🗻Mount Everest 2019 Part Two

Americans going to Everest should bring their excrement back with them.

Did Mandy Moore give a concert at base camp when she was there?

It would be neat if she were airlifted to higher levels, too, to urge the climbers on.

Thirty deaths so far by the looks of things.

R2, probably. Base Camp is party central, with plenty of hoeing.

Are those four British climbers missing dead?

r3 that's the whole range, isn't it?

R6, yep. 11 on Everest, eight on nearby peaks and another eight in the Indian himalayas.

Breaking on CNN: A helicopter searching for the eight missing climbers has spotted a partially buried backpack at the site of a "huge avalanche" at about 5k meters. The chance of finding survivors is "next to zero." Ground teams aren't able to go up right now due to heavy rain and high winds.

The Bruce Herrod Mystery is Solved.

Less than two months after Bruce Herrod disappeared his fianc sent me a fax. It read:

“Sorry we never managed to speak apart from on that horrible Saturday, but I’m sure you realise that Bruce valued your company and felt you did a very good job.

Last Sunday Laura Rabhan (NBC Dateline Producer) gave me a copy of your diary extracts. Thank you. It is hard to describe, but when you can’t have the real thing back, you find yourself hungry for words, objects or anything that gives you a more immediate sense of what went on immediately before the world fell apart.”

She continued, “He literally gave his soul to this expedition”

Sue was angry and blamed Ian Woodall.

“Some days are still truly appalling. Organising a memorial exhibition/reception seems bizarre and unfair, when a wedding reception would have been more fun, but it has to be done and I’m sure it will be a great occasion” wrote Sue.

Sue now blamed Ian for Bruce’s death. I understood her pain, but not her explanation. Bruce had elected to go for the summit at his own free will.

In late 1997 a few 702 colleagues and I went out drinking on a Saturday night. As I recall I was with my girlfriend at the time, Chantal Rutter, Lynne O’Connor, Kalay Maistry and Donald Chauke. I was driving and pulled up at a traffic light.

A newspaper vendor pressed a copy of the Sunday Times against my window. Looking back at me was Bruce Herrod.

I went into shock. It was a photo of him on the Summit!

A few weeks earlier an American climber, Pete Athans, came across a body at the base of the Hillary Step. The climber was tangled in the fixed ropes and had clearly fallen from the top of the Step to the base.

An inspection of the body revealed a traumatic head injury which would almost certainly have killed the man on impact.

Athans studied the gear and the appearance of the frozen climber and recognised him immediately. It was Bruce Herrod, they had met on the mountain in 1996.

Athans reached into Bruce’s rucksack and retrieved his camera. Then he cut the ropes holding Bruce in place on the Hillary Step and let his body plunge down the face into Nepal. It is how mountaineers are buried at this extreme altitude.

Weeks later the camera was delivered to Sue Thompson in London. She walked down High Street Kensington and handed the camera to a man behind the kiosk.

“I need you to develop the film inside this camera. The man who took the pictures paid with his life to do so. Don’t screw this up!”

As it turned out the man behind the kiosk was a South African and he dutifully took the camera and oversaw the development.

There were only three pictures on the spool, all of Bruce Herrod smiling into the camera on the summit of Everest, his South African beanie proudly displayed.

Ian had been correct after all. Bruce had fallen to his death and it had happened at the Hillary Step. Within an hour of speaking to us from the Summit he was dead. Our radio calls and vigil at Camp 4 had all been in vain. Bruce Herrod had clipped into the ropes at the top of the Hillary Step and attempted to descend. Exhausted and lacking enough oxygen, he fell backwards, smashing his skull on the rocks below.

For him the sun had not yet set, but his life was over.

His comrades watched the South Summit relentlessly, hoping he would appear. He never did and now we know why.

Was Ian responsible? No.

Ian Woodall did not kill Bruce Herrod. He gave him the freedom to choose his own fate. I would want the freedom to do the same.

Bruce’s final photograph hangs in my office today. It will never be taken down and will move with me throughout my life.

I’m six years older now than Bruce was when he died. He remains a mentor to me - GET out of your comfort zone and dare to live.

Crazy!

It took Bruce 17 hours to summit. He must have had a death wish, because I am not a mountaineer. I even know that the stamina and life -- after that long of a stretch -- are in jeopardy.

Woodhall as the leader should have either exhorted him to turn round (being a formidable, aggressive character, he should have found that easy) or instructed one of the expeditions' three climbing Sherpas to accompany him from Camp 4, instead of taking three for themselves. The Sherpa would have assisted Bruce and urged him to be more careful on the descent.

