Mount Everest... Eleven Perish In Deadly Traffic Jams

LewTheShoe

LewTheShoe

Seeking Skill-based Meritocracy... More HP Less DF
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Mount Everest Traffic Jam 2019 1.jpg


From the "Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words" Department...
Hoards of climbers wait in line to summit Mount Everest, a result of over-crowding during the May climbing season. The traffic jams often add many hours to the journey to the summit and back down. The delays to get up-and-down add to the dangers of struggling to survive in the "death zone" above 27,000 feet. Eleven climbers perished this year. But the permit fees paid by the climbers are an important source of revenue to Nepal, creating disincentive to limit the number of permits issued or to vet the qualifications of the climbers. Two interesting articles, from The Washington Post and CNN.

How Mount Everest’s popularity turned fatal​

https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...ory.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.6087c365f422
KATHMANDU, Nepal — Chatur Tamang was on his way to the roof of the world when he hit a traffic jam.

Ahead of him, on the final ascent to Mount Everest, he saw more than 100 people bunched together on the narrow ridge that leads to the summit — a place so high that it is known as the “death zone,” where the human body has trouble functioning.

Some of those descending from the summit pleaded desperately with those ascending to clear a way for them to pass since they had run out of oxygen. “That sent chills down my spine,” said Tamang, 45, a mountaineering guide who lives in Russia. He fears that if no action is taken, the crowds next year could be worse, with potentially fatal consequences.

At least 11 people died trying to reach the summit of the world’s tallest mountain this year, the deadliest climbing season for the peak in four years. One factor contributing to this year’s toll appears to have been crowding as scores of people attempted to ascend in a short window of good weather, producing delays that extended the time climbers spent at deadly altitudes....
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Mount Everest death toll rises to 11 amid
overcrowding concerns​
​
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/27/asia/mount-everest-deaths-intl/index.html
 
Pat said:
I put this squarely on the shoulders of the people who permit that many to climb at one time. They know what is going to happen. It's irresponsible.
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My first thought too. I am not going to disagree, but most of these climbers paid big dollars to professional expeditions to summit. I feel like they are the ones to blame putting their clients in this position. They need to come up with a summit plan that is the best possible for their clients. That is what they get paid for.
 
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DUN24 said:
This is where I stand. It is so bizarre though. Such a high amount of people at such a remote location defeats the purpose of adventuring there imo.
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Not sure I agree. If they issued one permit a day to ride in a barrel over Niagara Falls and someone dies, who is at fault? Whoever issued the permit or the person going over the Falls?
 
DIDIT said:
My first thought too. I am not going to disagree, but most of these climbers paid big dollars to professional expeditions to summit. I feel like they are the ones to blame putting their clients in this position. They need to come up with a summit plan that is the best possible for their clients. That is what they get paid for.
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I can't disagree. There are professionals involved. They have to share the responsibility
 
DIDIT said:
Not sure I agree. If they issued one permit a day to ride in a barrel over Niagara Falls and someone dies, who is at fault? Whoever issued the permit or the person going over the Falls?
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True true
 
Mount Everest Green Boots 1996 Death Still There.jpg


When you pass the Green Boots Checkpoint, you are roughly 1,130 feet below the summit, which is at 29,029 feet above sea level.

About 250 corpses remain on Mount Everest. When a climber succumbs to avalanche, a fall, the elements or the altitude, their body typically is left behind, forever. This is a testament to the difficulty and danger of trying to move a body down off the mountain. Climbers who return from Everest often speak of feeling unnerved by the dead bodies they encounter along the trail. One of the most infamous of the corpses is known as "Green Boots," a climber from India who died in 1996. For 23 years, his distinctive Koflach-brand boots have marked the trail... 1,130 feet yet to climb.

I wonder if other difficult mountains also have the bodies of deceased climbers strewn about. Does anyone know?
 
Just heard on the news that it used to cost $60,000 to get a ticket to climb, now they charge $30,000 and a whole new demographic has gotten involved in this endeavor.
God help all of them.
 
It's sickening how they've let things get up there.

They've trashed it and made it extremely dangerous.
 
Inexperience kills on Everest. The price for the ticket to the Everest Ride has dropped and inexperience is waiting in line to purchase their fun filled weekend to go to the top of the world.

It's a shame that you don't have to have some sort of resume built up in the sport of mountain climbing to be eligible for the chance of conquering the mountain. You or I could buy or ticket to next years queue on the top of Everest and nobody would blink an eye. Get it back to people that know what the hell they are doing up there and not those that don't belong there in the first place.

Problem solved.
 
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