body of West Bengal climber Gautam Ghosh from the South Col.

Another body retrieval will soon start for Indian climber, Ravi Kumar, 27, who reportedly died from a fall near the Balcony after summiting. He became separated from his guide from Arun Treks.

First Report

The original article on finding four bodies at the South Col reported:

At least four climbers including a woman mountaineer were found dead inside their tent at a high altitude camp on Mt Everest taking the death toll on the world’s highest mountain in the spring climbing season to at least nine in Nepal side, the base camp officials have confirmed.

Sherpa climbers from Seven Summit Treks who were there to recover the body of a Slovak mountaineer spotted four more dead bodies inside a tent, Managing Director at Seven Summit Treks Mingma Sherpa quoted the rescuers as saying over the phone from the incident site. Though the precise details of the incident are not available yet, the cause of death could be suffocation inside the tent, the rescuers reported.

Multiple sources at the base camp also confirmed that four persons belonging to a new trekking company have gone out of contact since Sunday after they were last seen near the Balcony area. “We are trying to verify all shreds of evidence before naming the victims,” a liaison officer at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation said.

There were four deaths over this past weekend:

•Vladimir Strba, 50 Slovakia, died between Balcony and South Col on south side, climbing as independent with no Os
•Francesco Enrico Marchetti, 54 Australia, at 8300m after summit from Tibet with Thamserku Treks and Expeditions
•Ravi Kumar, 27, from fall on Nepal side near Balcony after summit, separated from his guide from Arun Treks
•Roland Yearwood, 50 from USA Alabama climbing with SummitClimb

Good News

While all this has created worldwide headlines, I am grateful there are no new deaths to report in addition to the current six.

The other good news is that the mistaken report has generated a conversation about the experience of climbers and the qualification of guides. And that is a good subject to further explore.

Summits Continue

25 May was another good day on Everest’s Nepal side with over 40 new summits including the Benegas Brothers and International Mountain Guides. Both reported superb weather conditions.

On the Tibet side, several climbers seeking to summit without supplemental oxygen have moved to the higher camps. Heavy snow is now predicted for Saturday, so best if they can get up and down before then.
 
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To add to good news on Everest, on May 22nd, my ex-husbands's nephew is the first severe hemophiliac to summit Everest.

http://www.9news.com/sports/outdoors/coloradan-with-hemophilia-summits-mount-everest/442064183

Coloradan with hemophilia summits Mount Everest

KUSA - Many Coloradans have reached the top of Mount Everest, but Chris Bombardier may very well be the first climber to do so with severe hemophilia.

Bombardier summited Mount Everest on Sunday. His wife Jessica tells 9NEWS every two to three days he had to take medication intravenously to replace the clotting protein missing in his blood.

After reaching the top of the mountain, a post on Bombardier’s Facebook dedicated the climb to others with bleeding disorders. It read in part, “For every child who has been told ‘no’ due to their bleeding disorder… For every hemophiliac athlete who waits in quiet hesitation out of fear of injury… This mountain is for you.”
 
Rhiannon said:
To add to good news on Everest, on May 22nd, my ex-husbands's nephew is the first severe hemophiliac to summit Everest.

http://www.9news.com/sports/outdoors/coloradan-with-hemophilia-summits-mount-everest/442064183

Coloradan with hemophilia summits Mount Everest

KUSA - Many Coloradans have reached the top of Mount Everest, but Chris Bombardier may very well be the first climber to do so with severe hemophilia.

Bombardier summited Mount Everest on Sunday. His wife Jessica tells 9NEWS every two to three days he had to take medication intravenously to replace the clotting protein missing in his blood.

After reaching the top of the mountain, a post on Bombardier’s Facebook dedicated the climb to others with bleeding disorders. It read in part, “For every child who has been told ‘no’ due to their bleeding disorder… For every hemophiliac athlete who waits in quiet hesitation out of fear of injury… This mountain is for you.”

Another amazing story - A terminal cancer patient who has been told he has just months to live has conquered Mount Everest.

Terminal cancer patient Ian Toothill conquers Everest (Photos)
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-40172258

Ian Toothill said he believes he is the first cancer patient to scale the world's highest mountain.

The Sheffield Wednesday fan planted a flag of rivals Sheffield United at the summit for charity.

