Mount Everest 2024

Yes! After Christmas, I look forward to Everest time. I've been watching lots of old videos of all the deaths. I can't wait to see the teams this year.

Yes, we discussed the new chipping guidelines when they were announced. DL is always on top of everything Mount Everest, it is one of the more peculiar things about this place.

[quote]climbers would be required to haul their feces off of the peak and down to Base Camp via plastic WAG bags.

Yeah, it's about time they started protecting the environment from a bunch of nasty Westerners on holiday. I don't see a problem.

And Free Tibet.

We had a bumper crop of deaths in 2023. 17!

Do people die every year?

Take them all, Chomolungma.

Awwwww yeah, let’s get this party started!

I thought I’d missed it.

“ Everest permits are down 34%. The trend in recent years is for teams to arrive much later than, let’s say, a decade ago, so we’ll see.” From the Alan Arnette blog linked below.

Idiots. There's plenty of nature to enjoy without having to worry about it trying to kill you.

Everest is fascinating because every year there is an increasing amount of people with more money than sense who seem to think Everest is some sort of theme park (especially after seeing pictures of the lines) and they think it makes them heroes or something when all it makes them look like is entitled morons. There is nothing heroic anymore. There are ladders and tour guides and warming tents. Hell, you can get married up there now. And after each tragic event we can tsk tsk and say "Death by Misadventure". Not to mention it reminds us to admire George Mallory's absolutely magnificent nude photos taken by Virginia Woolf's sister.

I propose a meeting for the Supreme Court Justices there --------------- let;s see who are the REAL men and women?????

R11 is more damaged than anything Mt Everest could do to anyone.

I need a break and some oxygen climbing a set of stairs.

For R7:

R5 Not every year, but we always hope.

I can't believe we've never discussed this chick.

We did discuss her here. The Arnette blog has brief bios of many of the (non-professional) climbers (less so in recent years) who then had blogs of their own covering their Everest journey. I used to read up on a few of them and then see how far they got. Hers was a combination of misplaced determination, over confidence, under preparedness, and a cut rate expedition company. Wow, that was back in 2012.

R15, thank you for the video link about her story. The woman narrating looks like SNL's Debbie Downer.

R16 Yes, the Arnette blog! That's where we can find who we want to follow this year.

There's an episode of The Fifth Estate about her.

She was interesting for the simple fact that she had no experience at all, couldn't even put on crampons, and for some reason, she and her husband were thinking she could really do this. I guess she did though, right? It's the descent that got her.

Shah trained for the climb using a Stairmaster in her gym

How did she manage to get as far as she did without much training? I remember that part about the stairmaster, r21.

I can't answer this question and I don't know why Shah wasn't pursued to pursue another personal challenge

I guess it's not a hard climb, technically. It's not like Anapurna or K2. You can get up with sheer determination and a sherpa. Paraplegics can do it with help.

55K for a permit? See you in Aruba toots.

"Whatever ever she'd do she'd do it with passion." Bitches like that deserve to die.

Persuaded to pursue

[QUOTE] How did she manage to get as far as she did without much training?

She was born in Nepal so had high altitude tolerance in her DNA.

I read somewhere that as challenging as the climb up is the real danger is the climb down. I think it has to do with oxygen levels. I’m sure this has been discussed at length on the annual DL Everest threads, but maybe someone can provide some detail for this thread.

R29 - exhaustion plays a huge part. Adrenaline will get you up but it won't get you down. The push from Camp 4 to the summit is one of the most physically and technically demanding sections of climbing Mount Everest and typically takes anywhere from 10 to 20 hours — some of this will depend on the queue at the summit.

Many climbers don't leave themselves enough oxygen to get back down and others forget that it's much easier to slip and fall when climbing down as it is when climbing up. They feel like they've done the hard part and become less vigilant.

Also, the longer a climber remains in the Dead Zone (above 8000 metres) the more chance there is of HAPE or HACE setting in. Often this hits on the down climb or at Camp 4.

Yes R29. It's the descent that kills you. You're pretty wiped out at that point and you've been in the death zone for a long time and your body is dying the whole time you're up there. You don't really want to dick aroundd, you want to get back down asap. Yes, what R30 said.

They should install a funicular.

She had been awake for 26 hours when she became unresponsive on the descent. Staying at the top for 4 hours was also unwise.

