Mount Everest: two climbers killed and 30 needing medical help

[don-o]

Mount Everest: two climbers killed and 30 needing medical help

Dozens need treatment for frostbite and altitude sickness on mountain after deaths of Australian woman and Dutch man

 Jessica Elgot

Sunday 22 May 2016 12.17 EDT

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/22/mount-everest-two-climbers-killed-and-30-needing-medical-help?CMP=twt_b-gdnnews

Severe frostbite and altitude sickness have left more than 30 climbers on Mount Everest needing medical help, after two climbers died on the world’s highest mountain over the weekend.

An Australian woman and a Dutch man both died of apparent altitude sickness, the first people killed on the mountain in 2016.

The mountaineering department official Gyanendra Shrestha said frostbite had affected dozens of climbers attempting to make the punishing ascent. Pemba Sherpa of the Seven Summit Treks agency in Kathmandu also said one Indian climber had been unable to move due to advanced frostbite and had been carried to a lower camp, where attempts were being made to rescue her by helicopter.

A Norwegian climber has also been rescued by sherpas after suffering snow blindness, a painful loss of vision after overexposure to UV rays.

The deaths of the two climbers, the motivational speaker Eric Arnold, 36, and finance lecturer Dr Maria Strydom, 34, whose husband was also injured on the climb down, came as the tourism industry on Everest began to show signs of recovery after two years of devastating natural disasters.

Eighteen people were killed last year when a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal and triggered an avalanche which left the Everest Base Camp in ruins. The toll from the quake surpassed 2014, which had previously been the deadliest year on record after icefall killed 16 Nepalese guides and cut the climbing season short.

This year’s climbing season, which runs from March until the end of May, has so far seen good weather, allowing hundreds of climbers to reach the summit.

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[truth_seeker]

Not really my thing, but I admire the adventurous spirits of the climbers, and of course the support and rescue people.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

These idiots needs to stop climbing this damn mountain. If you look on Google, you will find pics of all the corpses left on Everest by other hikers.

They (being Sherpa or Tibetan or whatever) government needs to start charging climbers if they need a rescue IMO.

[TomSea]

If there is a company that offers these expeditions, it sounds like they may well be a fault as well. Surely, this is, you don't just go over there and start climbing by yourself.

[don-o]

If there is a company that offers these expeditions, it sounds like they may well be a fault as well. Surely, this is, you don't just go over there and start climbing by yourself.

I read a book, years ago, about an expedition that climbed by a route never done. As I recall, all the climbers knew each other and they just planned it out an did it.

Now there are companies that arrange all the logistics, etc and market the adventure; in many cases to people with more money than sense and/or ability.

There's a bunch of YT videos.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

According to this there's a $70K permit to climb the mountain. So I guess cost is taken care of, but it seems unfair to punish the prepared climbers for the idiots, IMO.

http://www.livescience.com/32851-do-not-post-why-does-a-permit-to-climb-mt-everest-cost-70000.html

[alicewonders]

Like any risky activity, you know the risks going in.  I would think you'd climb Mt. Everest knowing you could die doing it.  It happens.

I guess you could say they died doing something they loved.  I'm sure their families knew that there was a distinct possibility they'd never see them again.

Hope none of them had little children that depended on them, I think that would be selfish to put them at risk so you could climb a dangerous mountain.