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  1. #26
    Thailand Expat David48atTD's Avatar
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    Great article in a post by Blue ... https://teakdoor.com/the-teakdoor-lou...s-sherpas.html

  2. #27
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    The 1996 Everest tragedy with Rob Hall, Scott Fischer, Beck Weathers, Jon Krakauer, David Breashears. Produced by the Discovery Channel in 2003


  3. #28
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    Quote Originally Posted by David48atTD View Post
    Great article in a post by Blue ... https://teakdoor.com/the-teakdoor-lou...s-sherpas.html
    Interesting read.

    Good example of evolution in action.

  4. #29
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    After Everest Bodies Returned, Climbers Ask if Risk Acceptable


    In this May 28, 2017 photo, the bodies of Indian climbers, that were retrieved from Mount Everest by a rescue team of eight sherpas, lay on the ground in Kathmandu, Nepal.

    KATHMANDU, NEPAL —
    The Indian man wept as a helicopter landed in Kathmandu carrying the body of his brother, one of hundreds of climbers who have died while attempting to climb Mount Everest.

    The body had been left on the mountain for a year until last week, when a team of Sherpa climbers managed to recover it along with two others. But the high-risk expedition, financed with about $92,000 from the Indian state of West Bengal, has sparked heated debate in the mountaineering community about the morality of risking more lives to retrieve bodies from one of the most unforgiving places on Earth.

    "It was a very dangerous operation," West Bengal state official Sayeed Ahmed Baba acknowledged. "It was difficult to find Sherpas who were willing to go. But we had to do it for the families."

    On the helipad Sunday, Debashish Ghosh felt relief as he watched the Indian team unload the three bodies from the back of the chopper.

    "We are finally able to bring him home," he said of his brother, Gautam. "After we cremate the body there will be peace for his soul and relief to our family."

    Many in the mountaineering community said that peace of mind came with unacceptable risk. Climbers who attempt to scale the world's tallest mountain know they could die from any number of challenges, including low oxygen, frigid temperatures, strong winds and steep falls. Asking others to carry down the bodies — often much heavier because they are frozen and covered in ice — puts more people in danger, they said.

    "It is just not worth the risk," said Ang Tshering of the Nepal Mountaineering Association. "To get one body off of the mountain, they are risking the lives of 10 more people."

    About 300 climbers have died since Everest was first conquered in 1953, and at least 100 — maybe 200 — corpses remain on the mountain. Most are hidden in deep crevasses or covered by snow and ice, but some are visible and have become macabre landmarks, earning nicknames for their plastic climbing boots, colorful parkas or final resting poses.

    The most difficult bodies to retrieve are near the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) peak in a low-oxygen area known by mountaineers as the death zone.

    This is where the body of Gautam Ghosh was found last week along with the body of another Indian climber, Ravi Kumar, who died earlier in May after falling from the route on his way down from the summit. A third Indian man who died last year was recovered from the nearby South Col, the last camp at 8,000 meters (26,240 feet) before climbers make their final push for the summit.

    Once the team of eight Sherpas reached the bodies, they had to break them from the surrounding ice, wrap them and tie them with ropes and slowly drag them down in high winds to Camp 2, a rocky expanse at 6,400 meters (21,000 feet) that is the highest helicopters can reach.

    Expedition leader Eric Murphy, who last week guided his clients to the summit, criticized the retrieval and said he wouldn't want anyone to risk their own life to bring his body down if he died on the mountain.

    "It is a sacred place and a good place to rest," Murphy said. "I would really question whether it is appropriate to risk so many to bring down one who is already lost."

    It is often Sherpas who are hired for retrieval expeditions. Climbers from the ethnic group that has lived for centuries around Everest have become an integral part of the Himalayan mountaineering world, and rely on the pay they can earn during the three-month climbing season to carry their families through the year.

    Despite the danger of bringing down bodies, climbers are often asked to do so by the families of those who die, said Dan Richards of Global Rescue, a Boston-based agency specializing in mountain rescue.

    Of the six people who died on Everest this year, only the body of an American doctor was left on the mountain.