Sorry, but Herrod himself was responsible for his death. Sure, Woodall and ODowd are asshats, but there is no way they could have forced him to turn around and descent with them. He was already late because he didn't climb with them. Obviously Harrod wanted to summit at any cost, even though I am sure he knew what he was doing was crazy. And no, no Sherpa has to accompany a climber who is on a guaranteed death trip.

R12, it wasn't a guaranteed death trip. There was no storm. He left the summit at 5pm and plenty have survived an evening descent. It's not automatic death if you come down in the dark.

Playing Russian roulette also doesn't automatically result in death, R13.

R13, Why would anyone choose to climb solo? Doesn't it increase the risk of injury or death?

Forget climbing solo or in the dark, this man was on foot for 17 hours!

17 Hours!

That's how long it took him to summit.

Then, he had to walk some more hours to get back to camp. He was probably high on something.

Interesting docu about the sons of Tenzing and Hillary retracing their fathers' achievement 50 years before.

Good insight of what it really means climbing Everest, Sherpa support, camps, disappointments, hard work; without glamorizing it.

Docu also shows the efforts of Pete Athans and Brent Bishop trying to reach the summit via the treacherous west ridge route.

Woodhall made him climb solo by instructing the three Sherpas to accompany himself and Cathy.

Then, he should have stayed his ass back at camp.

R19, why are you defending that charlatan Woodhall?

R18, Herrod decided by himself to climb on his own. Woodall and ODowd left camp IV for the summit without him. He wasn't ready when they left or unwell, he never should have followed them, esp since apparently he wasn't fit and or fast enough for the trip. Does this make Woodall a dick head? Maybe, but he had the mission to climb Everest for South Africa and he didn't want to be held up by unfit climbers.

You are like 'I don't care about safety, I just want to climb and if I die, god dammit I want a Sherpa to die with me'. You are the ultimate egoist.

Hey OP, you forgot to post the link to Part One:

“Look at me, Sherpa, is THAT what you call the proper amount of cappuccino foam?”

Once again, the current Mt. Everest thread is all about 1996. Even the OP.

5 dead bodies spotted by Indian Airforce.

Son hopes dad who is among the 8 missing is still alive.

Body of Ruth McCance found.

The team missing on Nanda Devi...

It's too bad they can't pour some kind of acid or something on the dead bodies, from planes, to make them disappear.

Maybe robots would work, sent to drag them back down.

This short documentaryshows you what it's ike just getting to the Mt. Everest Base Camp.

Thank God my late father's passion was baseball. I still think it's very selfish for parents to partake in high risk sports or activites, regardless of the age of their children. Not to mention that these missing/dead mountaineers are endangering Search & Rescue teams, who may have no choice but to be part of a rescue efforts (military, etc). The rescuers are most likely are parents too. Or, they are the children of parents, who could lose their child to someone who just had to climb a mountain to brag about it or to fulfill some personal goal.

The Grusesome Truth About the Climbers Who Die on Mt. Everest (green boots included)...

Imagine being the family/ancestors of George Mallory. His back looks like an ice cube. You would think he, of all people, would warrant pick up.

Mallory sure was handsome.

he had a cold ass, but he couldn't live forever

Gallery of Mallory photos from Google Images...

Check out George Mallory's legs. The indiginity (but of course, we DLers must examine everything)! He had one hardy sock.

Are those blue things socks too?

[quote]Mallory sure was handsome.

He still is. He looks nice. He looks like a hot adipocere dude, but he isn't one. I would like to touch his smooth white skin. It think would be like touching a sleeping K-pop dude's skin. I would like that. I think he's kind of quiet and shy like me, and nice. I think he smells like lavender, ozone, and a touch of chai. Do you?

Well?

Decomposition is very odd on Mt. Everest. I wonder if the spirits of these dead climbers hang around. What would they say? Would they be at such a place of enlightenment that they wouldn't care if people gawked and stepped over their frozen corpses? I don't know.

In NYC after 9/11 and TWA 800 crash, where families were gathering and wanting bodies to bury, my whole family made an oath to each other. We said that if some disaster happens like those, don't gather and wait nearby hoping for our body to bury. It doesn't matter. Let us be fish food.

I don't know how I'd feel about my body on Everest. I wouldn't put myself in that position, nor would I want to endanger anyone trying to retrieve my body. But it is gruesome and callous to be trampling by them on your stupid excursion. At least anchor a flag or tarp around them. Cut off some memento for their families --- a patch of their clothing, buckle, clamp, compass, goggles, knit hat, sunglasses, something.