Just seeing the very long queue waiting to ascend, it’s not a unique challenge. Anyone can see that now. But it’s a huge source of income for a poor country.

Four hours at the top? Insanity. 30 minutes max is what is recommended.

Article reviewing new book about Everest.

I know I'm going to hell but the way the sherpa's just casually said...we tied her body to the ice and left her. LOL she's as bad as the one having a sherpa carry a coffee maker and then fucking on the mountain.

I wonder if any of the Sherpas are rough trade?

I’m guessing climbers will make their Sherpa carry their poo, like I do when I walk my dog.

It's not just poo. They're wiping their arses too and leaving toilet paper allover the place. Well at least I hope they wipe their arse.

They have been leaving their shit up there for years so now they have to bring it back down to feed the yaks

I've said this on other Everest threads, but in many articles about Everest, they'll be spotlighting a climbing expedition and the various group members, and inevitably there's someone who just flat out bails - at base camp, at camp 2 or 3. It always makes me laugh. Like they wake up one morning and say, "yeah, this isn't gonna happen; I'm gonna chill. Maybe I'll learn Spanish when I get home - that seems like a doable challenge."

For some people just getting to base camp is the whole challenge R40. I would probably bail too, as soon as I saw the Icefalls and those shitty ladders that go over them. I appreciate them leaving though, man has to know his limitations.

Totally, agree R41. If they're doubting it in any sense, to any degree, it's smart and responsible bail.

Reading more of the AA blog, the “mandatory GPS tag” is no such thing. He thinks it’s a small tag that needs a hand held receiver to scan for it. Which means you have to have those scanners at hand and a pretty good idea where someone got lost.

But here’s the absolute easiest thing to cut down on Everest deaths/overcrowding/trash:

“Require all climbers to have summited 7000 meters or higher before issuing them Everest permits.”

(^ and those are mainly in the Himalayas or that part of the world)

Preach R43! I'll go one better, no supplemental oxygen allowed. That will clean up the mountain too.

"Require all climbers to have summited 7000 meters or higher before issuing them Everest permits.”

Alk 7k expeditions cost at least another $30k so they won't specify that because it means only millionaires can afford to summit Everest. Jon Krakauer himself did well and had never submitted a 7k.

Serious climbers have sponsors.

Also:

David Breashears died March 14 at the age of 68 of natural causes. He was found unresponsive at his home in Marblehead, Massachusetts. David is the filmmaker who co-directed and co-produced the 1998 IMAX documentary “Everest.” He was making the film in 1996 and stopped when disaster hit, taking eight lives, including Adventure Consultants’s co-founder, Rob Hall. Breashears stopped his film project and provided spare oxygen tanks, batteries, and food to searchers.

David Breashears is a great loss to mountaineering. One of the few of his generation who didn't die in the mountains. Really enjoyed his book on Everest.

When someone dies or there's a high death rate during one season all these narcissists want to blame someone else.

I'd root for avalanches if they could distinguish between Sherpas and trust fund thrillseekers.

As of April 15, 20% fewer permits issued.

The sherpas setting up the path through the Khumbu Icefall can only advance 3 ft per day according to Alan Arnette.

Summit period is mid to late May.

Three feet only? Did you mean 30?

It said 3 ft. I guess it was much more difficult than usual.

“ Moving three feet a day, the Doctors noted five potential areas where climbers could be in danger as the glacier moves and teetering ice towers wobble. Everyone will need to be focused and get through those areas quickly.”

(Hit post too soon.)

Thank you r52/53.

Most normals like us would be freaking out to cancel the season in such conditions. Right?

If I could have one wish, I’d wish that K2 was the highest mountain in the world.

Or Annapurna, R55.

3 feet a day is absurdly slow progress. The Icefall must be a nightmare. They have ten days to get it sorted before the season starts and that won't happen. Maybe the mountain will be closed this year.

The icefall is 1.62 miles long, roughly 2,000ft of climbing and usually takes between 3-6 hours for climbers to navigate.

Impossible to get it ready in time.

The icefall is the fucking craziest part! That would be the summit for me, and they do it multiple times...insane.

Did they really mean 3 feet or 30. Someone had suggested upthread that it was a typo?