    "It becomes much more dangerous than simply climbing if you're attempting to recover and transport a heavy load," Richards said. A recovery team faces the same risks as climbers, including altitude sickness, edema, frostbite, hypothermia as well as accidents and avalanches.

    But some believe the dangerous effort is still worth it.

    "It is always better to bring down the bodies, which also leaves the mountain cleaner," said veteran mountaineer Reinhold Messner, who was the first to scale Everest without bottled oxygen and climb the world's 14 highest peaks.

    After Everest Bodies Returned, Climbers Ask if Risk Acceptable

  5. #30
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    Let's not forget there were some happy moments this year on mount Everest as well.

    http://www.cbsnews.com/news/this-cou...-unbelievable/

    By CHRISTINA CAPATIDES CBS NEWS

    This couple just got married on Mt. Everest and the photos are unbelievable

    Every couple feels on top of the world on their wedding day. But one California couple just made that metaphor a reality... by literally exchanging vows on top of the world. Ashley Schmieder and her husband James trekked for three weeks, threw on a wedding gown and tux, then got married at base camp on Mount Everest. In fact, they became the first couple to ever successfully do so in traditional wedding garb.

    So, if you think your wedding pictures are impressive, prepare to be blown away.

    "I had attempted base camp with another [couple] in 2015," says the couple's photographer, Charleton Churchill, "but the devastating earthquake of Nepal, including the massive avalanche that swept EBC [Everest Base Camp], turned everyone around off the mountain. I wasn't sure if I would find another couple to get married on Everest anytime soon."

    Then, last year, the avid adventure photographer was contacted by Ashley on Instagram. The future bride said she wanted an adventure wedding, but she and her husband hadn't yet settled on a destination. Initially, they asked Churchill for a suggestion of an exotic tropical location. He, however, suggested Everest instead, and the couple rose to the challenge.

    "Both James and Ashley made for great trail partners," Churchill recounts on his website. "We were like family. Ashley is tough girl who crushed it on the mountain trail and maintained a great pace. James is a great man who took care of Ashley, always looking after her needs. Plus he's a comedian who made us laugh often. It can be difficult after a few days on a long mountain trek with all the pressure and lack of resources to maintain a smile, but we did well."

    That isn't to say that the journey was easy. On the contrary, conditions on the world's tallest mountain proved fierce, as always.

    "The temperatures ranged from -8 degrees to 10 degrees Fahrenheit," explains Churchill. "So, your hands would quickly freeze if left out of the gloves, like when I tried to film and take photos. I actually had to turn a live Facebook filming off because my hands were burning cold... Also, James and Ashley married in the -5 degrees to 5 degrees Fahrenheit range, and in her wedding dress. We especially had to keep her warm... downing soup, food, drinking hot liquids, and moving, all vital."

    But before they could reach that point, despite weeks of preparation, it looked as if the couple might not be able to follow through with the wedding because of the toll the altitude was taking on their bodies. James, in particular, developed a bad case of "Khumbu cough," which worsened and became deeper the higher they ascended.

    "The night before Everest Base Camp, at Gorak Shep, 16,942 feet... James woke up catching his breath feeling like he was suffocating," Churchill writes. "We searched for our guide around midnight and the doors were locked to the lodge. We threw small rocks at windows, whispering loudly. I walked around this lodge trying to find a way to get in, and found a back door into the kitchen that was open, and finally found him. Our guide and another Sherpa hooked up the oxygen mask/tank to James, and he slept on oxygen for the remainder of the night."

    What James experienced is not unusual. Hikers frequently get medevaced out from that location. In fact, just a week before the couple arrived, an Australian hiker died of altitude sickness at base camp. So, the night of James' oxygen scare, they decided not to take a chance. The couple and their adventure photographer would fly out first thing in the morning and not attempt to trek any higher.

    All that changed, however, the following morning when James woke up feeling a bit better. After a discussion with their guide, the couple decided to hike up to base camp carrying oxygen on their bodies. They would then eat, drink and get married, all within a 90-minute window, before boarding a chopper for lower ground.