The 47-year-old personal trainer, who reached the summit on Monday, has raised almost £31,500 ($40,600) for Macmillan.

He tweeted: "Nothing to see here, just some cancer dude [Sheffield Wednesday] fan on the summit of Everest with a @SUFC_tweets flag."

Mr Toothill, originally from Sheffield, lives in Willesden Green in London and has climbed in the Himalayas.

He was diagnosed with bowel cancer in June 2015 and told in early 2016 that he had beaten the disease, but later found out it had returned.

He said he has been told he has "just several months left to live".

Speaking to BBC Radio Sheffield in February, he said: "I'm determined to prove anything is possible."

'Amazing achievement'

He reached the top of the North Col route on 16 May and the summit of Everest on 5 June.

Miss NJP tweeted: "What an amazing achievement and a wonderful moment for @IanToothill. Feeling emotional. So glad you made it to the top #climbingforcancer".

The Sheffield Wednesday fan planted the rival Sheffield United flag at the summit after a friend donated £1,000.

Mr Toothill was accompanied part-way of the climb by Leslie Binns, from Rotherham, who abandoned his climb to the summit after saving the life of a fellow climber last June.

His fundraising bid raised almost £31,500, beating the target of £29,100.
 
Himalayan climbing expedition on Mount Gurja

October 15, 2018 - Nine of South Korean Climbing Expedition flung to their deaths in Nepal
Nine of South Korean climbing expedition flung to their deaths in Nepal | Reuters

Five South Koreans and four Nepali guides on a Himalayan climbing expedition were flung to their deaths after a huge block of ice crashed over a cliff into a narrow mountain gorge, a helicopter rescue official said on Monday.

It was Nepal’s worst such disaster since 2015, when 18 climbers were killed in an avalanche triggered by a massive earthquake at the base of Mount Everest.

The team attempting Mount Gurja, a 7,193 meter-high (23,600-foot) peak, was led by Kim Chang-ho, a veteran of the sport who had set speed records on 14 of the world’s highest mountains.

The accident appeared to have happened on Thursday or Friday, said Suraj Paudyal, a rescue official with the private helicopter company that was involved in retrieving the bodies, which were scattered over a wide area in the mountains.

“Some bodies were by the side of a cliff, while others lay in the ravine,” said Paudyal, one of the first to arrive at the site, adding that it was reached only by dropping a 100-metre (330-foot) -long line (rope) and harnesses from the helicopter.

“A massive block of ice (serac), probably 100 metres (330 ft) tall, likely fell from the mountain along a gorge, sending strong winds that hit the camp, threw the climbers off a cliff edge and into a ravine,” Paudyal told Reuters on Monday.

He did not elaborate on how he had been able to reconstruct the sequence of events.

Nepali authorities said they had no details of the incident, which happened in a remote area.

Nepal is arranging to send home the bodies of the South Koreans after post-mortems, said Surendra Thapa, a tourism ministry official.

The South Korean embassy in Kathmandu, the Nepali capital, had no comment.

Villagers had spotted the bodies on the mountain slopes on Saturday, but bad weather prevented emergency workers from retrieving them.

On Monday, rescuers brought eight of the retrieved bodies to Kathmandu, leaving one behind in his western home district of Myagdi, the site of the disaster.

In 2013, the expedition’s leader, Chang-ho, set a record as the fastest climber to reach the peaks of the world’s 14 tallest mountains without using supplemental oxygen, mountaineering officials say, in ascents made since 2005.

Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Mount Everest, and the autumn climbing season is now at its height. Gurja, which the expedition was trying to scale, is one of its less frequently climbed peaks.


October 14, 2018 - Five Koreans among Nine Killed in Himalayas in Nepal
Five Koreans among nine killed in Himalayas in Nepal | Reuters

Five South Korean climbers and their four Nepali guides have been killed after their basecamp in the Himalayas was ravaged by a storm, local police and hiking officials said on Sunday.

The disaster, which claimed the life of record-breaking Korean climber Kim Chang-ho, is the worst climbing accident to hit the Himalayan nation in two years.

Police official Bir Bahadur Budhamagar said rescuers helped by locals retrieved the bodies of the nine climbers on Sunday from near their basecamp at Mount Gurja, a 7,193 metre-high peak (23,600 feet), located roughly 216 km (135 miles) northwest of Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu.