R48 There were many accommodations made in 1996 to accommodate the Imax crew, I think they cannot be seen as blameless.

Well, looks like business is picking up. Nepal processed 203 permits last week so the total so far exceeds this time last year by 33.

The last report I read said permit applications (or maybe granted) were down by 20%. Guess an impoverished country needs more stupids to keep up the GDP, or something.

Base camp would be my goal, too. Plenty close enough to see the scary shit, not be able to breathe very well, be cold AF constantly and get to commune with Chomolungma.

Do we have any favorite expeditions this year? Any good teams? I need to look at Arnette's blog. I have to find someone to root for.

Poop Corpse Mountain

Arnette hasn’t highlighted any climbers (yet), just the companies who’ve applied for permits.

Here's a few no oxygens at least.

"These no Os attempts are always fascinating to watch and often with tragic results, as we saw last year with Hungarian Szilard Suhajda, who was climbing Everest alone with no Sherpa support and without supplemental oxygen when he went missing. A Seven Summits Trek summit team of Sherpas guiding Chinese clients last saw him at the base of the Hillary step. He is presumed dead as he was never seen again last season."

The solo climbers are insane. Even Ueli Steck got into trouble doing that.

What a terrible idea.

Yes R70! This is what I'm looking for, the ones that are so ridiculous and can only be brought up with help from a sherpa. Not everyone gets to summit Everest, and most of them are sighted and can hear, I don't get why these people want to do this. There are other ways to show you're like everyone else, this isn't one of them.

They can just take her to base camp and tell her it's the summit.

Will Bosley the guide dog be going too? I can't wait to see.

The guide dog is named Tenzing.

I was watching American Housewife and there was a cute kid on it, I looked him up and he's famous!

Panorama view.

If Mosedale is at Camp 1 have the Icefall doctors finished?

How long does it take to get the icefall ready?

Pretty soon they'll be hauling cousin Geri up that mountain.

R79 Ha! They definitely could, and should, maybe she'd at least be funny.

The 2024 climbing season on Mount Everest is in full swing this week as some expedition teams are arriving at Base Camp and others have begun acclimatization rotations on the peak.

As Outside recently reported, the official start on the mountain’s Nepali side is delayed this year due to dangerous conditions in the Khumbu Icefall. The circuitous route through the glacier that precedes the easier climbing up to Camp I and Camp II is longer than the one used in previous years, due to an unusually dry winter and a lack of snowfall.

The scheduling delay and new route aren’t the only dynamics impacting expeditions on the world’s highest peak this year. Competition from China has drawn some climbing teams away from the southern Base Camp in Nepal. And new rules and regulations imposed by the Nepali government will shift how some teams handle safety, decorum in Base Camp, and even poop.

More at link.

388 permits granted. That’s 185 more since last week but last year on this date, it was 454.

17 deaths last year despite their claims that Everest is safer than ever. That's more than were killed in the earthquake and in the Ice Fall disaster.

What was the Ice Fall disaster?

R84 In 2014 I guess an avalanche killed a bunch of people in the already precarious icefall.

"What was the Ice Fall disaster?"

Ask Sasha Cohen.

People are acting like the mountain belongs to them. If Nepal wasn’t so dependent on tourism, I wish they could ban tourists from climbing the mountain until they can clean up their mess that they created.

Maybe you could volunteer to check if the climbers are cleaning up their mess at Camp 4, R87? I can see you now, staggering around and trying to screech 'pick up your shit', then getting mown down by an katabatic wind and tossed over the Kangshung Face.

R88 So precise.

[quote]R31 It's the descent that kills you. You're pretty wiped out at that point and you've been in the death zone for a long time and your body is dying the whole time you're up there.

Why don’t they construct a big, twisty plastic slide from the summit to the next camp down? Then people could get there quickly, without accidents.

The slide should be a bright color, so tired hikers can find it.

Actually, you could make it like chutes and ladders, and they have to roll to get to the top.

Big Picture

New Everest permits have slowed and will probably not set a record this spring. Nepal issued 38 new Everest permits this past week, bringing the total on Everest to 390.

Some teams are slowing down their rotation plans, waiting for Camps 2 and 3 to be established. They were delayed when the Icefall Doctors took an extra ten days to establish a route through the Icefall.