    On March 16, 2017, "James and Ashley exchanged vows at Mount Everest Base Camp right in front of the famous Khumbu ice-fall where people use ladders to maneuver over crevasses, and with the beautifully carved Nuptse Face in the backdrop," Churchill writes. "Their epic wedding was surrounded by all these famous mountains. It was beautiful, short, and we captured a few photos before packing and getting ready to leave."

    They, however, could not leave right away as planned. The weather worsened, as it often does on Everest, rendering conditions unsafe for a helicopter to arrive and, consequently, forcing them to spend the night.

    "After sleeping on the glacier, hearing the cracking below us, on top of hearing the thundering avalanches all night, the helicopter came, and early," recalls Churchill. "The faint but ascending juddering sound of the helicopter in the distance was a beautiful sound. I saw the look on James and Ashley's face, and they were relieved. We all were excited. The pilot, hooked up to oxygen, took James and Ashley first because the air was too thin at base camp to take all four of us and our bags. They dropped James and Ashley off at a lower altitude, and then returned to get me and Naga, our guide. ... Within a few hours, we were back to Kathmandu on a bus, warmed up, and back to our hotel with some of the creature comforts we missed while on the mountain."

    Not to mention, with the coolest wedding photos around.


  6. #31
    Thailand Expat David48atTD's Avatar
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    Mount Everest death toll climbs to seven in a week after record number of climbers causes congestion

    I'm dying to climb Mt Everest-11149390-3x2-940x627-jpg
    Nirmal Purja's photograph shows exactly how congested it can get on Everest.

    Three Indian and one Irish climber are among the seven who have died descending Mount Everest this week, more than the entire total of fatalities over the whole of last year.

    Key points:

    • On average between five and ten people die every year climbing Mount Everest
    • Nepal has issued permits to 379 climbers this season with 120 climbing on Thursday alone
    • 17 climbers have died on different Himalayan peaks in Nepal since the start of the season in March


    More than 120 climbers scaled Everest on Thursday, but some of them were caught in the crowd of people on the slopes, leading to exhaustion, dehydration and death.

    Former British soldier Nirmal Purja shared a photograph of the long queue to the summit on Twitter, showing exactly how crowded the world's tallest mountain can become during the short climbing season.

    Nepal has issued permits to 379 climbers on Mount Everest in the season, which ends this month.

    Between five and ten climbers die on Mount Everest in an average climbing year.

    Krishma Poudel, of Nepali mountaineering company Peak Promotion, told NBC that the congestion on the peak could be lethal.
    "Before you reach the summit, you have to wait and every minute counts at the height," she said.

    "You've been walking since 8:00am the day before without eating or a proper rest and exposed to that temperature, there's a high risk of being frostbitten and hypothermia."


    More here


    Apparently it's frequently the descent which is the killer ...
    "Three Indian and one Irish climber are among the seven who have died descending Mount Everest this week, more than the entire total of fatalities over the whole of last year."
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails I'm dying to climb Mt Everest-11149390-3x2-940x627-jpg  
    Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago ...


  7. #32
    Excommunicated baldrick's Avatar
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    that photo has been doing the rounds for a couple of days and it shows absolute insanity

    if anyone told me they had scaled to the top of everest I would mentally mark them as a narcissistic wanker

  8. #33
    Thailand Expat David48atTD's Avatar
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    Personally I'd love to get to Everest Base Camp.

    I can enjoy/experience the surrounds without having to climb


  9. #34
    I'm in Jail

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    Jesus....they are in what is called the death zone and it's a far greater wait than I encountered at the post office, Swampy Airport, or Chaengwattana.

  10. #35
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    And another climber has died today, a British man apparently, and an Irish man died yesterday.


    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48407433

    Officials say a British man died on Saturday on Mount Everest - bringing to 10 the total death toll this season on the world's largest peak.

    The number has already eclipsed the total for 2018 as the summit became overcrowded with queuing climbers.

    The British man reportedly fell ill while descending from the summit. Another, from Ireland, died on Friday.

    Kevin Hynes, 56, from Ireland died on Friday on the northern Tibet side.
    Last edited by Neverna; 25-05-2019 at 04:14 PM.

