Bernie EcclestonedNorwegian climber says it would have been impossible to carry injured Pakistani porter down snowy K2
daisy lazarusOf course it would have been impossible. One in four climbers on K2 does not make it back. This is a non-story, as tragic as the loss of life may be. 25% mortality rate. You have better odds rolling a die for your life. Punintended.
DEATHS ON K2
K2 is considered one of the most difficult climbs. For every four climbers attempting to summit K2, one climber dies. In comparison one in every 20 attempting to climb Mount Everest dies. As of June 2018, only 367 people have completed the ascent of K2 and 86 had died trying. As of 1995 113 people reached the summit of K2 and 48 died. In 1995 seven people were killed in brutal storm that raged for nine days. Thirty kilometers away a rock climber froze to death in a hanging tent. In August 2008, eleven climbers died over two days (See Below), In a 1953 attempt, Art Gilkey was killed, either in an avalanche or in a deliberate attempt to avoid burdening his companions.
JohnEdwaIf it somehow guaranteed your success it would be safer to play a round of russian roulette at the base camp before you begin your climb as that has only one in six chance of killing you. That's how crazy your odds of success on the climb sound like.
Yet they all know the statistics and the risks, and go do it anyway.
Yet they all know the statistics and the risks, and go do it anyway.
grahamszAlso I can understand taking that risk for yourself. Certainly it's way outside my comfort zone, but I'm not going to tell someone else they can't do something dangerous. But how can you go out and hire people to help you knowing there's a 25% chance they'll be giving their lives for you?
But how can you go out and hire people to help you knowing there’s a 25% chance they’ll be giving their lives for you?
I mean, they want to be hired. That’s how a lot of people there make a living. They are aware of the risks.
iquanyin@bernieecclestoned @dulce_3t_decorum_3st @JohnEdwa @grahamsz
wouldn’t it be cool if the took all the drive and energy they have for climbing a rock into making a world where people don’t have to hire out and risk their lives just to feed their family?
I think it would be better if everyone climbing a mountain does so out of their own free will and because they want to, and not out of financial necessity.
But that is something for the local governments to fix and not the responsibility of mountaineers.
But most mountaineers get by without having to hire people to carry their shit for them. Certainly people here in Colorado use guides from time to time, but i've never heard of anyone using a porter. Maybe i'm ignorant, but it seems like mountaineers only use porters in the himalayas because they are cheap and disposable.
Perhaps if you can't summit a mountain without another human to carry your equipment then it should be ok to not summit that mountain.
If we’re talking about high altitude peaks, like the 14 peaks, most people that summit do it “expediation style”, which always includes sherpas and porters. Only very few people have accomplished climbing one of the 14 peaks “alpine style”.
Thanks for the terminology - that makes it easier!
Only very few people have accomplished climbing one of the 14 peaks “alpine style”.
I'm quite ok with that.
If the rockies were 28k instead of 14k then I still don't think there'd be a situation where we hire poor villagers from the outskirts of Denver to put their lives on the line. I really believe the high peaks are summited expedition-style because the poverty makes that practical, which in turn allows many more people to reach the top
I’m quite ok with that.
But climbing with an expedition is much more safe. There is nothing wrong with that inherently.
The real porblem starts when mountaineering just becomes a sick kind of tourism. Where people that are totally unprepared hire companies that will figurativly just carry you up a mountain like everest. I mean idiots like this..
I think I take more exception with the uneven make-up of the expedition team. If 4 americans want to form a expedition to summit K2 then I applaud that, all of them are committed to what they are doing and are choosing to take an extreme risk with no coercion. But when half the team makers are living in literal poverty and are only choosing to take the risk because they have few other options, that seems kinda messed up.
That woman… how stubborn can you be?
How can you not realize the insanity of continuing when what takes others 20 minutes takes you 6 hours.
Could it have been some form of suicide?