My Summit Coach clients tell me it is long, zig-zags a lot and feels dangerous with tall seracs hovering above the route in places. They will need to get through it as quickly as possible, but some reports take ten hours, almost twice as long as some last year.

Sherpas from Seven Summits Treks are steadily fixing the route up the Lhotse Face. IMG reports, “fixing teams reached the Yellow Band today, so they are making good progress on Lhotse Face. Hopefully, they will reach the South Col in the next couple of days.”

Some expect them to reach the summit in mid-May.The weather has been dry and cold thus far, but this is about to change. High winds could hamper some progress on Everest. I suspect the rope fixers will pause around May 1 to let a disturbance calm before reaching the South Col.

- Alan Arnette

[QUOTE] My Summit Coach clients tell me it is long, zig-zags a lot and feels dangerous with tall seracs hovering above the route in places.

Promising, as long as they don't fall on any Sherpas

[QUOTE] . I suspect the rope fixers will pause around May 1 to let a disturbance calm before reaching the South Col.

Basically the weather from hell is coming and everyone will be stuck in their tents for days chomping codeine for their Base Camp headaches.

So the icefall is what's taking so long? FUCK THAT! What's the problem there? Also, don't they have to summit by mid May? I thought the window firmly slams around the 17-20. So if it's taking longer than that, they're screwed. Alright, shit's gonna start getting interesting. And what of our blind and deaf heroine? I hope she's doing well and enjoying the peace of not having to see piles of shit everywhere, and hear base camp transmissions.

There MUST be a virtual Everst program by this point with a VR headset. That would be interesting to get even a little feel of the height and steepness and views.

You’d need something to simulate the lack of oxygen

How about that blackout game on tik tok R97? Play that shit with your vr headset on.

Oh R88, great voice of reason. I hope you and your momma falls off the mountain.

Climbing Everest used to be an even more dangerous pursuit than it is today, requiring huge bravery, endurance and skill. Even then the mountain could kill. A century ago, it claimed the lives of two of Britain’s finest gay climbers, George Mallory and Sandy Irvine.

The world’s highest mountain eventually succumbed to human challenge when, almost three decades later, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay carried the flags of Britain, the UN, and Nepal to its summit on 29 May 1953. Sporadic trips involving handfuls of explorers continued over succeeding years.

But the slopes of Everest have been transformed in recent years. Its peaks and ridges are now regularly flooded with tourists vying to reach its 29,032ft (8,849 metre) summit. In 2023, more than 1,200 people – paying fees of around £40,000 a head – attempted the feat. Of these, more than 600 succeeded. A place once synonymous with remote, unsullied grandeur has become a high-end tourist trap, leaving its once pristine slopes littered with tattered tents, abandoned gear and human waste. Everest tourism may generate hundreds of millions of pounds for Nepal, but this comes at a heavy cost.

They seem to be way behind, they started on the 1st.

" They were delayed when the Icefall Doctors took an extra ten days to establish a route through the Icefall" So they're behind, I think they should be at camp 3 now but they're still at 2.

So roughly half the people who pay the permit fee succeed in summiting. I’d like to see an article on the ones who turn back. Do they try again, do they feel like failures and that they wasted $40,000, or do they not allow themselves to believe that.

I once read a logbook that people wrote in describing their recent experience climbing a nearby mountain (average mountain, not the Himalayas). To do the trek, you had to climb all night, usually in the rain. The path was all mud. The goal was to arrive at the peak at dawn when the clouds parted enough to see the sunrise. Everyone—gung ho backpackers—wrote how terrible the climb was, how difficult it was doing it in the dark with just headlamps, lots of slipping in the mud, the incessant rain turning cold as you climbed higher BUT IT WAS ALL WORTH IT!!1! Except one brave soul wrote, No, it was truly awful and she wished she’d never done it. It wasn’t worth it.

Ha R103, that one woman, that would be me. I wish I'd never done it, but at least I did! It used to be that people would use go fund me to pay for their Everest bullshit so if they didn't summit, no biggie. The icefall part and base camp would be almost worth it, at least you saw it.

[quote]He is presumed dead as he was never seen again last season.

Yeah, I think that's a safe assumption. Everest, the mountain that proves "what goes up must come down" wrong.

I finally came down!

They brought green boots down?

Oh, sorry, I guess they moved him. I thought they brought him all the way down.