The Adventurist: A Call to All Outdoor Writers and Photographers!

I have just put the finishing touches on a new “Submit & Contact” Page here at The Adventurist.  I am hoping that this new feature will be accepted and used by all of my great readers.

This page goes into detail about a few things I am looking for here at The Adventurist–and ways you might be able to get involved.

Do you love Adventure Writing or perhaps Great Outdoors Photography?–Help me share your incredible talents with a much bigger audience!

Head on Over to the “Submit & Contact” Page, found on a tab right up above this article, and Share your Adventures with the World!

Also, if you are looking to put me to work, there is info there as well….

Cheers-

J. Alan Hendricks, Editor

Everest 2007 Update: Two High Altitude Rescues, More Summits, and a Possible Weather Change?

Over the past day, two amazing rescues have occured at high-altitude, one each on the North and the South.  One rescue is cause for concern though, as we will see:

Female Nepali Climber Abandoned at 27,500 Feet

An Unknown female climber with the Democratic Nepal Everest Expedition was seemingly left for dead by her own team near the Balcony at 27,500 feet on Everest’s South Side yesterday.  At this time, this is all that is known of the actual incident other than details from the IMG Expedition Team who went up to try to make a high-altitude rescue.

Dave Hahn–who incidentally has some of the most famous High-Altitude rescues ever to his credit–went back up with both Mike and Casey from the Coleman Everest 2007 Expedition on an attempt to save this female climber.  Here are the details coming from the IMG Expedition website:

Dave, Mike N., Mike H., and Casey have descended to Camp 2. On the way they helped a climber from another team, who had been abandoned at the Balcony (27,500′,) and who was in very bad shape. They managed to get her to Camp 3, where she was turned over to climbers from the Everest Expreme (medical research) team. We are proud of these guys for doing a great job on the way up, and the way down!! We’ll keep you posted!

This comes on the heels of a tragedy that occured last season when a similar incident occured with climber David Sharp…the difference this year?  People went back up to help and the climber was saved.  The David Sharp incident last season brought International attention to climber ethics and how these rescues were handled on Mt. Everest.  Over the past few weeks, we have all witnessed some great high altitude rescues taking place…and all I can attribute that to is the memory of David Sharp…

While I am talking about IMG, today they are reporting that their final team has successfully made the summit today and will shortly be heading back to basecamp. This is great news that has seen well over 33 IMG team members make the summit this year.  Congratulations!

Italian Climber Found Near Death at High Camp

An Italian Climber on North Everest was found today near the Camp at 8300 Meters.  Marco, as he has simply been known thus far, was found unconscience and had apparently spent close to 48 hours lying in the snow before he was discovered by members of Alex Abramov’s 7Summits Expedition.  Here is what 7Summits reported: Read more

David Sharp HAD to Die on Everest

People die on Mt. Everest.  That is a fact.  In fact until the last few years the statistic was that for every four people to make the summit, one would die.  In recent times (the 2007 Everest climbing season involves close to 1,000 individuals) that number has grown to one in twenty.

Last season brought the tragic death of David Sharp and the controversy of climbers not helping a fellow climber in need to the forefront of media institutions around the world.  Perhaps this is because people never  really knew what went on at 28,000 ft. or they never really thought about it until the media picked up the story.

I am not going to go in to detail on what happened to David Sharp.  By now the world over knows this story and  a year later it still lingers in the minds and bemoans an outpouring of controversy.  Everyone has an opinion.  I will leave it at that.

What I would like to mention is that David Sharp has not been the only climber to be left behind.  It has happened before and more than likely it will happen again.  Read more

SuperSherpas Assistant Basecamp Manager, Roger Kehr, Evacuated from Everest

Roger Kehr, the Assistant Basecamp Manager to the SuperSherpa Expedition has been evacuated off of Everest due to health reasons.

This is some disheartening news to myself, personally, as I have been in contact with Roger a few times and have gotten to know him.  He is a great guy and will be dearly missed with this expedition.

Here is the lowdown on Roger and why he had to be medically evacuated yesterday from Everest Basecamp.  This information is coming from the SuperSherpas Expedition website:

“Roger Kehr, assistant base camp manager for the SuperSherpas Expedition and Salt Lake City resident, was emergency airlifted out of Pheriche while the team was making the trek to base camp. Kehr, suffering from a recurring bout of giardia, chest pains and abnormal vital signs was airlifted to Kathmandu’s CIWEK clinic and then admitted to the NORVIC hospital for evaluation of an usually low pulse (45 at 14,500 feet and 35 at 4400 feet). Pulse rates are normally around 70 at sea level and increase at altitude to bring more oxygen into the blood. After a 5-day journey, he is stable and back in Utah for further medical testing. “

The Adventurist wishes Roger all the best and a personal Get Well Soon!  You are in our prayers!