“The bodies of all five Koreans and four Nepalis have been identified,” Budhamagar told Reuters from Myagdi district where the disaster took place.

On Saturday, police said locals had spotted seven bodies on the mountain slopes, but emergency workers were unable to retrieve them due to bad weather.

The Korean expedition was being led by Chang-ho, who set the record in 2013 for being the fastest to reach the summits of the world’s 14 highest mountains without using supplemental oxygen, according to climbing officials.

The victims included a four-man Korean team to the Gurja mountain.

They were at the base camp located at 3,500 meters (11,482) at the time of the storm. The fifth Korean was a trekker, who joined the group, according to hiking officials.
 
A total of 17 climbers have died or are missing on different Himalayan peaks in Nepal, seven of them Indians, since the start of the climbing season in March.

Three Indian climbers die on crowded slopes of Mount Everest May 24, 2019
FILE PHOTO: A trekker stands in front of Mount Everest, which is 8,850 meters high (C), at Kala Patthar in Solukhumbu District May 7, 2014. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar/File Photo
Three Indian climbers and one Nepali guide died on Mount Everest in the past couple of days, taking to seven the total number killed or missing on the world's highest mountain in this year's climbing season, Nepali officials said on Friday.

More than 120 climbers scaled Everest on Thursday, but some of them were caught in the crowd of people on the slopes, leading to exhaustion, dehydration and death, the officials said.

Hiking officials say between five and ten climbers die on Mount Everest in an average climbing year. Two women from India were among those who died.

They were named as Anjali Sharad Kulkarni, 54, from the commercial capital of Mumbai, and 49-year-old Kalpana Das, from the eastern state of Odisha. Both died while descending from the summit, which is 8,850 meters (29,035 feet) high.

The Indian man who died, also while descending, was Nihal Ashpak Bagwan, 27, from India’s western city of Pune.

“Bagwan died of dehydration, exhaustion and tiredness after being caught in the jam of climbers,” said Keshab Paudel of the Peak Promotion hiking agency that handled the climber’s logistics.

“We don’t know for how long the jam lasted nor how many climbers were clogged by a single line near the summit,” Paudel said.

Lhakpa Sherpa of another agency, Arun Treks and Expeditions, said his client, Kulkarni, died of weakness while coming down to Camp IV on the South Col of Everest.

The deaths were confirmed by Mira Acharya, an official of Nepal’s tourism department.

Nepal has issued permits to 379 climbers on Mount Everest in the season, which ends this month.

The Nepali guide fell sick and died on Friday, officials said without giving details. Another Nepali guide perished on nearby Mount Makalu, they said, also without providing more information.

A total of 17 climbers have died or are missing on different Himalayan peaks in Nepal, seven of them Indians, since the start of the climbing season in March.

On the Tibetan side of the mountain there have been additional casualties, though it wasn’t immediately clear how many.

A member of a Swiss team died at 8,600 m (28,215 ft) on the Tibetan side of the mountain on Thursday, according to Everest blogger Alan Arnette, who cited a Swiss operator, Kobler & Partner. The climber’s full name has not been released.

"The winds have returned, plus the routes are extremely crowded on both sides, due to few summit weather windows this spring," Arnette said on his blog here

British climber dies on Everest as death toll of climbers in Nepal reaches 18
A British climber too weak to descend from Mount Everest died on Saturday, officials said, the eighth climber to die on the world’s tallest mountain and the 18th in Nepal's Himalayas during the current climbing season.
 
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.

American climber dies on descent from summit of Mount Everest
Climbers descend from the summit of Everest down the Hillary Step and across the cornice traverse to the South Summit, Nepal May 23, 2019 in this picture obtained from social media on May 27, 2019. CLIMBING THE SEVEN SUMMITS/@TENDIGUIDE/via REUTERS

Climbers descend from the summit of Everest down the Hillary Step and across the cornice traverse to the South Summit, Nepal May 23, 2019 in this picture obtained from social media on May 27, 2019. CLIMBING THE SEVEN SUMMITS/@TENDIGUIDE/via REUTERS

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. The authorities did not say where he was from in the United States. The cause of his death was unclear.

Most of the deaths on Everest this year have been attributed to exhaustion and tiredness, exacerbated because a crowded route to and from the summit has led to delays. The short climbing season ends this month.
 
