Four people died on Mt. Everest last Saturday. They were among 208 climbers on the mountain. A Nepalese mountaineering official called it a traffic jam. Climbers were stuck in what is called the death zone because it is a precipitous icy region with a low oxygen level.
Climbing Everest has become possible for the very fit and the very rich. From the records available, 316 have made it to the 29,035 foot summit this year. That compares to 91 a decade ago.
It was first climbed by Sir Edmond Hillary, a New Zealand beekeeper, in 1953, well within the memory of today’s grandfathers.
But it was years after Hillary that technology and the mountaineering art advanced sufficiently to bring climbing Everest within the reach of hundreds.
Just as the best runners can now cover a mile in less than four minutes, crack mountaineers can reasonably aspire to top Everest.
Maybe climbing Everest is even more achievable than a Jim Ryun mile because Everest’s professional guide teams do so much of the planning, strategizing and, yes, the all-important work of carrying gear and supplies.
Money plays a huge part in the game. The average Everest climber spends about $51,000 on guides, porters and permits and another $5,000 to $10,000 on gear and travel. AMI Expeditions, the premier guide service on the mountain, charged clients $74,000 each this season.
Climbers also should expect to take a half year or more away from work and family. Perhaps they will invest double or triple the direct cost of the climb in getting ready for it.
Still, there are more lined up to make the effort than the guides can serve or — as Saturday sadly showed — the route up and down can safely hold on those few days in any year that weather allows the summit to be reached.
They are driven by a burning desire most can’t fathom.
Walking up the trails of the Rocky Mountains, clambering over boulders, exalting in the satisfaction of standing on top of a peak at, say, 13,000 or even 14,000 feet has enriched our family with deep satisfactions. The prospect still brings the young among us back each summer. But if any of the clan ever yearned to add “I climbed Everest” to his or her obituary, they kept that death wish to themselves.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
