[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Dead bodies on Mt. Everest. (Page 1 of 8)
Posted: 8/13/2011 10:39:12 PM EDT
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Kinda disturbing.
Story Link 
This body has been named "Green Boots." Many of the nearly 200 dead bodies have been named and are used as landmarks. <Continued in link> |
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Here's another great article:
a sea of lead, a sky of slate: Abandoned on Everest |
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Quoted: Quoted: Crazy stuff. Thanks for the link. Everest has been a fascination of mine ever since Krakauer's book came out. I love that book. The book about Chris McCandless was good too. That movie they made about him was a turd. That's because it was directed by Sean Penn. |
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Crazy stuff. Thanks for the link. Everest has been a fascination of mine ever since Krakauer's book came out. I love that book. The book about Chris McCandless was good too. That movie they made about him was a turd. That's because it was directed by Sean Penn. I either didn't know or had forgotten that. That does explain a lot. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Crazy stuff. Thanks for the link. Everest has been a fascination of mine ever since Krakauer's book came out. I love that book. The book about Chris McCandless was good too. That movie they made about him was a turd. That's because it was directed by Sean Penn. I either didn't know or had forgotten that. That does explain a lot. I've read that Krakauer's other books have a very liberal spin to them. I've only read Into Thin Air and Into The Wild and it seemed that they were more focused on the subject matter and had little if any social commentary. |
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For anyone who hasn't read it, read Krakauer's book. It's called Into Thin Air. His theme seems to be that the whole Everest experience weeds out anyone who isn't crazy/driven enough to kill themselves doing it. He paints a pretty interesting and convincing picture to support it.
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I've read that Krakauer's other books have a very liberal spin to them. I've only read Into Thin Air and Into The Wild and it seemed that they were more focused on the subject matter and had little if any social commentary. It wouldn't surprise me. He wrote for Outside enough that he's probably been indoctrinated. At this point in life I've gotten so good at filtering out all the liberal drivel that I hardly notice it anymore. |
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Quoted: For anyone who hasn't read it, read Krakauer's book. It's called Into Thin Air. His theme seems to be that the whole Everest experience weeds out anyone who isn't crazy/driven enough to kill themselves doing it. He paints a pretty interesting and convincing picture to support it. If you have Netflix Streaming, there's a documentary called, "Frontline: Storm Over Everest" that is about the 94 Everest tragedy. Lots of interviews with climbers/guides from both Hall and Fisher's crew. Pretty good film. |
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For anyone who hasn't read it, read Krakauer's book. It's called Into Thin Air. His theme seems to be that the whole Everest experience weeds out anyone who isn't crazy/driven enough to kill themselves doing it. He paints a pretty interesting and convincing picture to support it. If you have Netflix Streaming, there's a documentary called, "Frontline: Storm Over Everest" that is about the 94 Everest tragedy. Lots of interviews with climbers/guides from both Hall and Fisher's crew. Pretty good film. I cancelled when they raised their rates but I saw it. Frontline does a pretty good job overall, even thought that's probably heresy around here. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Crazy stuff. Thanks for the link. Everest has been a fascination of mine ever since Krakauer's book came out. I love that book. The book about Chris McCandless was good too. That movie they made about him was a turd. That's because it was directed by Sean Penn. I either didn't know or had forgotten that. That does explain a lot. I've read that Krakauer's other books have a very liberal spin to them. I've only read Into Thin Air and Into The Wild and it seemed that they were more focused on the subject matter and had little if any social commentary. They do, and he's most likely a total lib, but I don't care in his case. He has gone and done and written about it when he came back; to me he's just a great writer. ETA: I wish he would write more for Outside mag, they need him. Some of the crap they have been printing the last few years is annoying me. I read the magazine for the outdoor ideas and the gear scattered throughout
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Crazy stuff. Thanks for the link. Everest has been a fascination of mine ever since Krakauer's book came out. I love that book. The book about Chris McCandless was good too. That movie they made about him was a turd. That's because it was directed by Sean Penn. I either didn't know or had forgotten that. That does explain a lot. I've read that Krakauer's other books have a very liberal spin to them. I've only read Into Thin Air and Into The Wild and it seemed that they were more focused on the subject matter and had little if any social commentary. They do, and he's most likely a total lib, but I don't care in his case. He has gone and done and written about it when he came back; to me he's just a great writer. ETA: I wish he would write more for Outside mag, they need him. Some of the crap they have been printing the last few years is annoying me. I read the magazine for the outdoor ideas and the gear scattered throughout I had no idea he wrote for Outside until I first heard Into Thin Air. I agree, have to give him a ton of respect for actually wanting to try and summit everest when Outside only wanted him to stay at base camp. He does have his own style and he can be very descriptive without being overly wordy. I especially liked the parts in Into the Wild where he talked about other people who decided to go into the wilderness and ultimately died, then tied it all together by saying how they were alike and different from McCandless. |
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Quoted: Creepy stuff. IDK, if I could live w/ myself if I passed a dying person and did not try to help. To me, the stupid mountain can wait. You misunderstand. There is NOTHING that can be done for someone that is dying up there. All those climbers are Human. I have no doubt they wanted to help, but knew it to be futile, and possibly the cause of their untimely death as well. You'd likely be a corpse if you wasted your energy trying to help them.