The original news came about through a discussion with Paula Stout, regarding Apa Sherpa and the Sherpa rituals regarding a death on Everest.  I will be making a post on this issue shortly.  Thank-you Paula.

I have also personally emailed Roger, wishing him the best.  If you would like to do so as well, feel free to leave a message or post a comment and I will forward them to Roger.  Thanks.

Responsibility and Death on Everest: A Response Comes In…

Yesterday I posted an editorial titled “Responsibility and Death on Everest”.  I am not going to go back and rehash what was said, but I will let you click the title and read it for yourselves.

It seems like this issue is drawing some interest here as well as possibly opening up further dicussions in the climbing community.  My good friend Kraig over at “The Adventure Blog” quickly linked up to the story and shared his opinion on the issue I raised on his own site.  I thank him for sharing his personal insight into this discussion.

I have also been contacted by Jake Norton from Mountain World Productions.  Now those of you not familiar with Jake or his incredibly enlightening personal blog are in for a treat!

Here is a little background on Jake.  Jake Norton is an Everest Veteran.  He has been on five seperate expeditions to the world’s highest mountain, including 2 successful summits.  He has also participated in many expeditions all around the Himalayas.  Jake has been a mountain guide since 1993 working with some of the best companies in the business including Rainier Mountaineering and International Mountain Guides (IMG) to name a few.  Jake now spends his time as a professional climber, speaker, and photographer while also maintaining his Blog “The MountainWorld Blog”.

Here is what Jake Norton had to say about “Responsibility and Death on Everest”–

Thanks for your great post, and your excellent articles - lots of great information out here, and it is nice to see good opinion, thoughts, and ideas on Everest and climbing in general in a new format with fresh ideas! (And, thanks for the link to The
MountainWorld Blog!)

As an Everest veteran (5 expeditions, 2 summits, and many other trips to the Himalaya), I had some thoughts to share regarding the expedition leaders on Everest, Russell Brice, etc. Read more

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BREAKING NEWS! MT. EVEREST CLAIMS FIRST LIFE OF 2007. UPDATED 12:13 pm 04/26/07

It is being reported today, April 26, 2007, that Mt. Everest has claimed it’s first life of 2007.

Details are still sketchy at this moment as this story is just beginning to break, but it seems that a sherpa has been killed on Mt. Everest while making his way to camp 3 on the Everest’s famed South Col Route. 

At this time it is being noted that only 1 person was involved in this accident and that it did involve a big ice block falling…(UPDATE:  Everestnews.com reported the big iceblock falling, on the other hand Paul Adler, whom this story originated from said it was an avalanche and that it occured on the Lhotse Face.)

More details of today’s tragedy will be given when more is known.  Please stay tuned…

As always after a mountain tragedy The Adventurist will go in to “black mode” for the next 3 days in respect and in mourning for this fallen climber.  I personally wish his family, friends, and the climber community my prayers upon hearing todays tragic news.

UPDATE:  Alan Arnette is reporting that the Sherpa was with the Thamserku Team, a local expedition company out of Kathmandu. 

Alan was contacted this morning by Paul Adler’s team about the situation so for more please visit his site  Alan Arnette

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Sir Edmund Hillary: Your Thoughts, Your Prayers

It is being widely reported today that Sir Edmund Hillary has been injured in a fall.  Sir Hillary was the first person, along with his climbing sherpa Tenzing Norgay, to summit Mt. Everest.  It has been noted that Hillary is not suffering “Life-Threatening” injuries and that his progress is going well.

Hillary is 87 years old and has recently taken up walking with a cane.  It is also being reported that Sir Edmund Hillary has been suffering from High Altitude Sickness for a number of years now.

In due respect for what Sir Edmund Hillary has come to mean and represent in the climbing community, I thought that it would be a good time for all of my loyal readers here at The Adventurist to wish Sir Edmund Hillary the best.  Today we keep you in all of our thoughts and prayers! 

You, the reader, may post your thoughts, prayers, and good wishes upon Sir Edmund Hillary here, as we all come together to wish him a fast recovery

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Just some Numbers…A Look Back and a Step Forward

Complete 2007 Everest Coverage!  Click Here! 

It is always interesting to take a look back while keeping a firm foot pointed forward.  Alan Arnette’s Site is great in that Alan has been covering Everest for a few years now and gives some of the most detailed reports around.

I decided to check back and see what was taking place on Everest last year and years previous and try to see how it relates to today…

Last year at this point, April 16, there had already been one death on Everest as a result of HAPE, or High Altitude Sickness.  The death occured to a Sherpa upon returning from a high altitude climb on the North Side. Read more

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Mt. Everest 2007–Update–04/13/07

It seems like most everyone is starting to get comfortable at Everest Basecamp.  Alan Arnette has suggested that there must be 500 people on the Southside and another 500 or more on the North–even though most people are still clueless to the size of the Chinese team on the North Side.  It was earlier stated that the Chinese had taken over BC North and were forcing other expeditions to make camp elsewhere–yet yesterday when I contacted David Tait about the Chinese North Side Team, he mentioned that he had not noticed any real “presence”.  Really the only information I have from the Chinese has been that they have set-up some pretty powerful communications anteneas and that most expeditions will be relying on them to stay in contact with people via cell from anywhere on Everest, supposedly including the summit.