Don't all climbers wear GPS and avalanche beacons now? Don't all the camps have GPS beacons, cell and satellite phones? Flashlights and light beacons? Those could have saved some of the 1996 Everest climbers including the Japanese guy who fell off the cliff trying to poop. to give their families when you get back down.

Another great Everest Base Camp trekking docu video with 3 strapping hot guys and beautiful landscape cinematography!

R39. lol. I made an edit and somehow a sentence got mangled. I did not mean to say "...including the Japanese guy who fell off the cliff trying to poop. to give their families when you get back down."

No saving poop for the families. "to give their families when you get back down" was meant to end the sentence about bringing down mementos for the families of the dead climbers.

The guy who fell down the Lhotse face was from Taiwan R39 and Scott Fisher didn't even give radios to his guides.

And it's Fischer not Fisher

- was

R38 fucking wins.

[quote]r39 What would they say? Would they be at such a place of enlightenment that they wouldn't care if people gawked and stepped over their frozen corpses?

Undoubtedly they stepped over and gawked at similar corpses on their own ways up and/or down.

Did they stop to bury [italic]them? [/italic] No.

The search and discovery of Mallory's body took more than 70 years. Finally a team of renowned American climbers incl Conrad Anker and Dave Hahn and some German guy who devoted his whole adult life unraveling the mystery around the Mallory-Irvine climb, found Mallory's bleached body in May 1999, face down on a snow field some 600 meters below the lower north east ridge.

At first they thought they had found Irvine's body because his ice axe was discovered by a Chinese climber not that far away in 1933. Name tags on the collar of one of his remaining shirts finally gave away the identity of the body - George Mallory. What they found was that he died from a massive head wound, possible inflicted by a blow to his forehead with an ice axe which nobody could explain how that happened.

It's a fascinating story. Mallory's body is still on the mountain, the 1999 team gave his body a proper burial and covered him up with stones. Nobody knows whether Mallory and Irvine made it to the summit.

5 part BBC documentary, it's worth watching the whole thing.

Mallory was another one who left a small child behind while he climbed a mountain.

"I would never leave my boyfriends behind while climbing a mountain. They always climbed with me. Oh, my husband might be left at home, but never my boyfriends."

'Maybe, but he had the mission to climb Everest for South Africa and he didn't want to be held...'

Woodall pretended to be South African for the kudos of first SA to summit but he was actually a Brit! Charatan on so many levels.

The foolhardy eight killed on this Indian mountain were trying to summit a virgin peak notorious for deep gorges and avalanches.

George Mallory sure was the exhibitionist.

The eight dead climbers were climbing a never summited peak without permission from the authorities:

The group was attempting to scale a previously unclimbed and unnamed peak believed to be about 6,477 meters (21,250 feet) high, according to Facebook posts from the group's expedition company. The alarm was raised a few days after they failed to return to camp.

The eight climbers did not have permission to climb an unnamed peak, Indian authorities said Monday.

Jogdande added that if authorities had known that the eight climbers were planning on climbing the unnamed peak instead of Nanda Devi East, they "would not have given permission."

[quote]Jogdande added that if authorities had known that the eight climbers were planning on climbing the unnamed peak instead of Nanda Devi East, they "would not have given permission."

As if! I'm sure that once their money was received, the authorities didn't give a care what mountain they climbed.

[quote]The group was attempting to scale a previously unclimbed and unnamed peak believed to be about 6,477 meters (21,250 feet) high

That's lower than Everest's summit. I wonder why they wanted to climb a lower and more dangerous peak? Yeah, I'm sure for the fame of being the first, but it pales in comparison to Everest's peak.

Only on DL would a nearly century old frozen body of George Mallory be deemed “hot.”

I think George swung both ways.

Hot or cold?

If you have a death wish or not long to live I could see climbing Everest being an option. But you put the lives of Sherpas in the balance, so it’s not ethical. Better to swim with Great Whites.

That ridge they all stand on to reach the top is sixteen inches wide, with a 4000 foot drop to one side and a 6000 foot drop on the other.

When that conga line to the summit is full of iced over dead rich people's corpses and there is no way to move them nor climb over them I will laugh and laugh!

Then the mountain will blow them off and new ones will come, I suppose, but what a work of art and testimony to the hubris of people that will be in the meantime!

"When that conga line to the summit is full of iced over dead rich people's corpses "

Heh!

Is the season over, then?

All over but the garbage...

R58, they don't blow off easily. They become frozen into the rock very quickly. Mark Horrell wrote in his My Everest Hell book that one of the corpses on the summit ridge was still so life like and scary that it resembled a 'high altitude zombie trying to crawl towards me.'

To remove them, industrial equipment is required as they all double in weight from the ice.

