Walking over bodies’: mountaineers describe carnage on Everest

[Remarkableriots]

Quote

An experienced mountaineer has described the “death, carnage and chaos” at the top of Mount Everest as climbers pushed past bodies to reach the world’s highest summit.

The death toll on the mountain grew to 11 in the past day after an American doctor was killed while descending from the peak. It emerged also that an Australian climber was discovered unconscious but had survived after being transported downhill on the back of a yak.

Elia Saikaly, a film-maker, reached Hillary Step, the final stage before the summit, on the morning of 23 May, where he said the sunrise revealed the lifeless body of another climber. With little choice at that altitude but to keep moving, his team – including Joyce Azzam, the first Lebanese woman to climb the world’s “Seven Summits” – made it to the peak a short time later.

I cannot believe what I saw up there,” Saikaly said of the last hours of his climb in a post on Instagram. “Death. Carnage. Chaos. Lineups. Dead bodies on the route and in tents at camp 4. People who I tried to turn back who ended up dying. People being dragged down. Walking over bodies. Everything you read in the sensational headlines all played out on our summit night.”

This year’s Everest climbing season is so far the fourth deadliest on record, with mountaineers blaming poor weather, inexperienced climbers and a record number of permits issued by the Nepalese government, which, along with a rule that every climber has to be accompanied by a sherpa, led to there being more than 820 people trying to reach the summit.

 

[SuperSpreader]

Nope

[GeneticBlueprint]

One of my good friend's former boss' died up there due to the traffic last week. 

[Mr.Vic20]

Nothing points to over population like a traffic jam at the top of the world! 

[GeneticBlueprint]

I used to think summitting Everest was something only the most badass hardened people could do. Now don't get me wrong--I know it's still extremely physically and mentally difficult and you have to train very hard to do it--but after reading Into Thin Air a couple of years ago and seeing that they pretty much just let any dumbass climb that mountain (like my friend's boss) my "respect" (not exactly the word I'm looking for but you catch my drift) has diminished somewhat.

[Chris-]

7 minutes ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

I used to think summitting Everest was something only the most badass hardened people could do. Now don't get me wrong--I know it's still extremely physically and mentally difficult and you have to train very hard to do it--but after reading Into Thin Air a couple of years ago and seeing that they pretty much just let any dumbass climb that mountain (like my friend's boss) my "respect" (not exactly the word I'm looking for but you catch my drift) has diminished somewhat.

 

Conversely, if  you want to see something really badass, watch 'Meru' on Netflix.

[CastlevaniaNut18]

1 hour ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

I used to think summitting Everest was something only the most badass hardened people could do. Now don't get me wrong--I know it's still extremely physically and mentally difficult and you have to train very hard to do it--but after reading Into Thin Air a couple of years ago and seeing that they pretty much just let any dumbass climb that mountain (like my friend's boss) my "respect" (not exactly the word I'm looking for but you catch my drift) has diminished somewhat.

Excellent book. 

 

And, yeah, forget my intense fear of heights. Just fuck paying tens of thousands of dollars to do something I have a fair chance of dying while I'm trying.

[TheGreatGamble]

48 minutes ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

Excellent book. 

 

And, yeah, forget my intense fear of heights. Just fuck paying tens of thousands of dollars to do something I have a fair chance of dying while I'm trying.

But for many that’s the allure. It’s why a guy like Alex Honnold free solo’s, or why guys like Andy Stumpf do wingsuit flights. It’s about being at the pinnacle and riding that edge between life and death.

 

i mean, I totally understand why most would never do something like this (regardless of money), but I also realize why many do. Adrenaline is addictive. 

[RedSoxFan9]

they don’t have to do this

[TheGreatGamble]

10 minutes ago, RedSoxFan9 said:

they don’t have to do this

The obvious is obvious? If we only did what we had to, we would still love in caves. We didn’t have to go to the moon either. Human history is full of people pushing boundaries. It’s the most special thing about us as a race, we strive for more. Or the better of us do.

[CastlevaniaNut18]

14 minutes ago, TheGreatGamble said:

But for many that’s the allure. It’s why a guy like Alex Honnold free solo’s, or why guys like Andy Stumpf do wingsuit flights. It’s about being at the pinnacle and riding that edge between life and death.