From the South Side, teams are starting to move in, around, and through the dreaded Khumbu Icefalls.  Luanne from Everest Basecamp Clinic and TA Loeffler both had to turn back in the Icefall after falling ill to the altitude while the teams of Mountain Madness and IMG have successful navigated the falls.  IMG now has upwards of 20 climbers sitting comfortably at Camp 1.

Mike and Casey from the Coleman Everest 2007 Team are currently working their way up and around and back through the Khumbu Icefalls.  On their latest update, they are fielding some pretty good questions from people from around the world.  Here is an example:

Q: How does it feel to climb Everest?
A: Since there is less available oxygen up here, some people have compared it to climbing up a set up stairs for 12 hours with a plastic bag over your head. Please do not try that at home!!

Adventure Consultants has been trekking through the Khumbu Icefall as well and offers up some great pictures of the Khumbu Icefall ladder system in place..with an especially great photo of what they say is perhaps the hardest part through the falls, a crevasse with 3 connected ladders as the only way across.  They said the rest of the Icefall was easy compared to this.  Head on over and check out the photos of this season’s Khumbu Trek.  Over 32 ladders make up this difficult navigation system and over the years 23 people have been killed in this one area on Everest, including three Sherpas last season.

Read more

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David Tait Contacts The Adventurist, Plus Day 2 Update

Yesterday I mentioned that David Tait had reached Everest Basecamp safely–upon hearing this news, I sent David a congratulatory email and asked him a couple of questions.

I wanted to know 1) How crowded was basecamp?  It has been reported that Everest Basecamp was getting overcrowded  and 2) How big of a presence are the Chinese team that is planning on doing a pre-olympic torch run up to the top of Everest?  A report came out last week suggesting that the Chinese had taken over Basecamp requiring other expeditions to actually make camp elsewhere further down Everest.  Here is what David had to say:

Hi alan.

My wife fwded ur mail to me. I’d b happy to exch mail as long as u Don’t send me attachments.

To be honest I havnt noticed any sig chinese presence. They have installed a cellphone tower, so our mobiles now work during daylight hours. Weird.  They have moved the tibetan “shanty” town a lot lot further away than before making trips there unlikely.

Compared to 05, there seems to be maybe 20% more activity, but its not too noticable. There seems to b more elaborate tents this year which may b creating that impression.

Feeling good so far, and tolerating discovery!

Regards
dt

It is interesting what David had to say about the Chinese–or lack of the Chinese Presence.  Not sure if the Chinese reports were false a week ago or not, but it doesn’t seem to be a big problem at this time.

Here is a little bit of what David had to talk about today on his daily post from BC.

Probably the most significant event that he mentioned happened to be a memorial service taking place for the late David Sharp, who died on Everest last season and raised a lot of controversy over climber etiquet.  Sharp’s family took part in this event.  Here is what Tait had to say about this event:

“This morning, the Sharps, who now famously lost their son David on Everest last year, held a small ceremony around a memorial which has been built in his memory amongst the many others built to honour other lost climbers. They cut a very sad picture, huddled against the cold and silhouetted against such a barren landscape. They are a stoic family, and I have been impressed with their calm and dignity. My condolences.”

All else is going well with David, His acclimatization seems to be going better than he thought, even though his heart-rate is slightly fast.  The Discovery team has already filmed David as he was getting his vitals taken this morning–they also gave David a small matchbook size monitor to keep track of his vitals for his climb, that he is now wearing all the time.

Speaking of the Discovery Team, it seems quite a few of the members are getting sick on Everest and not just from the Altitude.  This will be interesting to watch as the film team tries to cover Everest this season.

David awoke to -12 degree temperatures in his tent this morning, but said that the temp rose to Zero once the sun came up–

As far as his plans for the coming days, today he is planning on going to an ice river about 500 meters away as a short acclimatization journey.  He is trying not to take things to fast.  David has also mentioned that the team he is currently with, is now planning on going to ABC five days sooner than expected.

And last but ot least, I will leave you with a beautiful picture David painted with his words this morning as he awoke:

“Day two has dawned cold but brilliant blue skies. The mountain has been revealed today, shedding its white blanket of cloud, but also allowing us to see a twenty kilometer plume of ice crystals off the summit - the winds are obviously ferocious.”

To Follow along with David on his epic journey to become the first person to ever summit Everest twice in one expedition, you may do so by clicking here to read his daily updates.

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