Second American trapped in Mt. Everest 'traffic jam' dies
Published on May 28, 2019
11 people, including two Americans, have died climbing Mt. Everest in 2019, prompting concerns about traffic jams trapping tired climbers at the summit; Greg Palkot reports.

Deaths rise as Nepal issues more permits for Mount Everest
Published: May 28, 2019 9:02 pm On: Nepal
Snip / 5-6 minute Read:
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NAMCHE: Nepal’s reluctance to limit the number of permits it issues to scale Mount Everest has contributed to dangerous overcrowding, with inexperienced climbers impeding others and causing deadly delays, seasoned mountaineers said.

During the short period this season when the weather was clear enough to attempt the summit, climbers were crammed crampon-to-crampon above South Col’s sharp-edged ridge, all clipped onto a single line of rope, trudging toward the top of the world and risking death as each minute ticked by.

“There were more people on Everest than there should be,” said Kul Bahadur Gurung, general secretary of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, an umbrella group of all expedition operators in Nepal.

Eleven people have died this season, the highest number since 2015. Most are believed to have suffered from altitude sickness, which is caused by low amounts of oxygen at high elevation and can cause headaches, vomiting, shortness of breath and mental confusion.

Once only accessible to well-heeled elite mountaineers, Nepal’s booming climbing market has driven down the cost of an expedition, opening Everest up to hobbyists and adventure-seekers. They are required to have a doctors’ note deeming them physically fit, but not to prove their stamina at such extreme heights.

Because of the altitude, climbers have just hours to reach the top before they are at risk of a pulmonary edema, when the lungs fill with liquid. From Camp Four at 8,000 meters (26,240 feet) to the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) peak, the final push on Everest is known as the “death zone.”
 
Second American trapped in Mt. Everest 'traffic jam' dies
Published on May 28, 2019
11 people, including two Americans, have died climbing Mt. Everest in 2019, prompting concerns about traffic jams trapping tired climbers at the summit; Greg Palkot reports.

Deaths rise as Nepal issues more permits for Mount Everest

And ...

The permits normally cost $11,000.

The people traffic jams, trying to reach the Peak - sounds more like a "Death-wish" to get a "Rocky Mountain High" followed by a very expensive pre-paid funeral?
 
Indian rescuers to search for eight climbers missing in Himalayas June 1, 2019
An Indian rescue team has been sent to search for eight missing climbers who had been trying to climb the summit of Nanda Devi, the second highest peak in India, and were probably hit by a large avalanche, two state government officials said.

The officials said that they had been told that those missing include climbers from Britain, the United States, Australia and India.

The rescue effort began on Saturday when the climbers failed to return to base camp. It may take days to trek to the area where they were last known to have been, said Vijay Kumar Jogdanda, the top civil servant in Pithoragarh district of India’s mountainous Uttarakhand state.

Others in the group, who had turned back earlier, told officials late on Friday that their fellow climbers had not returned to base camp as planned, Sanjay Gunjiyal, the inspector general of police at the Uttarakhand State Disaster Response Force, told Reuters.

Rescue operations which began on Saturday were called off in the evening due to harsh weather conditions and would resume on Sunday, Gunjiyal said, adding that an air force helicopter will be used for aerial reconnaissance on Sunday. Helicopters may not be able to land anywhere in the area, given the terrain.

The climbers went missing on the Indian side of the Himalayas near the end of a climbing season that has been particularly deadly this year.

At least nine people have died on the Nepalese side of Mount Everest so far this year, the deadliest climbing season on the peak since 2015.

Indian and international news reports said that the team was led by British guide Martin Moran. On the Facebook page of his Moran Mountain company, the last public entry appears to be on May 22.

It says that the Nanda Devi team had reached their second base camp at 4,870 meters, their home for the next week.

“After a recce of the route they will be making a summit attempt on an unclimbed peak at 6477m. In the words of (U.S. rock climbing pioneer) Royal Robbins, ‘A first ascent is a creation in the same sense as is a painting or a song’. We wish them all the very best of luck and an incredible climb!”

