AIBU to be blown away by this? TW - Deaths on Everest.

[Chefpig]

I have read a news article about the person who died on Everest 30 years ago, known as Green Boots and wondered if his body would have been preserved by the snow and icy conditions up there. After some reading, I believe his body would not have decomposed and so his face will be the same, still in his late 40's. Forever young.

You are right. I did.

All sponsored by their less well-off but well meaning friends who don't want to look mean by not donating £50 that they can ill afford.

Omg. I recognise so many men in that!

Haven't received Everest. Yet. But I'd rinse them so much they wouldn't go there if they suggested it!

I cannot believe that absolute bastard only got a short suspended sentence! Arrogant selfish scumbag.

I am watching Everest just now. I ca’t understand why anyone would want to do that!

I remember Alison Hargreaves but I didn't know her son had died also .

In similar circumstances. I felt so sad for his sister.

Are you qualified to diagnose?

I've lived among Sherpas and also have an ex-summit Sherpa (along with his family) who is a partner in my garden business (probably outing unfortunately). I know many climbing Sherpas well, including some of the legendary ones like Lakpa Gelu, Babu Chiri and And Rita. They've been exploited for years by the western expedition companies, but they're reclaiming their rights to a large degree now (or 'getting above themselves' as the Westerners say).

It's a very hard life and most are not elite summiteers, but grunts who have to risk their lives on multiple passes through the deadly Khumbu Icefall to ferry gear and oxygen to higher camps. They've saved many a climber's life, sometimes at the expense of their own. The ones that I have spoken to about this latest tragedy have been scathing, labelling this series of ascents as a stunt - but that could be partly because Nimal Purja was -I think- Gurung rather than Sherpa.

Many Sherpas have moved overseas, but few are climbing guides. More like short order cooks or kitchen porters. And I reiterate: every village in the Solu-Khumbu has its young widowed family with a husband and father lost to climbing. Sherpa funerals are expensive and are barely covered by meagre insurance money. Things are improving but only because of militancy. There are very few western climbers that I have any respect for.

I've just watched Savage Mountain to add to my ever growing list of climbing documentaries and it's made me really sad. It's basically about a Norwegian female climber who sets out to break the world record by summiting the 14 peaks in less than four months and the Sherpa's featured on that climb were nothing short of extraordinary. Even though Kristen Harilla was very likable in many ways, she was still - ultimately - another thrill seeker on a personal mission that was very much at the expense of the team around her.

The supposed controversy around her climb was to do with an injured climber - a Pakistani porter called Pakistani porter, Mohammad Hassan, who they encountered on the bottleneck of K2 and were accused of leaving to die as they pursued their 'record'. Actually watching the documentary, i don't necessarily think the pile on around Kristen was fair (although it was shocking to watch queues of climbers step over a dying man), but what really bothered me were two things:

1. Early on, Kristin identified one particular Sherpa as particularly fast and brilliant. She then kept insisting that she wanted to be magnanimous and 'share' the record with him in recognition of Sherpas so instead of a new fresh pair of legs for each summit, she kept the same key Sherpa. I didn't read it like that. I read it as a privileged Western climber found someone she felt safe with and dangled the notion of glory in order to persuade him to stay with her on her insane mission of climbing 14 peaks in less than four months. The Sherpas are - by nature and necessity - deferential to the Western climbers, and I don't really think he had a choice in the matter.
2. She was trying to 'fund the climb' as she went, and failing. Ultimately the expedition company were persuaded that there would be great prestige and honour in funding the remainder of the climbs once her money had run out, and I kept wondering where those costs were being cut and who was making financial sacrifices in order to make that happen.Made me very uncomfortable

I won't spoil the ending but it was of course the Sherpas who had worse outcomes.

@Bideshi I very much hope they are ALL getting 'above their station' and demanding better rights and pay. They seem to be extraordinarily talented, humble and good natured in the main and deserve so much better.

Watching Everest the death zone. I am now addicted to Everest!! It’s you fault OP :-)

It’s brilliant.

"They seem to be extraordinarily talented, humble and good natured in the main and deserve so much better."

You could say that about loads of unemployed kids on UK housing schemes? Obviously the safety net here is greater, but if you can climb Everest that is way ahead of the money making ability open to most ordinary people anywhere?

Are you on the wind up or really this ignorant to the realities of not living in a western country?

It’s astounding!

@KeepPumping eh?

These people are risking their lives every day, in order to support the egos and hobbies of rich westerners. They are doing it for relative peanuts which equates to no more than financial survival and because it is culturally ingrained. They can't just decide to 'pivot' or start claiming UC. How on earth is that comparable?

I genuinely don't understand the mindset of Everest climbers. I like walking up a mountain as much as the next person, I get the sense of achievement. Technical climbing is not for me but I can understand why people like it. Everest though just seems so hostile and death-ridden that I don't understand why people go to so much trouble. There are more technically interesting mountains that are much less dangerous.