Everest like an amusement park, Simone Moro abandons Everest

[wayno]

http://www.planetmountain.com/english/News/shownews1.lasso?l=2&keyid=39597

Interview with Simone Moro who descended to Everst Base Camp today and abandoned his project of climbing Everest and then Lhotse without supplementary oxygen due to the massive crowds on the mountain (more than 200 are currently attempting to reach its summit) and the dangers association with this overcrowding.

[Rob A]

Bout time the Chinese put a cable car to the top and be done with it. Little old ladies up there to sell you stuff, postcards, dried nuts ....

[wayno]

moro is sponsored by TNF, pretty bold to criticise so many people using the sponsors product...

[wayno]

ironically hte book "Into thin air" which told the story of the death of eight mountaineers who died in a storm on everest, seemed to spike more interest than ever to climb the mountain, this year ten have died, one of the worst years on record....

[phan_TOM]

'Mount Everest Sacred Toilet' otherwise known as the 'worlds highest dumpster' according to this story. there is no official figure on how much rubbish has been left on the mountain but, not including the bodies of failed attempts and who knows how much refuse, 400 kilo's of human waste alone has been brought down in the last 4 years...

Heres an interesting link to give an idea on the costs involved if anyones keen.

and wayno, thats a great book by the way, one of my favourite adventure stories, really well written and researched by Jon Krakauer. All told that year 19 people died trying to climb Everest. I like the way it highlights the difference between those that actually climb the mountain and the majority who are pushed, pulled and pretty much mollycoddled all the way up. Really reminds me how supremely tough and courageous those men were who first made it all the way up (not to mention those that didn't). No guides, no fixed ropes, no idea what to expect hour by hour, no chance of much if any help if anything went wrong, gear that nowadays seems ludicrously heavy and innapropriate not to mention the food etc

[wayno]

During the tragic 1996 climbing season on Mount Everest, there was only one medical doctor at Camp III: Ken Kamler.

Kamler spoke at TEDMED last October, but the video was finally released online today. It's a long video (twenty minutes), but well worth watching. Not only does he discuss the type of conditions the climbers faced that season, he uses technology to show how Beck Weathers survived 36 hours in the storm.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/ken_kamler_medical_miracle_on_everest.html