Indian officials see little chance of finding missing climbers alive June 2, 2019
Climbers pose for a picture before leaving for their expedition in Munsiyari town in the northern Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, India May 13, 2019. Himalayan Run & Trek Pvt. Ltd./Handout via REUTERS
Climbers pose for a picture before leaving for their expedition in Munsiyari town in the northern Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, India May 13, 2019. Himalayan Run & Trek Pvt. Ltd./Handout via REUTERS

Two Indian Air Force helicopters conducted reconnaissance missions around the Nanda Devi mountain in the Himalayas for eight missing climbers without success on Sunday and survivors are unlikely to be found, two state government officials said.

The rescue effort for the climbers - four from Britain, two from the United States, and one each from Australia and India -began on Saturday when they did not return to their base camp on Friday, but it may take days to trek to the avalanche-hit area where they were last known to have been.

The second aerial mission concluded after tracing the climbers “last-known location and footmarks” on the other side of the Nanda Devi East Peak, said Vijay Kumar Jogdande, the top civil servant in the Pithoragarh district of India’s rugged state of Uttarakhand.

The first helicopter reconnaissance earlier in the day had spotted tents but no human presence.

“Chances of survival are bleak,” said Jogdande and confirmed there had been an avalanche that is feared to have caught the climbers in the area around India’s second-highest peak.

A team of 10 to 15 rescuers, comprising police, disaster response personnel and administrators has also been sent out to track down survivors, said Tripti Bhatt, an official of the Uttarakhand State Disaster Response Force (SDRF).

But the casualty rate in the region is almost five times higher than on Mount Everest, the world’s tallest peak, and the rescuers would need at least three or four days of walking to get to the avalanche site, officials said.

“The route is extremely dangerous and risky. There have been multiple avalanches on the route,” Jogdande said.

The district magistrates’s office in the area has identified the eight missing as Martin Moran, John Mclaren, Rupert Whewell and Richard Payne (all from Britain), Anthony Sudekum and Ronald Beimel from the United States, Ruth McCance from Australia, and Chetan Pandey of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation. Moran was the expedition leader and Pandey the liaison officer.

Jogdande said there will be another aerial survey on Monday. Only if “any evidence is found” that the climbers may have survived will the rescue mission by foot, currently at the base camp, proceed toward the direction identified by air.
 
Stepping over long-dead bodies of frozen climbers as he sought to reach the summit of Everest was something for which Nick Hollis was mentally prepared. But even this seasoned mountaineer could not have imagined there would be so many fresh ones.

'Incompetent climbers' drive Everest death toll, top mountaineer says
FILE PHOTO: A view shows Nick Hollis's ascent of the south side of Everest in Nepal, May 20, 2019 in this picture obtained by Reuters June 6, 2019. Nick Hollis/via REUTERS

June 6, 2019 - The 45-year-old British climber has just conquered Everest and completed all Seven Summits of the world - putting him into an elite group of around 500 people globally who have scaled the highest mountains on all seven continents.

His final summit - the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) peak of Everest in the Himalayas - was made “much tougher than expected”, partly due to the presence of too many slow and inexperienced climbers, perilous to themselves and others.

Nepalese officials say 11 people have died on Everest this season - nine on the Nepali side and two on the Tibetan side, making this the deadliest season since 2015.

“What I hadn’t expected to see was so many bodies of climbers who’d died either that day or the day before,” Hollis said in an interview at his home in southern England. "It's no exaggeration to say you are walking over bodies."

That death toll - coupled with photos seen around the world depicting queues of climbers inching their way up Everest’s south ridge - have raised concerns that authorities are issuing too many summit permits, and that inexperienced mountaineers are being encouraged to undertake the dangerous climb by unscrupulous guiding companies.

The Nepalese government issued a record 381 permits this year, each costing $11,000. With essential Sherpas and guides adding to the numbers, this meant there were more than 800 people trying to reach the summit in a year when the so-called “weather window” was a narrow few days in late May.

Hollis, who reached the summit at dawn on May 21, says the traffic problems were down to several factors, including poor weather and large numbers of people.

But most dangerous, in his view, is the growing count of “incompetent climbers” who move very slowly through technical sections of the route, creating bottlenecks and long delays.

“The landscape on Everest has changed,” he said. “And things seem to have come to a head this year.”

He describes the “utterly remarkable” sight of people at Base Camp, who plan to attempt the summit, yet don’t have basic climbing skills such as how to use crampons or secure a harness. “These people are complete beginners,” Hollis said.