'That's lower than Everest's summit. I wonder why they wanted to climb a lower and more dangerous peak? Yeah, I'm sure for the fame of being the first, but it pales in comparison to Everest's peak. '

It probably cost about 25% as much and they would go down in record books as the first to summit it. The mountain will now be on the radar of all professional climbers, who will rush to bag the dangerous summit, which apparently is surrounded not just by crevasses, but by 'gorges'. Scary.

Is the death toll 30 now?

I'm still trying to wrap my head around that sleeping beauty woman. She never climbed a mountain, but her mountaineer husband thinks it's okay for Everest to be her first mountain. Then, he leaves her on the mountain thinking she made it to base camp before he did?

Was he trying to kill her and ended up killing them both?

Take off those thirsty (green) boots - -

R65, Frances the Sleeping Beauty was an experienced climber:

In 1992, Yarbro married Sergei Arsentiev. Together, they climbed many Russian peaks, including the first ascent of Peak 5800m, which they named Peak Goodwill, as well as Denali via the West Buttress. Arsentiev became the first U.S. woman to ski down Elbrus, and she summitted its east and west peaks. By this time, she had developed an interest in becoming the first U.S. woman to summit Everest without the use of supplemental oxygen.[2]

Just read that 12 sherpas removed tons of garbage from Everest the last couple of weeks - including 4 unidentified bodies. Authorities are asking for DNA samples from relatives but no one even responded. Are they afraid they have to pay for the - unwanted - recovery? So weird that no one seems to care about their loved ones.

Looks like Arsantiev didn't have much experience with climbing 8 thousanders. I guess once you're in the death zone, it's a whole different ball game.

But I guess it's all a bit of a gamble whether you'll make it down the mountain alive or not.

[quote]Are they afraid they have to pay for the - unwanted - recovery? So weird that no one seems to care about their loved ones.

Odd, because the family of at least one of the missing climbers raised a lot of money towards recovering his body.

(Maybe this will take the heat off Everest):

@ABC7

Visiting the International Space Station will soon be possible...if you can pay

'Looks like Arsantiev didn't have much experience with climbing 8 thousanders. I guess once you're in the death zone, it's a whole different ball game'

She went up into her first death zone without any o2, so of course she died. A very silly woman.

[quote]'Looks like Arsantiev didn't have much experience with climbing 8 thousanders. I guess once you're in the death zone, it's a whole different ball game'

[quote]She went up into her first death zone without any o2, so of course she died. A very silly woman.

She NEVER EVER climbed a mountain before, and Mt. Everest was her FIRST one. Her child had a nightmare that his parents were in trouble. He begged her to stay. She said it was okay, and she left. It was odd he didn't beg his dad to stay.

I wonder what was her husband thinking or plotting.

Because, he returns to base camp without her, as if she -- A WOMAN WHO HAS NEVER CLIMBED -- will out pace him and get to camp before he -- AN EXPERIENCED CLIMBER -- did.

When he went to go look for her, I think it was just Karma that he died.

No body, so who really knows for sure if he did die.

@AFP

The bodies of four climbers who failed their Everest challenge and left little clue as to their identity have thrown up a new challenge for Nepalese authorities who control the world's tallest peak

R47 the German guy is Jochen Hemmleb and he is very cute.

Mallory did swing both ways in his infatuations, although partly that may also have been because it it was a trendy thing to do in his social set. He did actually have an actual sexual encounter with Lytton Strachey's brother (whose name I forget) but he didn't seem to want to repeat the experience. When he died, he had letters on him, one of which was from a 19 year old fan named Marjorie Hamilton, whose ongoing correspondence with him had turned romantic. I'm sure the wife never knew.

An interesting post from Everestnews. They had funded an expedition to find Sandy Irvine (obviously not successful). Their theory is that Mallory and Irvine were not roped together when Mallory fell, and that George may have summitted alone.

NO IT WASN'T FRAN'S FIRST FUCKING MOUNTAIN.

It's there in her Wikipedia entry so I don't know why you are here shouting. She foolishly tried to ascend without o2 so of course she was spazzed on the descent:

In 1992, Yarbro married Sergei Arsentiev. Together, they climbed many Russian peaks, including the first ascent of Peak 5800m, which they named Peak Goodwill, as well as Denali via the West Buttress. Arsentiev became the first U.S. woman to ski down Elbrus, and she summitted its east and west peaks. By this time, she had developed an interest in becoming the first U.S. woman to summit Everest without the use of supplemental oxygen.[2]

R77, Don't most climbers who attempt a summit without oxygen do so on their 2nd or more climb?

She did summit lower mountains without oxygen but Everest was her first 8000er.

