Weird News Thread Part III

The brawl last year I'm sure didn't help either. This has been a long time coming.

 

Yeah, I can see how that would happen. You got real (mostly foreign) climbers on one side and wealthy (mostly foreign) tourists on the other, with Sherpas in the middle trying to eke out a living in their own country. One of these days, in a more honest world, some little kid will be bringing a Sherpa to Show and Tell to talk about how the man helped his dad climb Everest.

The Comments, as always, reveal more about us as a society than the article.

 

'Nutter, I wouldn't play them off like that (tho I know you mean no offense). I'd like to think that pretty much all the world's people have evolved past the "natural landmarks have human emotions and feelings" point.

 

On the other hand maybe they just realised it wasn't worth getting killed by a big-arse avalanche just to make a living?

 

You'd be amazed at the occupational risks people are willing to take when they have to earn a living.

 

Most of the experienced Sherpas these days are pretty well paid and the top guys get prestige around the world. There has been an issue with respect from the elite climbers in the last decade or so. I'm not talking about the "hey bro, you're awesome" kind of respect, I'm talking about the kind where the elite Euro and American climbers haven't always often been respecting the safe performance of their jobs. Everest is a hot mess and has been for a while. There's trash, bodies, fights, herds of Chinese newbs crowding the lines...all kinds of stuff. I know guys in the mountaineering circles that wouldn't go there out of principle. I do some trekking - though not really of that particular variety - but with some knowledge of those kinds of destinations, I wouldn't put it in my top ten anymore.

 

It might be worth the risk to the ones who are paid (significantly) more, but if enough stop or slow their participation, that would probably call even more attention to the fact that over 4,000 people are said to have successfully summited Everest. Four thousand, and I'd almost be willing to bet my next check that the Sherpas are not included in this number. It's not quite as oft-repeated as swimming the Channel, but at some point, that girl in the bar is gonna ask if you did this on your own more or less or were part of a tourist group.

 

Chickens in Queens, NY...

The rules were set down in 1913, during the infancy of this 140-acre, leafy swath that is one of America’s oldest planned communities and was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., whose father was Frederick Law Olmsted, the famous landscape architect who helped design Central Park.
Ms. Saye called the nuisances section — which forbids “any brewery, distillery, malt house, slaughter house, brass foundry, tin, nail or other iron foundry, lime kiln or sugar bakery, tallow candlery, crematory, hospital, asylum” — antiquated.
She said she felt the rules should be modernized to fit the more progressive approach...
She noted that the nuisances section also does not allow a “cattle yard, hog pen, fowl yard or house, cesspool, privy vault; nor any cattle, hogs or other live stock or live poultry.”
“These are 101-year-old rules,” she said

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/19/nyregion/in-queens-chickens-clash-with-the-rules.html?_r=0

 

http://www.viewfinderpanoramas.org/climbers/Everest-2007.xls

List of successful summits thru 2007. Lots of Sherpas on the list.

PM me and I'll let you know where to send that check.

 

"A 21-year old man has died after being crushed by a crucifix erected in honour of Pope John Paul II in northern Italy."

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27145931

 

Everest is becoming a lot like what Half Dome was when I climbed it some 12 years ago. a lot of inexperienced would-be adventurers/climbers choosing Half Dome as the way to overcome their fear of heights, creating an utter traffic jam all the way to the top. there were soooo many people up there who had no business on anything other than a flat trail, it wasn't even funny. I'm talking Amish girls in long skirts, who couldn't climb over a rock ledge because their long, but somewhat tight skirts would not allow them to lift one leg over the ledge. I'm talking people crying and screaming, freaking out and refusing to move out of fear, and having to be cajoled by others to take the next step.
Krakauer recently wrote a pretty good article about this, and why climbing has become increasingly dangerous for sherpas, while it has become increasingly safer for the paying clientele. basically the former spend a lot more time in the danger zone in order for the later to have to spend a lot less time there.
the former climb without oxygen, while carry huge loads of oxygen canisters for the later, so that their inexperienced asses could make a fairly quick run up and down the mountain.
I think this is a power play by the sherpas in order to get more money out of their government (not the tourist climbers). they know that their government makes good money out of Everest (and by extension, off their own backs), but refuses to share much of this wealth with them. I'm guessing that they're betting on the fact that by essentially shutting down the climbing season, the government will realize that they will lose this revenue source, they will give in and give the sherpas a more favorable deal. I think it will work.