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Creepy stuff. IDK, if I could live w/ myself if I passed a dying person and did not try to help. To me, the stupid mountain can wait. Likewise. If it meant I would have to come back and try again in the future and I would be out the money I had into the whole thing, I would not hesitate to at least give a good try to help someone. If it meant a risk of death I would at least try. If it meant a certainty of death for myself (and thus for the person as well, making the effort for naught), I might be able to, but I wouldn't just completely abandon them. It's not something I could live with. A mountain and money are worth less than someone's life, IMO, and my beliefs are such that to abandon someone like that would weigh far too heavily on me and probably torment me forever. I'm sure there are cases, of course, where a person simply cannot be saved. I did read one book by a guy who was left behind but somehow managed to save himself; interesting story and he was not the only one abandoned, just the only one to live despite the odds. I think it was titled "Left for Dead" or something like that. That he was able to save himself under such extreme conditions seems to demonstrate, IMO, that trying to save people like him is not always futile. I do think the financial aspect plays a role for some climbers. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Creepy stuff. IDK, if I could live w/ myself if I passed a dying person and did not try to help. To me, the stupid mountain can wait. Likewise. If it meant I would have to come back and try again in the future and I would be out the money I had into the whole thing, I would not hesitate to at least give a good try to help someone. If it meant a risk of death I would at least try. If it meant a certainty of death for myself (and thus for the person as well, making the effort for naught), I might be able to, but I wouldn't just completely abandon them. It's not something I could live with. A mountain and money are worth less than someone's life, IMO, and my beliefs are such that to abandon someone like that would weigh far too heavily on me and probably torment me forever. I'm sure there are cases, of course, where a person simply cannot be saved. I did read one book by a guy who was left behind but somehow managed to save himself; interesting story and he was not the only one abandoned, just the only one to live despite the odds. I think it was titled "Left for Dead" or something like that. That he was able to save himself under such extreme conditions seems to demonstrate, IMO, that trying to save people like him is not always futile. I do think the financial aspect plays a role for some climbers. Same sequence of events from Into Thin Air. Beck Weathers was the one who made it out alive (although with significant frostbite). The woman climber, Yasuko Namba, did not make it. |
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Creepy stuff. IDK, if I could live w/ myself if I passed a dying person and did not try to help. To me, the stupid mountain can wait. Problem is you dont have the strength to help. The air is so thin, you expend a good deal of your energy just breathing. walking takes up what little you have left. |
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Kinda disturbing. Story Link http://s-ak.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/web04/2011/8/10/14/enhanced-buzz-19873-1313000490-1.jpg This body has been named "Green Boots." Many of the nearly 200 dead bodies have been named and are used as landmarks. <Continued in link> Unless they pulled him out, add another body to the cave Green Boots is laying in. Green Bots died in 1997 and is an Indian climber by the name of Pa'toy. David Sharp died in the same cave in 2006 after numerous climbers including the Mark Inglis expidition passed him by without offering much,, if any, help to the dying man. Everybody on the mountain have said it is impossible to move bodies off the mountain but in 2009 a group of Sherpa guides began to move piles of trash off the mountain and have managed to recover some of the bodies. |
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Even if you wanted to help, you couldn't. And it's not like those souls didn't know what they were getting into before they decided to make that trek. People that climb her know that if the the worst were to happen, that they would not be rescued or ever come home.
It is what it is, and there is nothing you can do about it. |
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For anyone who hasn't read it, read Krakauer's book. It's called Into Thin Air. His theme seems to be that the whole Everest experience weeds out anyone who isn't crazy/driven enough to kill themselves doing it. He paints a pretty interesting and convincing picture to support it. And then read Boukreev's book, to go along with it. |
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Creepy stuff. IDK, if I could live w/ myself if I passed a dying person and did not try to help. To me, the stupid mountain can wait. Problem is you dont have the strength to help. The air is so thin, you expend a good deal of your energy just breathing. walking takes up what little you have left. From the highest camps to the summit is called the "Death Zone"... essentially, once you enter that zone, you're on a solo mission as it's almost impossible for anyone else to help you, because it's all they can do just to survive themselves. Once you enter the death zone, you have to get yourself back down out of it because you only have a limited survival time there. Climbers talk about things like having to make a conscious decision to move their foot forward and where to put it, for each step... hypoxia is tough. A little encouragement is about all that can be offered to someone in trouble... the sad reality is, that once someone is in that state, that if you tried to help them they would still not make it, and others would likely die trying to help them. |
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All depends on how far up they are, whether the corpse can be viably removed. At the higher elevations, you have virtually NO resources to share. To expend the energy you have moving a sick and/or dying climber is clearly a death sentence...for you. Though not helping may seem repugnant to the casual observer, not many smart people are willing to guarantee their own demise in an act of presumed kindness for someone who is most certainly already doomed. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Creepy stuff. IDK, if I could live w/ myself if I passed a dying person and did not try to help. To me, the stupid mountain can wait. You misunderstand. There is NOTHING that can be done for someone that is dying up there. All those climbers are Human. I have no doubt they wanted to help, but knew it to be futile, and possibly the cause of their untimely death as well. You'd likely be a corpse if you wasted your energy trying to help them. Absolutely. If you get in trouble near the summit of Everest you might as well be on the surface of the moon. |
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All depends on how far up they are, whether the corpse can be viably removed. At the higher elevations, you have virtually NO resources to share. To expend the energy you have moving a sick and/or dying climber is clearly a death sentence...for you. Though not helping may seem repugnant to the casual observer, not many smart people are willing to guarantee their own demise in an act of presumed kindness for someone who is most certainly already doomed. I'm fairly certain they will leave the highest corpses if for no other reason than a warning that past this point you may not come back. |
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Can someone help me out here?
