UKH

Higher than usual number of permits handed out, and denying the problem. 😢
 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/03/everest-covid-outbreak-throws...

If ever there was a sign that organized, commercial Everest climbing is beyond repair then this is it. Climbing (with oxygen!) in the middle if a pandemic where said oxygen is the most important life support for those suffering is beyond disgusting. 

Oh come off it, shall we cease all economic activity using liquid oxygen?  Get outraged about something meaningful, not a few bottles of oxygen.

I'd be more concerned about the fact that those bottles of O2 will probably get left on the mountain...

More concerned??? I don't wish to see any litter left on any mountain, but that choice of words is insensitive at best.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/10/hopeless-situation-oxygen-sho...

The cylinders don’t typically get left on the mountain as they’re refilled and are worth a significant amount of money. Also, many of them are rented, so you have to pay for the cylinder itself if you do not return it.

I don't think they are carrying liquid oxygen tanks up Everest ........

If some of the comments on here earlier in the pandemic from those who lived in the deprived south east were to be applied to this situation, we should all not be climbing to stand in solidarity with those who can’t. If the would be Everest summiteers can’t climb then neither should we. 

Really? If this were only about the oxygen you might have had a point but commercial expeditions are dependent on so many people (porters, lodgers, etcetera) converging on such a small area that having a more or less normal trekking/climbing season in the middle of a pandemic, in a country where health care is barely existent, is not very productive to say the least. 

I get that many Nepalis are economically dependent on the industry and hence would suffer for not having a season. That might be the one reason for having one. But given that Nepalis move all over the country for this and back to their home village, it is one of the most insensible things to do right now.

In reply to Johnhi:

Well, yes, in a way. You shouldn't be taking part in a worldwide industry in which people are not 100% in control of their own actions. For a porter a choice between a day's wage or catching Covid is quite a realistic choice. 44% of Covid tests in Nepal currently come back positive. That's staggering. 

I get that it is a slippery slope between not being allowed to summit Everest and not being allowed to go to your local crag but it is off by several orders of magnitude. 

"Mount Everest Covid outbreak has infected 100 people at base camp, says guide | Mount Everest | The Guardian" https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/23/mount-everest-covid-outbreak-...

Seems like its getting worse.

Wouldn't wish it on anyone at that altitude.

" you could hear coughing from tents" no shit sherlock! a  cough is pretty much the norm at altitude.

The usual sensational bollocks from the media with an agenda.

No to defend any of this, but to be fair, that line was taken out of a longer piece where LF basically said "in addition to the usual Khumbu Cough, you could hear coughing from tents..."

He's now had six or seven of his team test positive.

I'd quite happily wish it upon the idiots who have willingly put themselves in that position, but unfortunately I suspect that those most affected are and will be those who have no choice but to be there.

Utterly disgraceful.

India has - supplies were diverted away from industry to supply hospitals.

I'm pretty sure the stuff in climber's cylinders is liquid until it boils off for them to breathe.

They are pressurised gas at ca 300bar, LOX is cryogenic and stored several hundred degrees below zero. It expands 865 times when it evaporates so you'd need a really good cylinder to contain it!

Does an o2 cylinder not 'slosh around' like propane/butane ones do then?

No. The one beside me doesn't!

Interesting, thanks for that.

I guess that that the propane/butane in a cylinder are relatively close to their boiling points, so chemical equilibrium is reached with some liquid and some gas in the cylinder.  Thatbis to say, the number of molecules evaporating from the surface is the same as those condensing.

I think the same would happen with liquid oxygen if it was close to its boiling point (about -250 degs C).  But we use it far above that temperature, so much more evaporation can take place before equilibrium is reached. That means that the amount of liquid in the tank will be the square root of bugger all.

Here endeth the science bit...