R79, To clarify,I meant that those who climb Mount Everest without oxygen do so after successfully summiting that particular mountain at least once.

How many of the 7 summits did she conquer?

R80, two by the sounds of it: Elbrus and Denali. Conditions on Denali can be just as brutal as Everest. Blizzards and -100f. But it's not an 8000 peak.

Of the 7 summits only Everest in a 8thousander.

All the others are significantly lower. She probably was a skilled mountaineer but was naive about the extreme effect of altitude on the body once you're in the death zone.

She had climbed mountains but should never have climbed Everest for the first time sans oxygen. It's no wonder she died. Cathy O'Dowd gives a gruesome description of her dying state in her biog. Hanging from the ropes 'like a puppet', 'skin white as porcelein' and crying hypoxically 'why are you doing this to me' when they tried to give her 02.

They weren't giving her oxygen, because she didn't have a mask and they didn't have a spare one. According to Cathy, she was just repeating phrases like a broken record, "Don't leave me. I'm an American."

Did she at least have a relative who was willing to raise her young child if anything bad happened to her? Serious enough fathers abandoning their responsibility but I'd expect a mother would be more conscientious. Parents of young kids shouldn't be such risk takers. It's not like the military where there's a real purpose involved.

A team of Uzbekistan climbers already helped FA with oxygen and carried her to a lower altitude, but by that time she had already spent 3 days in the death zone and was barely conscious. The next day Woodall and O'Dowd found her, still alive, but beyond help.

The Uzbekistan climbers just gave her a can of oxygen, which she couldn't use, because she didn't have a mask. They couldn't have carried her to a lower level, if so, why did they leave her in the death zone?

[quote]r68 12 sherpas removed tons of garbage from Everest the last couple of weeks - including 4 unidentified bodies.

They should auction them on ebay, to fund more cleanup.

If you can't afford the climb, at least you can have someone from Everest in your freezer.

I think they carried her down as much as possible before they also were at risk running out of oxygen. Then they left her.

Don't they leave notes or sign something saying what to do if they don't return? or wear dog tags like in the military to identify the person? or do they like the myth and allure of having died on Everest? *rolls eyes* I expect it's only going to get worse.

Is she one of the upcoming ebay items?

More and more people are trying to climb the other 8000s that surround Everest so the corpse count is only going to rise year or year. Expeditions to Cho Oyo, Llotse and Nuptse are popular and much cheaper than they are to Everest.

Crazy Mostly White people and their money.

David Breashears attempts to answer the questions we'be been pondering on these threads.

Also curious about the name tag thing. It seems like a lot of them climb without proper identification. Why is it so hard to have your name in your clothes or on all your property. They should also all be required to have a plastic ID and a dog tag around their necks. They probably all think they're invincible and don't need it.

In total there are currently around 300 bodies on Everest. Why isn't there proper documentation of the names, ages, clothes and equipment. Person xy was wearing a red suit from brand xy and shoes size x from brand xy would also help.

George Mallory had a name tag in his shirt which is how they identified him.

They should all wear name tags, but considering the bodies are often found huddled in a frozen ball or swaddled with clothing that would conceal any name tag, they probably should wear jackets with their names emblazoned across the front and back, similar to football jerseys. Probably down the legs too.

I pity the fools.

R94 he's quite the silver fox 🐺

[quote]r92 More and more people are trying to climb the other 8000s that surround Everest so the corpse count is only going to rise

How expensive is it to just release vultures up there?

When will robots with AI start assisting climbers up?

[quote]r100 When will robots with AI start assisting climbers up?

I want them to malfunction, and start tossing the climbers off cliffs.

[quote]r73 I wonder what was her husband thinking or plotting. Because, he returns to base camp without her, as if she -- A WOMAN WHO HAS NEVER CLIMBED -- will out pace him and get to camp before he -- AN EXPERIENCED CLIMBER -- did.

Gurl should have upped her blowjob game.

[quote]How expensive is it to just release vultures up there?

How do you think those holes got into my buttox?

- George Mallory

Considering there are no vultures or animals that high up, how did they?

"Now I realized why I had said it wasn't Irvine," Politz recalls. "It was the position of the body. The body we were looking for—a body long assumed to be Andrew Irvine—had been seen in 1975 by a Chinese climber, Wang Hongbao, during a short walk from his Camp VI tent at 26,980 feet. He described the body as gape-mouthed, its cheek pecked by goraks. But this body was face down. What's more, it was too far from the Chinese camp. No one in his right mind would have gone for a short walk where we found this body. I just sat down. My knees literally got weak. My jaw dropped. Next to me, Dave was going, 'Oh, my God, it's George. Oh, my God.' "

....