 

i mean, I totally understand why most would never do something like this (regardless of money), but I also realize why many do. Adrenaline is addictive. 

I know. Good for them. I ain't doing it. 

[CastlevaniaNut18]

Also, somehow I doubt these fools dying on Everest in an attempt for personal glory are necessarily "the better of us."

[Scott]

https://www.theonion.com/world-populace-actually-fine-with-rich-people-dying-on-1835075562

[Amazatron]

1 hour ago, TheGreatGamble said:

But for many that’s the allure. It’s why a guy like Alex Honnold free solo’s, or why guys like Andy Stumpf do wingsuit flights. It’s about being at the pinnacle and riding that edge between life and death.

 

i mean, I totally understand why most would never do something like this (regardless of money), but I also realize why many do. Adrenaline is addictive. 

 

Let's not pretend what Alex Honnold (and others) does in pushing the limits of human achievement is anywhere near comparable to what summiting Everest has become.  It's basically being dragged up a glorified and dangerous hike so that people can have a nice story to tell at their next cocktail party.

[Snaynay1]

Its one thing to do it back in the 50s when there was barely any technology, but nowadays they are so geared out it is not the same as it used to be. Not to say it isnt hard, but fuck there is a sherpa that just made his like 25th hike to the top of the mountain. He is the one that should be in the news, not some rich fuck that went up it once.

[johnny]

Climbing is all about free soloing now 

[finaljedi]

6 hours ago, TheGreatGamble said:

The obvious is obvious? If we only did what we had to, we would still love in caves. We didn’t have to go to the moon either. Human history is full of people pushing boundaries. It’s the most special thing about us as a race, we strive for more. Or the better of us do.

 

 

I mean it isn't pushing anything now, there was literally a fucking line.  It's just rich guys ticking a box on the bucket list.

[TheGreatGamble]

5 hours ago, johnny said:

Climbing is all about free soloing now 

It isn’t at all. There are hardly any free soloist in the world.

[TheGreatGamble]

6 hours ago, finaljedi said:

 

 

I mean it isn't pushing anything now, there was literally a fucking line.  It's just rich guys ticking a box on the bucket list.

That line is what happens when weather is good enough to climb. It’s mostly sherpas carrying gear. Of course it gets bigger as accessibility grows, but these aren’t fat neckbeard millionaires. They are people in the pinnacle of conditioning.

[CastlevaniaNut18]

I'm starting to reverse my opinion that TGG isn't apoc.

[CayceG]

1 hour ago, TheGreatGamble said:

That line is what happens when weather is good enough to climb. It’s mostly sherpas carrying gear. Of course it gets bigger as accessibility grows, but these aren’t fat neckbeard millionaires. They are people in the pinnacle of conditioning.

 

It really does not sound like it, given the people who have died so far this season. 

[TheGreatGamble]

4 hours ago, CayceG said:

 

It really does not sound like it, given the people who have died so far this season. 

The death zone will literally kill anyone. There isn’t enough oxygen to survive more than a half hour (I believe that’s the limit I read). Even with oxygen tanks, its extremely dangerous. The log jam is certainly killing people, but I don’t believe it has much to do with conditioning. Sherpas survive because their bodies have adapted to low oxygen environments. They have advanced Hemoglobin binding and double the nitric oxide production of the rest of the world, adapted over centuries of high altitude life. (Not pretending to be an expert on Everest, this is just stuff I learned this week after doing some research).

 

but I agree with what someone else here said, we should celebrate the sherpas far more than the climbers.

[DarkStar189]

Insane.... People are just hunched over waiting in line. Is this the adrenaline rush you expected?

[Bacon]

lol paying with money and life to climb a mountain 

 

Also, free loot for the climbers that didn't die. 

[stepee]

as someone who climbed everest barefoot, it really isn’t that hard

[GeneticBlueprint]

13 minutes ago, stepee said:

as someone who climbed everest barefoot, it really isn’t that hard

Username checks out.

[johnny]

18 hours ago, TheGreatGamble said:

It isn’t at all. There are hardly any free soloist in the world.

No fucking shit Apoc