 

personally, I don't consider summitting with the aid of oxygen a valid summit (yeah, that includes Edmund), and I don't think people who need oxygen to summit have any business on the mountain.

 

Maybe is someone told these people that Everest is not nearly the achievement that K2 is they wouldn't use Everest as an ego way to prove themselves.

 

for real climbers, probably not. real climbers are familiar with peaks and routes. they don't even measure themselves by the peaks they've bagged (even K2) so much as the routes they've bagged.
but increasingly, many of the people climbing Everest are amateur climbers who are doing it just to be able to say they've climbed the highest mountain on Earth. many of them are also doing the 7 highest peaks on the 7 continents. which is difficult, but the 2nd highest peaks on the 7 continents is a much, much more difficult feat.

 

Get your own Auria's check. I got big plans for that money.

Here's a chart that gives total and "non-porter nations" (non-China, Nepal, India) statistics. http://www.adventurestats.com/tables/EverestAgeFat.shtml

Overall success rate is 29%, while climbers from non-porter nations are successful 20%.

With so many people on the mountain (I think in Krakaour's book he describes the meeting of the expedition leaders to coordinate who will summit on which day and what time, for how long, etc.) and only having so much time above the death zone, all while being at the mercy of the weather, I'm not surprised at the statistics.

Also, I can't remember where I read that the compensation from the Nepalese gov. to the families of those that died in the avalanche was about $415.

 

I don't do the peakbagging thing, so I haven't been stuck behind many. I am surprised that some of these people are even allowed permits. I got stuck in the permit line at Teton a couple years ago behind a gaggle of college kids who were arguing with the rangers that they didn't really need an ice ax for each person on one of the more challenging summits. Another time I found a father and son who were pretty deep in the Bogachiel river gorge in Olympic. They were two days away from where they thought they were, and three days away from where they thought they'd get to that evening. They were trying to navigate with the 8 x 11 xerox map they got at the gate. A week later when I walked out, I started checking the news to see where they died. I was a bit surprised when I didn't find anything.

I think you're right about the Sherpas. The problems are so entrenched there that it'll really take some doing to get it corrected.

 

Hmmm. Here is a movie idea. Hyper rich guy hires an Everest team but the Sherpas turn out to be Nepalese Maoist Guerrillas who take the entire group hostage at 25ooo feet and make demands on rich guys military contracting firm. Only one man can stop them. Ex CIA, but they wont let him leave...

(I heard he was the first man to summit Denali barefoot)

 

Sounds like it should involve Liam Neeson's daughter.

 

I do a lot of hiking (including my share of peak bagging - can't live in Colorado and not be into that), and it never ceases to amaze me just how unprepared people set out on a trail. I'm not saying you have to prepare for every 5 mile hike like it was an expedition to both peaks of Mt. Kilimanjaro, but damn! the thing is, you may end up carrying some equipment or article of clothing 30 times, and not use it. but if you don't think you'll ever need it and leave it out of your backpack (and I see many people set out without even a backpack - just a small bottle of water) the 31st time, it may end up costing you your life, or maybe you'll just have a cool war story to retell - if you're lucky. nature is very unforgiving that way.

as for Everest, it's all money driven. and until the money gets distributed a little more equitably, this will remain a problem.
the Nepalese government has a lot to gain from each permit they hand out. hence the pressure to hand them out to unqualified climbers. I think the solution is that the sherpas need to be represented in the permitting process.

 

That's pretty close to the number I heard on NPR this morning. Struck me as being kind of low.