UKH

I thought that this was rather moving -
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/18/sports/everest-deaths.html?h...

I know I tend to forget that not everyone in those hordes of people is an uber-rich spoiled westerner basking in the luxury of a fully catered all mod cons sat-nav ego trip.

This article definitely showed the other side and I found it rather moving.

In reply to pneame:

'I stopped there just to check if he will return back if I didn’t continue,” Lakpa Sherpa, Paul’s guide, said... As he wasn’t convinced, I followed him...I thought that I won’t return back,” Lakpa Sherpa recalled.'

Guided expeditions on Everest and other 8000m mountains deeply sadden me, but I suspect for different reasons. That quote to me is everything that is wrong about the situation.

On a different note, does anyone else find the NY Times heading their article with a photo of the climber's dead body distasteful, or am I being overly sensitive?

In reply to tehmarks:


That thought crossed my mind also - but I thought that
(1) you had to wait for the picture to pan around - I actually didn't even notice that at first as I'd scrolled past it when I first read it
(2) it emphasized the loneliness and ultimately the futility of the whole venture
(3) it didn't produce an instant "oh no its a dead body. Ewww!" in the same way some of the more ghoulish pictures that are out there manage

In reply to pneame:

I suppose it's the thought that if I ever collapse and die on a mountain, I'd hope that my dead body doesn't become the photographic headline of a major newspaper's article. Equally so if it's a close friend, relative or spouse. I feel that death should be a private affair in that sense.

In reply to tehmarks:

I'd agree - I think that was part of the point of the article. However, I don't think that dying on Everest can possibly be a private affair - not if people are stepping on your body, even if they do apologise.

It reminds me of trench warfare far too much for my own comfort. Never having been in that situation, I wonder also if your dreams get distorted. People seem to go back "for another go" if they fail, as was the case here. That is something I find very difficult to understand. But, then again, I find going on one these giant cruise ships very difficult to understand as well.

I could go on....

In reply to tehmarks:

Is death the moment, or the forever after?

In reply to tehmarks:

I don't think you're being overly sensitive, what you or anyone else finds distasteful is a personal thing.

I'm glad that they did that, though; a picture might be worth a thousand words but a picture like that first one, showing the reality of a frozen corpse, slumped and twisted, does hammer home reality in a way that words alone would struggle to do. Pictures (and videos) like these, showing the body being dragged along stiff as a board, a mans wife throwing herself at his body, might make people think twice about Everest. In much the same way that moving pictures have changed our understanding of what war is (or was) and probably dampened people's enthusiasm for it maybe reporting like this, not sensationalist, sombre, showing the human cost, might just start to do the same to the Everest circus. 'Dulce et decorum est' loses its ring when you've seen video of a body rotting in the mud.

In reply to mrphilipoldham:

Over so many thousand meters death is pretty much forever, until someone drags your frozen body into a crevasse because you're making the place look untidy.

In reply to pneame:

I thought for a newspaper article it was pretty well done, and sympathetic. I also thought that Leslie Binns came across as the sort of person I would want to be up there with: selfless and determined. Well done him.

In reply to pneame:

An excellent piece of journalism, thanks for sharing.

In reply to pneame:

Thanks for sharing.