Murder On Everest? Tainted Alcohol Blamed For Sherpa Poisonings And Death
May 13, 2009
There is some very disturbing news coming off of Mt. Everest today. A recent Sherpa death has been attributed to what the Sherpa thought was a bottle of alcohol-which in reality was methanol. It was packaged, bottled, and labeled as Nepali Royal Stag Deluxe Whiskey. At least one other Sherpa is currently in dire condition after drinking from the same bottle.
Gavin Bates reports that the recent death of Kaji Sherpa is attributed to this bad batch of brew and that Gavin’s own expedition cook is also suffering some very serious health problems-being near death at one point.
I don’t do this very often, but the seriousness of this situation and the readership that this site has, I feel that it is only right to reprint Gavin’s full report to get the word out about what is/has taken place.
I would seriously recommend ANY expedition leaders to please, Please, PLEASE go through the alcohol in your camp and make sure that Nepali Royal Stag Deluxe Whiskey is NOT in your stash of supplies and get the word out on this disheartening and truly awful situation before more deaths occur senselessly.
Gavin Bates has done an amazing job of giving us plenty of information, clear down to who is possibly passing the bad alcohol off on unsuspecting individuals. Here is his full report:
Ngima Sherpa is my cook here, and a ridiculously happy chap he is too,” Gavin Bate reported earlier today. “He also enjoys the odd drink, like most of the staff here, and the other night he went next door to the Mountain Top group and polished off a bottle of Nepali Royal Stag deluxe whiskey with his mate Kaji Sherpa, the camp 2 cook from this group. They come from the same village called Thaksindu, three days below Lukla.”
“Unfortunately this wasn’t whiskey at all, it was methanol, part a stock of illegal brew made in Kathmandu and delivered throughout the Khumbu in the last few months. The dealer in Lukla is a Gurung called Lama and so far four other people have died in the region because of this poisoning. At this moment, as I type, I am surrounded by liaison officers and we are calling the police inspector in Namche Bazaar to push for a formal investigation into murder or manslaughter.”
”A few hours after enjoying their late night , Kaji was lying dead on the ice outside and Ngima was fighting for his life. Methanol poisoning is quick and deadly. Within a short time the Indian Army team doctor found Ngima and attempted to help him (he was conscious enough to drink some coffee) but very quickly he was going into renal failure. My staff carried him to the HRA medical emergency tent, and then began the first desperate 24 hours of trying to keep him alive.
Ngima was lucky, he was attended to by some of the finest medical minds in wilderness medicine. Eric and Torrey, who run the HRA here, were immediately forced to think outside the box. This was almost a lost cause from the start, but they persevered with dogged tenacity. Other doctors started to attend the scene - Jeff from Adventure Consultants, Lana from the Croatian team, Melissa from RMI, Donald from Summit Climb and also Felix from the German team.”
”My team here attended round the clock, but we were supported mostly by both Willie and Damien Benegas, who carried out procedures and assisted from beginning to end, eschewing sleep and even their own climbing teams to keep Ngima alive, right up until the moment that we finally loaded him aboard the helicopter this morning. Also worth mentioning is Adele from Jagged Globe who kept on turning up to help at the just the right moment.”
This is a sad and very SERIOUS situation. Investigations are currently taking place into this matter. I will share more info when I get it…
Let’s keep the affected Sherpas in our thoughts and prayers and hope that investigators can get to the bottom of this tragic situation. Unbelievable!
From The Adventurist Vault:
Written by Jason A. Hendricks · Filed Under Everest 2009 |
The real issue here is that outfitters should not allow alcoholic beverages in camp in any form. These expeditions are going into the “Zone of Death” (anything above 20,000 feet) and the death rate on Everest climbers is somewhere around 20% already. Adding alcohol which impairs your judgment by lowering your blood oxygen is just crazy. Have a drink to toast your successful ascent when you get off the mountain, but leave the booze at home.
The death rate on Everest has been dramatically lowered in recent years. It now stands at roughly 2-3% over the past two seasons. You also have to remember that Everest Expeditions can take upwords of two months to acclimatize etc. That leaves quite a bit of time to sit in basecamp with nothing to do. The climbers are generally adults. Even if the expedition companies did not allow alcohol in camps, it would not keep it out. Also remember that this incident is not anything to do with ‘proper’ alcohol. This is/was a poisoning situation. Someone passed off methanol as the real deal. That is no fault of the climbers or Sherpas.
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