“When the going gets tough...they become very slow and they’re unable to get through the obstacles and the more technical sections. That’s what creates the bottlenecks.” With oxygen supplies limited, delays can be deadly.

Hollis and his sherpa guide, Pemba Tshering - a man he credits with keeping him alive through snow-blindness and several “terrifying” problems with his oxygen tank - decided to go for the summit a day early, risking adverse weather to avoid potential crowds.

As a result, they faced high winds and ice-crystal blasts and had to break path through fresh snow and ice covering the fixed lines to the summit.

Simply cutting permit numbers is unlikely to solve the problem, Hollis said. As he puts it: “If you were to restrict the number of permits down to say 200, you could still have 100 incompetent climbers within that mix.”

Much better, he said, would be a screening process. “You’d need to provide a climbing CV ... with a certain level of experience before you’re able to set foot on the mountain.”

Slideshow (2 Images)
'Incompetent climbers' drive Everest death toll, top mountaineer says

Nepal waits for relatives to claim bodies brought down from Mt. Everest June 6, 2019
Climbers make their way to the summit of Everest, Nepal May 22, 2019. REUTERS/Phurba Tenjing Sherpa
Nepal on Thursday urged friends and families of four climbers whose bodies were brought down from Mount Everest to come forward and identify them, as the deadliest climbing season since 2015 came to an end.
 
Two weeks after an avalanche swept up and probably killed a group of climbers in the Himalayas, Indian authorities mounted efforts to pluck their bodies from an exposed mountain face, braving harsh weather and treacherous terrain.

Grueling Himalayan effort to retrieve bodies of avalanche-hit climbers
FILE PHOTO: Snow-covered Nanda Devi mountain is seen from Auli town, in the northern Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, India February 25, 2014. Picture taken February 25, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer

The peaks in the 2,400-km (1,500-mile) -long range are among some of the world’s tallest and most dangerous, drawing thousands of adventurers who risk their lives scaling them each year.

This year alone, more than two dozen climbers have been killed on peaks in India, Nepal and Pakistan.

“It could be very frightening up there and it’s definitely going to snow,” said Purmal Dharmshaktu, 61, who has climbed Himalayan peaks for 35 years.

“It’s summer and the crevasses would have widened. This is an incredibly tough task.”

The retrieval could take days, if not weeks, said officials who have been forced to abort aerial recovery bids because of the rugged terrain.

The Indian air force, border police and state and national disaster officials have been drafted into the recovery plans. A team of 32 launched a fresh ground and aerial effort on Tuesday that is expected to run 25 days.

“It is difficult for a helicopter to hover for long in that area,” said Vijay Kumar Jogdande, a government official in India’s northern state of Uttarakhand, adding that a three-sided bowl-shaped geographic configuration complicated the task.

The eight feared killed in the avalanche had targeted Nanda Devi East, a sister mountain of the Nanda Devi peak that is 7,816 m (25,643 ft) tall. Both rank among the world’s most challenging peaks, conquered by only a handful of people.

In an effort to acclimatize before that bid, however, the group, led by expert Martin Moran, set out to scale an unclimbed 6,477-m (21,250-ft) -high peak, said deputy leader Mark Thomas.

Thomas, and three others on the expedition, survived because they did not attempt that climb.

Moran and his companions did not return to their base camp on May 29 as planned, with five bodies being spotted by a helicopter on June 3, at a height of about 5,000 m (16,404 ft).

Climbing regulator the Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF) is sending a separate expedition of 12 on Wednesday. It will take an alternate route to reach the bodies by June 19, IMF spokesman Amit Chowdhury told Reuters.

The eight missing climbers have been identified as Moran, John Mclaren, Rupert Whewell and Richard Payne, all from Great Britain; Anthony Sudekum and Ronald Beimel from the United States; Ruth McCance from Australia; and Chetan Pandey, an Indian, who was the IMF’s liaison officer.
 
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Yes, followed these events too, angelburst29. Very sad.

It's not for me to say what a person should do - so many seeking risky experiences who are not prepared, and even being prepared at the top of your expertise, this mountain will just take you out.

Many come home with their experiences, and some don't, and some are messed up having become toxic in a diminished oxygen environments. Some get caught up in avalanches that gather up all others in its path, or some just get swallowed up in crevasses never to be retrieved. Like the articles points to, people are trekking up over dead bodies that litter the slopes and crevasses.