It was this camera that the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition hoped to find. After recovering from the initial shock of discovering Mallory's body, the climbers hesitantly began trying to free it from the frozen rock. It was like chipping concrete with a knife, but the exhaustingly slow pace afforded plenty of time to study Mallory carefully. The tibia and fibula of his right leg were broken above the top of his boot, and his right elbow was either broken or dislocated. Cuts, abrasions, and bruises ran along his right side, and the climbing rope in which he was tangled had compressed his rib cage. The rope had passed twice around his waist, and the frayed trailing ends were wrapped around his leg and upper body. Goraks had pecked at the body, eating away his legs, buttocks, and abdominal cavity.

[bold]#MoreGoraks!

R104, R106, Link provides more details on Everest's geese or goraks.

Denali isn't an 8000 metre peak but it's set in an incredibly cold climate and dozens of men have died up there. So Fran summiting there was an achievement.

If she’d had oxygen for the trip down she’d probably still be alive.

I think it was Sir Edmund Hillary that said it was horrible that people were leaving dying people behind and and summiting right past their dying bodies as they begged for help. Delirious or not, how could you leave a dying person saying “Don’t leave me”? When the first group found her she wasn’t as bad off. The second group didn’t find her until the next day.

O’Dowd said she thought she was just repeating it like a broken record. So who was she saying it to, the first group of hikers or her husband?

[quote]Link provides more details on Everest's geese or goraks.

If they built a fire and roasted the bodies to thaw them, might the goraks eat them, then?

There has to be a way to entice them - -

[quote]r109 Delirious or not, how could you leave a dying person saying “Don’t leave me”? ... O’Dowd said she thought she was just repeating it like a broken record.

Fucking tiresome.

People are on vacation!

R101 Lol.

[quote]If she’d had oxygen for the trip down she’d probably still be alive.

I think it was Sir Edmund Hillary that said it was horrible that people were leaving dying people behind and and summiting right past their dying bodies as they begged for help. Delirious or not, how could you leave a dying person saying “Don’t leave me”? When the first group found her she wasn’t as bad off. The second group didn’t find her until the next day.

As cold as this sounds, she should have known what she was in for, especially if she were an experienced climber. However, she and her husband wanted to break a record w/o oxygen, and they did. Did they not think of what comes next? If she knew it was advisable to use oxygen, she knew there were deadly risks without it.

As expensive it is to climb Everest, why should someone ruin their dream or life to save her? She got her dream to summit w/o oxygen.

[quote]O’Dowd said she thought she was just repeating it like a broken record. So who was she saying it to, the first group of hikers or her husband?

I think she was saying that to the first group of hikers, especially when she said "I'm American." Now, of course, it could have been a mashup between the two conversations, which tends to happen, because I definitely believe her husband left her on that mountain.

[quote]If she’d had oxygen for the trip down she’d probably still be alive. I think it was Sir Edmund Hillary that said it was horrible that people were leaving dying people behind and and summiting right past their dying bodies as they begged for help. Delirious or not, how could you leave a dying person saying “Don’t leave me”? When the first group found her she wasn’t as bad off. The second group didn’t find her until the next day.

As cold as this sounds, she should have known what she was in for, especially if she were an experienced climber. However, she and her husband wanted to break a record w/o oxygen, and they did. Did they not think of what comes next? If she knew it was advisable to use oxygen, she knew there were deadly risks without it.

As expensive it is to climb Everest, why should someone ruin their dream or life to save her? She got her dream to summit w/o oxygen.

[quote] O’Dowd said she thought she was just repeating it like a broken record. So who was she saying it to, the first group of hikers or her husband?

I think she was saying that to the first group of hikers, especially when she said "I'm American." Now, of course, it could have been a mashup between the two conversations, which tends to happen, because I definitely believe her husband left her on that mountain.

R115, Why did her husband separate from her in the 1st place? Shouldn't they have been climbing more or less together?

They were climbing without Sherpa support. They made the same mistake as David Sharp, trying to be purists and it backfired on them.

When Woodall and O'Dowd found her, they had been in the death zone for 4 days, staying two successive nights at camp 6 above 8200 m, because they couldn't summit at their first attempt. I can't imagine after that time any of them was capable of a rational thought.

[quote]Why did her husband separate from her in the 1st place? Shouldn't they have been climbing more or less together?

Exactly! The husband went to camp thinking she was there. WTF? Then, he turns around and goes to look for her, when she doesn't make it back to camp.