  11. #36
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    Lot of scams going on with Heli evacs and Medical Insurance.

  12. #37
    Thailand Expat David48atTD's Avatar
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    Mount Everest: Sherpa breaks own record after 24th climb


    Kami Rita has extended his own record by successfully ascending the world's tallest mountain for the 24th time. The Nepalese Sherpa guide says he wants to climb the Everest one more time before retiring.

    Nepalese Sherpa Kami Rita on Tuesday reached the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) peak of Mount Everest for the 24th time, breaking his own record for successful climbs.
    This was his second time on the summit in a week. He climbed to the top on May 15 then returned to base camp before returning once more.

    DW

  13. #38
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    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    ^ I flew into Lukla once. Nearly made me sick just to see how close to the mountain the pilot got to turn back to the landing strip.
    I've flown into Lukla 3 times, and once I hiked there (and above) from Jiri and then onward to Namche and Everest base camp twice, Kala Patar twice and Gokyo lakes once (got caught in a blizzard on that one) as well as setting foot on Everest from the Tibet side. (rented a land rover in Llasa)
    These trips were all back in the 90's.
    We weren't aware, at the time, that Lukla was considered the world's most dangerous airstrip (i can't call it an airport, it's just a patch of dirt in the Himalayas that needs special planes to land and take off )

    Once we were snowed in and had to wait 3 days to leave Lukla.
    Ended up leaving in an old Russian large helicopter with about 20 other trekkers.
    It was so heavy, it couldn't raise up from Lukla, so the pilot drove it down to the end of the runway, which ends in a dropoff of a few hundred meters, and sort of "caught it in gear" after we dropped about 10 meters.
    Very scary.
    No way would I join those lines, up on Everest, to say I did something to boost my ego.
    No frickin way!

    And those people spend an average of $65,000 each from what I hear for the experience.

  14. #39
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    I have no sympathy for any of these idiots. For the most part the Sherpa's hate their job but are forced to do it as there are no other paying jobs. Many of the climbers do not carry their own gear and in some cases the Sherpa's literally haul them up the mountain yet they get to return to the regular world and brag to colleagues that they climbed Everest. This video really exposes the industry for what it is. Very disgusting really.


  15. #40
    Thailand Expat David48atTD's Avatar
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    An interesting article from an experienced climber who was on the mountain that fatefull day.
    She was the first lady to summit without oxygen. Has been there 5 or six times, so knows her stuff.

    -----

    I was on Mount Everest the day the viral photo was taken, but I had very different experience

    I'm dying to climb Mt Everest-11163390-3x2-940x627-jpg
    Lydia Bradey reached the summit of Mount Everest for the sixth time on May 22 — the same day the viral crowd photo was taken.

    The viral photograph of the summit ridge of Mt Everest on May 22 this year — completely crowded with people waiting to summit and with no way down but to reverse-climb that line — stirs anxiety and urgent questions.

    There is only a third of the amount of oxygen on the summit and the weather on Everest at that altitude is cold and windy. It is dangerous to spend too much time there. If you are moving too slowly, your oxygen will run out.

    You don't have to be a mountaineer to see that image and to feel the fear.

    It happened to me once.


    The weather forecast was for very cold temperatures and very high winds. It was the middle of the night and the line of climbers was hardly moving and we began radioing each other discussing what to do.

    It was decided that if the weather didn't change, or if it got any colder, we would turn around.

    Having a strategy to manage these situations is the difference between life and death. All of the sherpas and guides had ice axes and we had techniques for managing an unscheduled descent with and without the fixed lines.

    Just as we decided to escape, the temperature became warmer, and the line started to move quite well. We stayed on the mountain and reached the summit.

    Problems like these are often caused by weather — bad weather or short windows for climbing, and then the danger is obviously overcrowding.



    A tale of two ascents

    On the same day that the viral photo was taken last week, I was on the other side of Mount Everest, climbing to the summit for the sixth time.
    In 1988, I was the first woman to climb Mount Everest without oxygen, something only six women have achieved. Since then I have worked as a mountaineer guide — helping clients make their ascent of the world's highest peaks, including Everest.

