SpitztheGreat posted:

What was most shocking to me about Into Thin Air was the account about how late the exhibition leader (I think it was Fischer) was at reaching the summit. The turn around time was no later than 2pm I believe, but he was still pushing on as late as 4pm. It's one thing when amateurs get in over their heads but don't even realize it. But this guy was a pro and was still pushing forward two hours past the absolute latest time to turn around. Hubris at it's finest right there. If the leader of the exhibition is that fool hearty then a lot more people are going to die. How only six people died is amazing to me. Krakauer was a very experienced climber (but not at high altitude) and he was wasted after making the summit. He stumbled back into camp IV spent and, probably, near death. I simply fail to understand how anyone who came in after him made it at all.

Hogarth Hughes posted:

Of course they are going to not listen to reason and the limits of their own bodies when they've paid $50k to climb Mt. Everest.

Torka posted:

Throw in a healthy dose of hypoxia on top and there you go.

bonne chance posted:

One of our family friends, a wildlife photographer, also runs a small Himalayan trek business. It's an amazing business model with a central focus on improving education and health outcomes in the areas the group operates in by paying its sherpas decent (western) wages and reinvesting in the community - our friend doesn't pay himself anything and is bankrolled by his photography. He has a strict no-Everest policy, but nonetheless he is constantly approached by people here wanting him to help them reach the summit. 100% of these people have never climbed anything higher than 1000m. Maybe 50% get persuaded by him to tackle one of his easier hikes. The rest go off to find another company because "climbing Everest is my dream!" It boggles the mind.

Frostwerks posted:

1000m? Really? That's... not even that high for the appalachians. It's like running a mile then trying for a triathlon. Hell, Mt Washington in Hampshire alone could possible kill such an inexperienced climber.

The Entire Universe posted:

I don't necessarily doubt his technical ability, but Everest is literally a loving dice roll. The rest of the mountains he's climbed aren't coated in dead bodies, but they aren't 5 goddamn miles high either.

elwood posted:

As an armchair mountaineer with no climbing experience and whos only accomplishment is running up the Zugspitze (3000m) in a foot race, from what I've read Everest is really not technically difficult. The problem is the elevation, the weather window and, as we have seen last weekend and probably again this weekend, the traffic. If someone is stuck on the hillary steps or even worse at the second step, and you can't get down, you are hosed.

drkhrs2020 posted:

I didn't know enough about the gear to say anything, but I was curious if it was appropriate for a Everest climb. What specifically was an issue with her gear?

elwood posted:

As an armchair mountaineer with no climbing experience and whos only accomplishment is running up the Zugspitze (3000m) in a foot race, from what I've read Everest is really not technically difficult. The problem is the elevation, the weather window and, as we have seen last weekend and probably again this weekend, the traffic. If someone is stuck on the hillary steps and you can't get down, you are hosed.

Modus Operandi posted:

At least with technical difficulties it depends on your skill level and it's a natural barrier for those that aren't qualified. Mt. Everest is like a giant bug zapper for the wealthy and foolish.

johnsonrod posted:

Not exactly a POV but this a pretty cool video of an Irish climber on his summit day in 2008.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxuCfDRpUXA

The scene at 14 seconds in is the famous Hillary step, which usually seems to be a major traffic jam for people trying to summit. Jon Krakauer mentions it in "Into thin Air" as a spot where he had to wait a long time for people still trying to reach the top while he was waiting to descend since only one person can climb it at a time.

Like a lot of people have mentioned, the last thread got me started on a mountaineering kick for awhile. Overall I've found K2 to be a lot more interesting than Everest. There's a few really good books about it.

K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain
http://www.amazon.ca/K2-Death-World...n/dp/0767932501

This one was a great read by probably the U.S.A's most famous modern climber, Ed Viesturs. He tells of the the first attempts on the mountain and eventually the first assent, which was very controversial. He also goes into his summit and how close he came to not making it down and into the K2 disaster of 2008.

No way Down
http://www.amazon.ca/No-Way-Down-Li...37837822&sr=1-1
A book focused on said 2008 disaster. From the Amazon description.
"On August 1, 2008, no fewer than eight international teams of mountain climbers—some experienced, others less prepared—ascended K2, the world's second-highest mountain, with the last group reaching the summit at 8 p.m. Then disaster struck. A huge ice chunk came loose above a deadly three-hundred-foot avalanche-prone gully, destroying the fixed guide ropes. More than a dozen climbers—many without oxygen and some with no headlamps—faced the nearly impossible task of descending in the blackness with no guideline and no protection. Over the course of the chaotic night, some would miraculously make it back. Others would not."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou3m2Ic4gFE

Here's an awesome video of "The Bottleneck" on K2 where the collapse happened. Basically a part of that giant overhang of ice you see at the start of the video collapsed while a large group of people were above it near the summit. This also happened once dusk had set and wiped out all of the fixed lines. The climbers had no choice to try and decend the almost vertical ice walls at night.

Zapp Brannigan posted:

The scariest thing to me in watching the first part of that video is that it's a bright sunny day but the sky is loving black!

Also, speaking to the elevation: I'm from Pennsylvania (1,100 ft evelvation) and last year I was at a wedding in Colorado in Estes Park. We were staying in Denver and drove up to Estes (7200 ft elevation) just for the wedding/reception. While the wedding and view were awesome, it was barely enjoyable. Half of our group from PA that flew out for the wedding ended up getting altitude sickness. It loving sucks, big time. I can't imagine what being at 29,000 ft would be like when 7,200 ft kicked my rear end. I also can't fathom getting all those symptoms and thinking "I am going to keep going", every instinct and thought I had was "how much time until I get away from this loving mountain?"