I would love to see a timeline of when the husband's movements after the summit, but this will have to do:

[quote]Following a rough night time trek to camp, Sergi noticed she was missing. Despite the dangers, he chose to turn back to find his wife. On his way back, he encountered a team of Uzbek climbers who said they had tried to help Francys, but had to abandon her when their own oxygen became depleted. The next day, two other climbers found Francys, who was still alive but in too poor of a condition to be moved. Her husband's ice axe and rope were nearby, but he was nowhere to be found. Francys died where the two climbers left her and climbers solved Sergi's disappearance the following year when they found his body lower down on the mountain face where he fell to his death.

Every year, these threads rock. This one started slow, (what was the greyed out thing about), but it has turned into another bloody good one. Thanks everyone

You bitches are slipping, going on about fictitious vultures. Here is a big story re: this season's climb---

Indian Fake Everest Summit

[quote]If they built a fire and roasted the bodies to thaw them, might the goraks eat them, then? There has to be a way to entice them

Someone needs to bring up a few cases of barbecue sauce. That might work.

R111 I’m crying with laughter. That was fucking hilarious.

Cathy O'Dowd did a LOT of virtue signalling in her autobiograpy so compensate for behaving so badly on the 96 expedition.

[quote]r117 They were climbing without Sherpa support. They made the same mistake as David Sharp, trying to be purists and it backfired on them.

Who'd a thunk it?

R123 I'm an Everest newbie. What did she do?

She walked right past a dying woman and left her there to die alone. In her account, there’s a lot of trying to justify her actions.

She sounds like she’s too apologetic and guilty for it to really have been a situation where she was in such dire straits she couldn’t do something else.

Well, it seems as if there isn't much to be done if someone is stricken with something on that mountain. Plus, Francy should have known better. She gambled with her own life.

Why should Cathy gamble more with her own life by trying to rescue a woman who was out in the open for at least two days?

Francy went up there without oxygen or a crew and somehow was separated from her husband. Yet, Francy wanted someone to stay with her in 30 degrees below zero weather-- for what?

Everyone should have known the mountain is deadly. You are climbing something that requires oxygen and yet Francy and her husband wanted to make a record and prove everyone wrong.

At the very least, they should have had a crew or emergency oxygen, just in case, but they did none of that. They didn't even look out for themselves let alone their child, who was left an orphan.

O'Dowd's team didn't have the man power to winch Fran down. They stayed with her as long as they could and actually abandoned their summit attempt.

Francy was already in her fourth day above 8000m. There is nothing anybody could have done to help her.

How on earth do you get separated on Everest?

Maybe she saw a shoe sale.

It happens.

I think her husband “left her to get help.” Then went back to get her alone and fell. I wonder if she knew he fell. Probably not. They found his body a long time later.

I don’t think so, r132. I read he went back to base camp and was surprised he didn’t see her there. Then he went back to search for her.

I have a sneaky suspicion that he never went to look for her and whatever corpse that is down that mountain is one of the random 300 dead bodies. It's not him.

Wasn't Sergio the creepy corpse sitting up with long stringy hair flying around?

Right, r134. He actually made it back down without anyone else seeing him. He’s sneaky like that.

R136 It's possible. They wear a ton of gear. Plus, who knows if he went up the mountain when he left the tent. He could have simply gone down the mountain instead of going up to look for the wife.

[quote]They wear a ton of gear.

So I guess he swapped clothes with a corpse he happened to find on the mountain?

[quote]Plus, who knows if he went up the mountain when he left the tent. He could have simply gone down the mountain instead of going up to look for the wife.

“Simply gone down”? It’s Everest! Most of the deaths occur on the way down. It’s not the bunny slope at your local ski lodge.

The couple had a small child, so did Sergio abandon him? Because not a single family member or friend ever saw Sergio again.

You conspiracy queens crack me up.

[quote]The couple had a small child, so did Sergio abandon him?

No, that was not Sergei's child. It was Francy's son.

Another account of the day:

The couple had reached the summit without supplemental oxygen - Fran was the first American woman to do so - and were descending when disaster struck.

A team of Uzbek climbers said later that they had come across Sergei, who had asked for oxygen and medicine and then left them to return to his wife. (Cathy's account said that the Uzbek team tried to help Francy, left oxygen, and left her)

It is thought he fell on the way back, although it is not known where he died.

France didn’t have an oxygen mask, so it did no good.

If I’m not mistaken, they did find Sergei a long time later, or saw a body they thought was Sergei.