    This trip was my first ascent from the northern, Tibetan side of the mountain.
    My small team of four — me, my client Roxanne Vogel, and our two sherpas Mingma and Pasang — climbed behind the rope-fixers.


    The rest of here story is here

    Interesting tale and viewpoint.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails I'm dying to climb Mt Everest-11163390-3x2-940x627-jpg  

  16. #41
    Thailand Expat David48atTD's Avatar
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    This is quite special.

    3 D modelling of Everest from the base camp through to the summit.

    Only takes a couple of minutes to view ...

    Then it goes through the human statistics of the mountain.


  17. #42
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    The Everest Base Camp trek is the worst trek you could choose in Nepal. Far better to visit tge Annapurna. You don’t have to fly into alukla either. If budget allows take a couple of porters, a guide, sat phone and GPS a d go off piste away from the Lonely Planet nerds.

    Trekking attracts libtard vegan types with a holier than thou attitude who love to commune with poor brown people. I found that negotiating with the village or tea hoyse owner for a chicken or two slaughtered in front of them to make a delicious curry for the porters and any local kids is a great ice breaker and generally saved having to share a table with them :-)

    $20 also buys enough ganja to supply a small army

  18. #43
    Isle of discombobulation Joe 90's Avatar
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    The world's highest mountain Mount Everest is 0.86m higher than had been previously officially calculated, Nepal and China have jointly announced.


    Until now the countries differed over whether to add the snow cap on top. The new height is 8,848.86m (29,032 ft).


    China's previous official measurement of 8,844.43m had put the mountain nearly four metres lower than Nepal's.


    Everest stands on the border between China and Nepal and mountaineers climb it from both sides.


    Officials at Nepal's foreign ministry and department of survey said surveyors from both countries had co-ordinated to agree on the new height.


    The agreement to jointly announce the new measurement of the Earth's highest point was made during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu last year.


    Why the difference over official height?

    Chinese authorities had said previously Mount Everest should be measured to its rock height, while Nepalese authorities argued the snow on top of the summit should be included.






    The Chinese surveyors had calculated their figure after they measured the mountain in 2005.


    Nepal's government officials told the BBC in 2012 that they were under pressure from China to accept the Chinese height and therefore they had decided to go for a fresh measurement to "set the record straight once and for all".


    The 8,848m height Nepal had been using for Mount Everest was determined by the Survey of India in 1954, but for the first time the country has now conducted its own measurement of the summit.


    Four Nepalese land surveyors spent two years training for the mission, before heading to the summit.


    IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES
    image captionChinese surveyors reached the summit in May - the only team to do so this year
    "Before this, we had never done the measurement ourselves," Damodar Dhakal, spokesman at Nepal's department of survey, told the BBC.


    "Now that we have a young, technical team [who could also go to the Everest summit], we could do it on our own," Mr Dhakal said.


    Nepal's lead surveyor Khimlal Gautam lost his toe due to frostbite while on the summit to install height-measuring equipment last year.


    "For summiteers, scaling the highest peak means a great accomplishment. For us, it was just the beginning," Mr Gautam had told BBC Nepali after his return.


    "Unlike other surveys of the Everest in the past, we chose 03:00 to minimise errors that could have been caused because of sunlight in the day time."


    Why else has the height been questioned?


    Some geologists have suggested a major earthquake in 2015 may have had an impact on Mount Everest's height. The 7.8 magnitude earthquake killed nearly 9,000 people in Nepal, and caused an avalanche which buried parts of the base camp at the mountain. At least 18 climbers were killed.


    IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES
    image captionTwo of Nepal's surveyors reached Everest's summit for the measurement
    Some geologists said the earthquake may have caused Everest's snow cap to shrink.


    Scientists had found that some other Himalayan peaks such as Langtang Himal, mostly to the north of Kathmandu and close to the epicentre, had reduced in height by approximately a metre after the earthquake.







    Others have argued that Mount Everest, like other Himalayan peaks, may have actually grown over time because of the shifting tectonic plates it sits on. But experts say major earthquakes can result in that process being reversed.