I'm summary, people who climb Everest are insane.

Slave posted:

Tourist Everest climbing doesn't really require much technical skill though other than basic crampon use: there are fixed lines everywhere so most of it involves just hauling themselves up a rope and doing what they are told and letting the guides and Sherpas sort the rest out. They don't even have to put their own tents up

god this blows posted:

I live in Colorado and have been to Estes Park many times and really love going up Trail Ridge Road which gets up to 12,183 ft. When I took my parents up there who live at 85 ft they could feel the effect of the altitude on them. I see the effect that it had on them and think how insane it must be to go up Mt Everest. I keep saying that I want to climb up Long's Peak but say whats the point, its up at 14,259 ft and above treeline. I love to go hiking in the mountains here in Colorado but its more from seeing all the vegetation I can't imagine how desolate it must look on these super high mountains.

InterFaced posted:

It still blows my mind every time I read that Everest base camp is at 17,000 feet. I live in the mountain west and have seen a few high peeks and thier loving base camp is about 4000 ft. higher than I've ever been.

InterFaced posted:

It still blows my mind every time I read that Everest base camp is at 17,000 feet. I live in the mountain west and have seen a few high peeks and thier loving base camp is about 4000 ft. higher than I've ever been.

Vakal posted:

Here's an experiment for anyone who is gung-ho they that could save everyone on the mountain top who collapsed and/or get some of the dead bodies down.

A) Wait for a really cold and windy day next winter. Preferably after a heavy snow or ice storm.

B) Go buy a 200lb side of beef from the butcher and stick it on the roof of your house.

C) In full snow gear, climb a rickety ladder up onto your roof, then somehow manage to lift the slab of unresponsive beef and carry it back down the ladder with you without falling.

D) The average house is about 20-25 feet high, while the death zone alone on Everest is over a mile. So repeat this procedure about 200 times.


And remember, if you slip a single time, or simply get too tired and winded. You're now dead too.

Basket of Kittens posted:

Are there any good POV vids of the death zone ascent?

Best I could find on youtube was a crappy montage to Coldplay

PT6A posted:

And as callous as it may seem, you have to remember that if their positions were reversed. the result would be the same. They know going in that there's no rescue in the death zone.

I Might Be Adam posted:

E) Do all of this while drunk and/or on some kind of sedative to simulate the fuzziness of altitude sickness.

Please bold this and put it in the OP. The last thread had way too many people calling others horrible selfish monsters because they made a logical argument that it's not simple and easy (or even possible) to save people from the death zone. poo poo is crazy up there.

bonestructure posted:

quote:

A Nova Scotia man who's been to the top of Everest said Canadians should be celebrating the success of a Toronto woman who reached the summit this weekend but died on her way back down the mountain.

Mike Sutton told CBC News rather than questioning her skill or whether too many are trying the climb, the focus should be on dreaming big and striving to accomplish those dreams.

"She had a dream and put her effort into it and we should applaud her trying to succeed at her dream, for actually getting to the top of the world. I think that's wonderful," Sutton said.

drkhrs2020 posted:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-...st-climber.html


Holy gently caress how irresponsible is this guy? Someone who's actually been to the summit cheerleading the whole 'follow your dreams' bullshit is going to do nothing but convince more dangerously under qualified people to try to climb Everest.

SpitztheGreat posted:

Like I said, I get when amateurs do stupid poo poo when they've paid their life savings to do it. But Fischer was dragging up the rear, he was the last guy from his exhibition still attempting the summit. He'd already reached the top before. Why was he still pushing on at such a late hour? Stupid, epically stupid.

Agrikk posted:

The IMAX Everest film that Dave Breashears put together has to be one of the most breathtaking Everest flicks I've ever seen. Imaging hauling winterized IMAX cameras to the roof of the world for a 90-second shot.

Vimeo has it in five parts: http://vimeo.com/28755389

But if it ever comes back around in an IMAX theater, run, don't walk to get tickets. It's that good.

His book, High Exposure: An Enduring Passion for Everest and Unforgiving Places is a pretty good read as well.

The Entire Universe posted:

That's precisely what scares the piss out of me. The fact that surviving that drat thing is a dice roll/coin flip/whatever. Sheer luck.

alg posted:

Its rather telling that the kid who saved another kid, going for youngest Israeli to climb it, wanted to be the highest rescue ever. Gotta have something to brag to your rich friends about.

quote:

Earlier this month, Grayson Schaffer, who for the past six weeks has been reporting from Everest’s Base Camp, wrote a profile about a 46-year-old Turkish New Yorker named Aydin Irmak and his quixotic attempt to carry his beloved 33-pound, steel-frame singlespeed to the top of the world. For various reasons, including problems with his permits and the fact that Irmak had no mountaineering experience, he wasn’t able to realize that goal.

I Might Be Adam posted:

E) Do all of this while drunk and/or on some kind of sedative to simulate the fuzziness of altitude sickness.

Please bold this and put it in the OP. The last thread had way too many people calling others horrible selfish monsters because they made a logical argument that it's not simple and easy (or even possible) to save people from the death zone. poo poo is crazy up there.