Apparently Sergei’s body was discovered:

“Francys Arsentiev (January 18, 1958 – May 24, 1998) became the first woman from the United States to reach the summit without the aid of bottled oxygen, on May 22, 1998. She tried to establish a record of such climb. During the course of the treacherous descent, Francys and her’ Russian husband, Sergei Arsentiev, became separated. Sergei Arsentiev made it to the base camp, realized Francys hasn’t arrive, turned around and went back up the mountain in search of her. His ice axe and rope were found near her frozen body. Francys died, lying on her side, still clipped onto the guide rope. She was 40 years old, the mother of a son.

“Sergei was nowhere to be found. In 1999, however, Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition (to find evidence that Mallory and Irvine had been the first to summit Everest in their attempt of 8–9 June 1924) discovered Sergei’s body lower on the mountain face. Apparently he has sustained a fatal fall while attempting to rescue his wife.”

Who the hell wrote that? It’s riddled with errors.

TRAGEDY AT 8,000 METRES

There are numerous cases where climbers have been left on Everest.

One of the most famous is of Sergei and Francys Distefano-Arsentiev. The married couple and seasoned mountaineers tried to climb the mountain in May of 1998.

After two failed attempts to reach the summit in two days, the oxygen depletion was taking its toll on both of them. But on May 22, the couple completed the push to the summit, making Francys the first North American woman to summit without bottled oxygen. But it was late in the day, and the couple was forced to spend another night above 8,000 metres in the Death Zone. During the night they became separated and the following morning, Francys was nowhere to be found. Sergei went to find her, taking oxygen and medicine with him.

Some members from a Uzbek team apparently came across Francys as they headed to the summit. And while Sergei's ice axe and rope were found nearby, he was not. Francys was observed to be half conscious and frozen, and the climbers tried to carry her down the mountain until their own oxygen depletion interfered. They left her with an oxygen canister and made their way down to camp. They crossed paths with Sergei, who likely was on his way back up to where his wife was. It was the last time he was seen alive.

On the morning of May 24, climbers Ian Woodall and Cathy O'Dowd came across Francys while on their way to the summit. Woodall and O'Dowd had been members of one of several Everest expeditions in 1996 — the year of the mountain's most famous tragedy in which eight climbers died and which was chronicled in Jon Krakauer's bestselling book Into Thin Air.

As Woodall and O'Dowd encountered Francys on their climb that day, she was exactly where she had been left the night before. Woodall and O'Dowd tried to help her, but she was in poor condition, in a dangerous location, and in freezing weather.

She was left there, and found later lying on her side and still clipped onto the guide rope.

The mysterious disappearance of Sergei was solved the following year when Jake Norton, a member of the 1999 George Mallory and Andrew Irvine expedition discovered the body lower on the mountain face. It appeared he had fallen while attempting to rescue his wife.

So, it seems Francy must have hiked down the mountain in the middle of the night and that caused her to be separated from her husband. That makes sense.

Doesn't everyone now have very high tech equipment that captures the trek? go pro cameras/GPS/beacons/light tags/body monitoring devices/new O2 canisters and equipment and whatever else. it all still seems futile. At that height (base camp) I just imagine the foreigners dizzy and giddy that they are going to trek Everest.

Such extraordinary stupidity! Someone get these idiots to try scuba diving without oxygen too.

Actually R147 I know someone who does something called free-diving, diving as deeply as possible without oxygen. She pushes herself to new PB (personal best) limits. She says it is exhilarating.

Bear Grylls: 'I should have died several times on Mount Everest'

He can always go back and try again.

After reading R144, several things don’t make sense. He brought oxygen but it wasn’t on her? His ice axe was right beside her, implying he did come back and find her. It seems she was still alive then. She was saying, don’t leave me...to Sergei?

Did he see it was hopeless and deliberately kill himself rather than leave her and have to face the family? He was in much better shape than her.

Reading all the stuff, it seems he was going up and down that dang mountain. It's crazy.

Re: Oxygen

I don't know why he bothered bringing oxygen, if he brought it all, because according to Cathy, she didn't have a face mask. As a result, the oxygen was useless to Francy. He would have known that.

I believe that Uzbec team left the can of oxygen when they found her. They didn't have an extra face mask, but they tried to assist. Eventually, they left her with only the can of oxygen, as stated by Cathy.

[quote]because according to Cathy, she didn't have a face mask.

[quote]as stated by Cathy.

I read that also.

If Sergei had an oxygen tank, why not a mask too? Did he get it from someone on the mountain, or did they have one for emergencies? And if they didn’t, why not?

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

[quote]If Sergei had an oxygen tank, why not a mask too?

The mask could have been easily blown away or somebody took it. Also, Sergei had a severely oxygen deprived brain. They had been in the death zone without oxygen for 4 days. I find it hard to believe that any of those two could still think coherently. Probably the reason they became separated on the way down without realizing.