    "The 2015 earthquake is also a major reason why we re-measured the mountain," said Mr Dhakal.


    How was Mount Everest re-measured?

    The heights of mountains are measured with the mean sea level as the base. So it's less about working out the where the top is, than where the bottom would be.


    Nepal used the Bay of Bengal as its sea level, but India had already surveyed a point closer to Everest, near the India-Nepal border, from the bay, and was able to provide the Nepalese surveyors with the height at that point.


    From there, Nepal built a network of line-of-sight stations stretching nearly 250km (155 miles) to the point Everest first become visible, creating a chain of points it could measure and add together.


    The Chinese surveyors, according to the state-run China Daily, used the Yellow Sea in the eastern province of Shandong as their sea-level base.


    IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES
    image captionChinese media say China used the Yellow Sea as the sea level base to measure the height of Everest
    Surveyors from both sides also used trigonometry formulas to calculate the height of the summit. The formulas they used calculate the height of a triangle by multiplying its base with its angles.


    But for all the clever ground work, someone still needs to be on top of the mountain. The Nepalese surveyors went up to the summit last year, while the Chinese surveyors went up in May, becoming the only team to reach the top in 2020, after Nepal suspended all expeditions during the coronavirus pandemic and China banned foreign travellers.


    Nepalese officials said they used 12 different lower peaks looking up at the Everest summit for their trigonometry calculations, to achieve a more precise result. Chinese media reported that Chinese surveyors used the same method.


    "Once the surveyor's beacon had been placed on the summit, surveyors at stations around the summit measured the distance from the six points to the beacon, which meant at least six triangles could be calculated to determine the mountain's height," Jiang Tao, associate researcher at the Chinese academy of surveying and mapping, told the state-run China Daily.


    Both sides also used Global Navigation Satellite Systems to receive elevation data from numerous receivers in their calculations.


    IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES
    image captionScientists had found that the Langtang range had dropped by around one metre due to the 2015 earthquake
    China has previously conducted two height measurements of Mount Everest - first in 1975 and then in 2005.


    Members of the second survey team installed a Chinese version of a GPS device on the summit, according to the Himalayan Database.


    This time the Chinese surveyors used China's BeiDou navigation satellite system, which is believed to be a rival to the US-owned Global Positioning System, or GPS.


    "Using the system, snow depth, weather and wind speed would also be measured to help glacier monitoring and for ecological protection," China's state news agency Xinhua reported.


    Nepalese surveyors used GPS to make their calculations.


    "We processed this data using internationally accepted methodology to determine the height of Mount Everest," Mr Dhakal told the BBC.

  19. #44
    Thailand Expat David48atTD's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lostandfound View Post
    The Everest Base Camp trek is the worst trek you could choose in Nepal. Far better to visit tge Annapurna. You don’t have to fly into alukla either. If budget allows take a couple of porters, a guide, sat phone and GPS a d go off piste away from the Lonely Planet nerds.

    Trekking attracts libtard vegan types with a holier than thou attitude who love to commune with poor brown people. I found that negotiating with the village or tea hoyse owner for a chicken or two slaughtered in front of them to make a delicious curry for the porters and any local kids is a great ice breaker and generally saved having to share a table with them :-)

    $20 also buys enough ganja to supply a small army

    Somewhere there is on my bucket list ... thanks for the Tip.

  20. #45
    Thailand Expat David48atTD's Avatar
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    Nepal struggling as coronavirus pandemic shuts down tourism and keeps Mount Everest climbers away


    From this last year ...

    I'm dying to climb Mt Everest-11149390-3x2-xlarge-jpg

    To this ...

    I'm dying to climb Mt Everest-12971498-16x9-xlarge-jpg

    It was only last year that Nepal's star attraction, Mount Everest, had become so popular that long queues of mountain climbers created dangerous traffic jams at the summit peak.

    Key points:

    • After closing to visitors early this year due to the pandemic, the country opened up to international tourists last month.
    • Department of Immigration records put number of tourists this year at 6,208 and fewer than 200 trekkers
    • With so many reliant on tourism, the shortening of this year's climbing season has been a huge blow


    Now, the country is confronting a different reality as tourist hotspots sit mostly empty after the coronavirus pandemic forced the sector to go into a deep freeze.