How hard would it be to climb Everest if you can pack a lot of O2? Assuming proper clothes of course. Is it a matter of not being able to pack enough O2 for the hike from last basecamp to the top? Could they set up a storage shead every 1000 feet with extra O2? Or even just a couple alonge the way? Obviously I'm completely ignorent to all this. |
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Quoted: Can someone help me out here? How hard is it to climb Everest if you can pack a lot of O2? Assuming proper clothes of course. Is it a matter of not being able to pack enough O2 for the hike from last basecamp to the top? Could they set up storage lockers every 1000 feet with extra O2? Obviously I'm completely ignorent to all this. It's more than just the oxygen. The body reacts poorly to the low pressure at that altitude. Most climbers use oxygen in the "death zone", but it can be deadly nonetheless. |
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Can someone help me out here? How hard is it to climb Everest if you can pack a lot of O2? Assuming proper clothes of course. Is it a matter of not being able to pack enough O2 for the hike from last basecamp to the top? Could they set up storage lockers every 1000 feet with extra O2? Obviously I'm completely ignorent to all this. It's more than just the oxygen. The body reacts poorly to the low pressure at that altitude. Most climbers use oxygen in the "death zone", but it can be deadly nonetheless. I remember reading that there were some experiments with compression suits to counteract that. Nothing solid yet. |
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Can someone help me out here? How hard is it to climb Everest if you can pack a lot of O2? Assuming proper clothes of course. Is it a matter of not being able to pack enough O2 for the hike from last basecamp to the top? Could they set up storage lockers every 1000 feet with extra O2? Obviously I'm completely ignorent to all this. It's more than just the oxygen. The body reacts poorly to the low pressure at that altitude. Most climbers use oxygen in the "death zone", but it can be deadly nonetheless. Ah I didn't think about the low pressure too. I guess with what amounts to a mini space suit any extra weight has got to kill. |
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Quoted: I wonder if you have to be in tip-top physical condition to summit Everest or if you just have to have brass balls. Well, basing on pictures posted here versus what is posted here I would determine you must be in good shape. I have never climbed a mountain higher than 6,000 but I do have a Sociology degree. 
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Quoted: Quoted: For anyone who hasn't read it, read Krakauer's book. It's called Into Thin Air. His theme seems to be that the whole Everest experience weeds out anyone who isn't crazy/driven enough to kill themselves doing it. He paints a pretty interesting and convincing picture to support it. If you have Netflix Streaming, there's a documentary called, "Frontline: Storm Over Everest" that is about the 94 Everest tragedy. Lots of interviews with climbers/guides from both Hall and Fisher's crew. Pretty good film. Added to the queue. Thanks! |
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I like a lot of the comments:
"staying would mean risking their own lives"...
Yeah, that's called being a hero. I'd rather die a failed hero then live as the guy who walked away to save his own skin. Dude, that's easy to say from behind you're computer. If I were faced with that situation overseas, I would in a split second, risk my ass to save one of my brothers, especially the guys in my squad. Without a second thought. While I'd like to believe I'm a good enough person to help out a stranger in the situation described, the reality is, she's a stranger to me, and if it's an almost guarantee I'll die in the process, sorry lady, my ass comes first. I think most of those people would be very surprised by the range of emotions experienced in a situation like that. Guilt and self preservation at the same time. Self preservation will tell you to live with the guilt, and that's what you'll do. |
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I really dont think it'd be that hard. Sherpas go up every year and put up new ropes. Its not like your forging a new path up the mountain, you climb up the same path already set up for you.
Thousands of people climb it every year, its just the cost 60K and who wants to do it? |
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I really dont think it'd be that hard. Sherpas go up every year and put up new ropes. Its not like your forging a new path up the mountain, you climb up the same path already set up for you. Thousands of people climb it every year, its just the cost 60K and who wants to do it? No shit. I've walked hundreds if not thousands of miles, much of it uphill. All of it with ridiculous amounts of extra weight on me. I doubt much if any was anywhere near as hard as trying to scale that mountain. I get the whole "I can say I did it" thing, but dude, fuck that. Walking up little mountains without possibly freezing to death sucks ass most of the time. |
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That was interesting.... sobering pictures for sure. |