Ralf Dujmovits, who photographed 'human snake' of 600 climbers on ascent, pleads for stricter curbs on tourist flows
Guardian article
Are you planning to climb Everest? Have you thought about the risks?
[Edited: 2012 Jun 05 05:18 - Rat on the Road:23681 ]
[Edited: 2012 Jun 05 05:20 - Rat on the Road:23681 ]
Reply to this It was a childhood dream of mine and I've always had a love of the mountains but...
I have no desire to climb it anymore.
To me, a huge part of the experience of climbing (mountaineering is more appropriate here I guess) is the solitude and the feeling of being part of this amazing natural landscape. Joining a queue at every difficult section doesn't really fit into that vision! There are so many other beautiful and relatively untouched mountains in the world (even in Nepal itself) that I couldn't see myself ever wanting to climb that particular one.
Also of concern is the number of people seemingly willing to leave others to die in order to make their summit attempt. There have been a couple of well publicized cases this season. It's disgusting. Anyone who will ignore another person in distress ON THE WAY UP really doesn't deserve the respect that climbing Everest would otherwise garner.
All that being said, I AM visiting the area this year and will most likely roll up at base camp at some point as part of the trek... It'll be interesting to see the place after all I've heard!
PS: Is it just me or has that photo been very obviously rotated? Hard to imagine tents being put up on that angle of slope ;-)
Reply to this I did look into it - and was gobsmacked to find I needed money but no experience.....as long as I paid the base 28K I could sign up for an expedition. Then I watched an interview with an Australian climber who had been left for dead by his expedition and finally his sherpas who did survive. So then I watched a series on discovery about Everest expeditions and was particularly horrified by the amount of people climbing and the attitude of the expedition leaders/staff and senior climbers....basically, you are dying, we are summiting, and we will not assist.
There is footage of the interviews with a south african woman climber who not only has one more than one occasion walked past people dying and even took a photograph of a woman climbing without oxygen dying. The smile as she spoke made me shudder......and completely killed off any desire to take part in any everest expedition.
Then I watched touching the void and that sealed the deal. Not sure if its worth giving your life for.
Reply to this
I never really had any interest in Everest but I am interested in those who have the interest. I wanted to understand them a bit better.
Reading Into Thin Air by Jon KraKauer allowed me to view those climbers differently.
That book also confirmed that I have no interest in that sort of activity.
Reply to this I have a few friends - statistically more than a few divemasters - who have been climbers, mostly europeans. I also read touching the void and thought....no, thanks but no.
Its sad to see the human impacts of pay as you go Everest - its a massive pollution dump up there.
Reply to this it was also a childhood goal of mine - but not any more - there's still loads of adventure out there.
Reply to this I have been reading a bit about this today. I never did any climbing, so dont know much about it. I am totally shocked to find out just how dangerous attempting to climbe Everest is.
I think, trying to climb Everest should be restricted to those who can show they are experienced and/or highly qualified climbers, so there is a good chance they will in fact survive it.
I personally would not attempt to climb this mountain, because life it too precious. As well as that, I would never be able to pass those injured climbers without deciding to make my way down the mountain to get help if I thought they could survive if I tell somebody where the are. As well as that, I would probably feel pretty angry about what I would consider reckless disregard for life and health.
By the end of the 2010 climbing season, there had been 5,104 ascents to the summit by about 3,142 individuals.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Everest Reply to this I had my Bhutanese students visit on the weekend and had to laugh and agree when they said Hillary was not the first person to summit Everest..I had heard that Tenzig Norgay actually got there first and reached a hand out to help Hillary up the last step onto the summit but I prefer their answer...
"Who is this Hillary? Our Mountain has been in our culture since the gods sat up there and had a feast where one of the gods turned up late. So they threw the bones left over from the feast down into his valley and made the Takin. You people seriously think that it (everest) sat there for a few thousand years and no one bothered to go for a walk and see what was up there?"
I suspect they are probably right.
Reply to this Tenzing himself said that Hillary summitted before him:
Tenzing stressed the unity of such teams and of their achievements. He shrugged off the allegation of ever being pulled by anyone, but disclosed that Hillary was the first to put his foot on the summit. He concluded: "If it is a shame to be the second man on Mount Everest, then I will have to live with this shame."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenzing_Norgay#Success_on_Mount_Everest
As he says though, it's definately a team achievement and it's likely that neither would have made it without the other.
Reply to this Part of me still wants to become an ice climber and summit Everest. But I think the adventures of 40-50 years ago the ones I grew up reading about are the ones I'm day-dreaming about.
There are some that believe
George Mallory reached the summit on his fateful and fatal last climb in 1924.
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