Popular Mountain Trail

[Kray Gelder]

Swung by Everest this week. I was gonna hike to the overlook. Had heard the view was terrific. I was not the only one with this idea, what with the great weather and all. I waited in line for 15 hours, and decided to come back another day...

Pulled this from BBC this morning. People are dying there, trying to summit. 7 this week.

 

[tamrock]

Some how that's not on my bucket list. I got plenty of summit's here in Colorado where I can see the top from below. Long ago I went to the top of Mt Elbert here in Colorado. When I got up top, there was a party of 4 all decked out in 1970s down suits, goggles and heavy and Mountain boots. I had a light jacket, jeans and tennis shoes. They didn't waste any time telling me they came up on the west side, not the easy hike it is going up on the east side of the mountain like I did. I looked over the edge of the west side and said, I see what ya mean. I enjoyed the veiw for about a half hour and headed down, to meet up with my buddy who gave up half way up above timberline due to feeling really bad and puking his guts out and from there we hurried back down to a warmer elevation. I feel like getting to the summit of the highest mountain in Colorado qualifies me as full blooded Coloradan or at least my combined 40 years of being here does. At least two of my kids are natives of Colorado.

 

[WannaDig3687]

I heard about one guy dying this week but not 7 people!

 

[tamrock]

I saw this later on the tv news. I guess that's what they say is going viral for ya.

 

[Kray Gelder]

Seems a waste of humanity, these hyper-motivated people from across the globe. They all have a common goal here, but the pathway is so narrow, climbers perish from the cold, lack of oxygen, or exhaustion, waiting for their turn.

Here's a pic from 2012.

 

[DizzyDigger]

I've always had that "wanderlust", but it's to hike into the next valley
via the easiest route possible. Never had a desire to climb any higher
than needed. Got a 10,800 ft. mountain right in my backyard..never had
the slightest desire to go damage myself by climbing it.

People know the risks when they sign up to climb Everest, and then they
pay a boatload of money for guides, permits, etc.

I just don't get it..but they do, apparently.

 

[1637]

i saw that there were 200 people in that line,crazy
brad

 

[WilliamBoyd]

The book Into the Silence - The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest by Wade Davis (published 2011) is about the three British mountaineering expeditions in 1921, 1922, and 1924 to Tibet whose purpose was to climb Mount Everest. All three expeditions failed to climb the mountain and the last one resulted in the deaths of two of the climbers, Mallory and Irvine.

Some Tibetans opposed the expeditions for religious reasons and some wondered why the British were trying to do something so dangerous to themselves.

In Tibetan, there is no word for a mountain summit; the very place the British so avidly sought, their highest goal, did not even exist in the language of their Sherpa porters.

Among the "Tigers", men handpicked by Norton and Bruce [expedition leaders] for the most difficult work at the highest elevations, there were many who believed that the British were actually searching for treasure a golden statue of a cow, perhaps a yak, rumored to reside at the highest point, which they would pillage and melt down into coins.

 

[rginn]

One of the guys that works for me climbed Everest. He never really talks about it, which I thought was unusual, but my son told me it's pretty much like a guided tourist tour these days.

 

[Kray Gelder]

One of the guys that works for me climbed Everest. He never really talks about it, which I thought was unusual, but my son told me it's pretty much like a guided tourist tour these days.

I used to enjoy scampering to the tops of small peaks in my youth, nothing technical, usually done in less than a day in sneakers, maybe boots. These guys hike for weeks just to get to the base of the mountain. Of course, they hire sherpas and locals to carry and cook everything. It's not cheap.