Then there are the Sherpa's who also get taken out - they need the work and there is not much else and they are paid to do the heavy lifting.

For those that decide to go and do their climb, they also leave behind many friends and of course their families who may be left in great worry and may also have the hardship of trying to claim a body of a lost loved one. Children are sometimes left fatherless - or motherless.

This was from 2016 that can be checked out (Fifth Estate documentary):

Mount Everest : Into the Death Zone - the fifth estate

 
And ...



The people traffic jams, trying to reach the Peak - sounds more like a "Death-wish" to get a "Rocky Mountain High" followed by a very expensive pre-paid funeral?

Sounds more like the Nepalese cashing in on the increased number of climbers, not restricting them to a safe quota. Obviously a charge of USD $11,000 per climber is very tempting for the Nepalese. They Are as poor as church mice.
 
Indian authorities on Wednesday airlifted the bodies of seven climbers killed in an avalanche near the country's second highest mountain in May to the biggest town in the area for identification and repatriation, officials said.

India brings down bodies of seven climbers killed in avalanche
Eight climbers - four from Britain, two from the United States, and one each from Australia and India - went missing on May 31 after they failed to return to their base camp near the 7,816 meter (25,643 feet) mountain, Nanda Devi.

The body of the eighth climber has not been found.

The seven were brought down in an Indian air force helicopter to the town of Pithoragarh, Vijay Kumar Jogdande, the top civil servant in the district, told Reuters. “The mission was extremely difficult considering the weather, avalanches and the elevation of the site where the bodies were,” he said.

The search for the body of the eighth climber had been suspended due to harsh weather, Jogdande said.

Of the seven bodies airlifted from a mountain face, only two have been identified - Chetan Pandey from the Indian Mountaineering Foundation and Ruth McCance from Australia.

Authorities have contacted embassies and relatives to receive the bodies, Jogdande said.

The climbers have been identified as Martin Moran, John McLaren, Rupert Whewell and Richard Payne, all from Britain, Anthony Sudekum and Ronald Beimel from the United States, McCance from Australia, and liaison officer Pandey from the Indian Mountaineering Foundation.

Nanda Devi and its sister mountain, Nanda Devi East, are among the world’s most challenging peaks and only a handful of people have climbed them. This climbing season in the Himalayas has been one of the deadliest for several years.

More than 20 people have been killed including at least 11 on Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak, in Nepal, due to bad weather conditions, inexperienced climbers and overcrowding.
 
Davo Karnicar has died, the first man who went down Everest integrally with skis https://lugaresdenieve.com/?q=es/noticia
Slovenian mountaineer Davo Karnicar, the first man to have completely lowered Everest on skis, has passed away at the age of 56 by tearing down a tree near his home, his country's press reported Tuesday.

According to Slovenian media, Davo Karnicar has died at the age of 56 as a result of a fatal tree felling accident near his home in Jezersko, Slovenia.

The exact circumstances of the accident, which took place on Monday in Jezersko, were not specified.

He was born on October 28, 1962 in Jezersko, Slovenia, under the name of Davorin, although he ended up being known by everyone as ‘Davo’. As many Slovenian children soon felt attracted to skiing, becoming part of the national team. Soon Davo felt the call of the mountains.

Already in 1989 the Nanga Parbat ascended and in 1993 the K2, in what was the beginning of a great trajectory.

The movie "Skiing 7 Summits" presents a story about the first ski expedition to the 7 highest mountains, including the first ski descent from Mount Everest. Extreme skier Davo Karničar, the first man to achieve such a feat, completed this project in December 2006. His extraordinary descent with skis since Everest in 2000 has not been repeated yet.

Some of its best known were the non-stop descent of Everest (8,848 meters), the ascents with skis of Kilimanjaro in Africa (5,894m), Elbrus (5,642) in Russia, Aconcagua (6,969m) or McKinley or Denali ( 6,193).

In 2000, Davo Karnicar made history in mountaineering by getting a complete descent from Everest in about four and a half hours.

And, after putting his life at risk in all these and many more extreme adventures, Davo Karnicar found death in an accidental felling of trees. Davo Karnicar lived peacefully in the mountainous region of Jezersko, on the border between Austria and Slovenia. Rest in peace.
 
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