    Here

  21. #46
    last farang standing
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    These days climbing mount everest is about as rare as someone going to Hawaii.

  22. #47
    Isle of discombobulation Joe 90's Avatar
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    IMAGE COPYRIGHTNIMSDAI PURJA
    image captionThe Nepali climbers are the first to summit K2 during its dangerous winter season
    A team of 10 Nepali climbers has set a new world record by becoming the first to reach the summit of K2, the world's second highest mountain, in winter.


    Mountaineer Nimsdai Purja, a member of the group, said they reached the peak at 17:00 local time (12:00 GMT).


    Dozens of climbers have been on the 8,611m (28,251ft) mountain this winter hoping to achieve the same feat.


    But one Spanish mountaineer has died after suffering a fall this weekend while descending.


    K2, which is only 200m shorter than Everest, is part of the Karakoram Range that straddles the Pakistan-China border.


    One of only 14 mountains higher than 8,000m, it is widely considered the most demanding of all in winter.


    It has long been referred to as "the savage mountain", a name that stuck after US mountaineer George Bell said of his own attempt in 1953: "It is a savage mountain that tries to kill you."


    Among the most treacherous sections is the notorious "bottleneck", a couloir liable to icefalls. Eleven climbers were killed there in an avalanche in 2008.







    The Nepali climbers were initially spread across three of four competing teams - in all, totalling 60 people. But the 10 Nepalis later formed into a single group to claim the historic achievement in Nepal's name.


    Mountaineer Nirmal Purja - a former member of the UK's Special Boat Service - shared an image of the group celebrating their achievement, which was confirmed by expedition organiser Seven Summit Treks.


    "We are proud to have been a part of history for humankind and to show that collaboration, teamwork and a positive mental attitude can push limits to what we feel might be possible," said Mr Purja.


    IMAGE COPYRIGHTALEX GAVAN
    image captionK2 is one of 14 mountains in the world more than 8,000 metres (26,246ft) in height
    Since the first attempt in 1987-1988, just a handful of winter expeditions have been attempted on K2. Until now, none has reached higher than 7,650 metres.


    Nepali guides, usually ethnic Sherpas, are considered the backbone of the climbing industry around the Himalayas, and regularly help foreign mountaineers on expeditions.


    News of the group's success on Saturday has been praised on social media and sparked joy within the Nepalese climbing community - often left out of the spotlight.


    "For decades, Nepalis have assisted foreigners to reach the summits of the Himalayas, but we've not been getting the recognition we deserve," said Kami Rita, speaking to AFP.




    "It is wonderful that today on K2 10 Nepalis have made history and shown our bravery and strength," added Mr Rita, who has climbed Everest a record 24 times.


    As news of their success broke, it was also confirmed that another climber, Spaniard Sergi Mingote, died after experiencing a severe fall.


    Mr Mingote, 49, was based with another team and had been descending to K2's base camp when he slipped and fell.


    An experienced mountaineer, Mr Mingote had previously climbed seven of the world's so-called "8000ers", including Everest.


    He had been attempting to summit K2 without oxygen but became severely fatigued, forcing him to abandon the expedition.

  23. #48
    Thailand Expat jabir's Avatar
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    Well done, about time these people got recognition beyond carrying stuff for wealthy farangs.

    Don't know if it's true but I heard/read that at least one local must be included on several categories of climb.

  24. #49
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    Quote Originally Posted by jabir View Post
    Don't know if it's true but I heard/read that at least one local must be included on several categories of climb.
    It is true and this video explains it very well. The Sherpa actually hate their job they do it because they have no other options for comparably paid work. Here is the reposted link you requested Dave...


  25. #50
    Isle of discombobulation Joe 90's Avatar
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    Outstanding recent video by National Geographic and Sony, well worth a watch.

    “The Ghosts Above,” Sony Artisan photographer and filmmaker Renan Ozturk join an expedition to solve the Mount Everest mystery of who reached the summit first.




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