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Everest anyone ?


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  • #1257436
    Franco Darioli
    Spectator

    @franco

    Locale: Gauche, CU.

    Somehow Everest is not what it used to be…
    Everest camp 1

    Picture from
    http://thegoat.backcountry.com/?q=0
    The story is about a 13 year old kid attempting the climb.
    Franco

    #1595486
    Michael Meiser
    Member

    @mmeiser

    Locale: Michigan

    Crowding is getting ridiculous.

    #1595504
    Franco Darioli
    Spectator

    @franco

    Locale: Gauche, CU.

    You should see the queue to the toilet block. By the time you get there there is no more hot water.

    On a serious note, there is a "cleaning up" expedition about to start. As part of it they will take some of the ashes of Sir Edmond Hillary to the top and scatter them there. Nice gesture.
    Sir Ed is a semi-God in Nepal. Great man.
    http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_14836822
    Franco

    #1595508
    Jack H.
    Member

    @found

    Locale: Sacramento, CA

    A few of my photos from basecamp in Spring 2009, a part of over a month of trekking in the Himalaya.

    SDweweaf

    Video on my website.

    #1595544
    . .
    BPL Member

    @biointegra

    Locale: Puget Sound

    Where are all of the tunnel tents? ;)

    #1595545
    Mark McLauchlin
    BPL Member

    @markmclauchlin

    Locale: Western Australia

    From my recent reading one of the biggest clean-up efforts will be around all the empty oxygen canisters that are lying around the place at the higher altitudes. Shame really.

    Cheers

    #1595565
    Bob Gross
    BPL Member

    @b-g-2-2

    Locale: Silicon Valley

    They figured out how to take care of the depleted oxygen bottle problem. They put a $2 deposit value on each bottle. So, when each expedition prepares to clear the mountain, either they pick up and transport their own bottles down the mountain, or else the local Sherpas will go up there and take them out. If a local carried out five or ten empties on each trip, that is some good cash for the local economy.
    –B.G.–

    #1595566
    Mark McLauchlin
    BPL Member

    @markmclauchlin

    Locale: Western Australia

    I knew there was some reward for it, just didnt know the value, seriousely $2 ? But I guess like you say its good for them

    Cheers

    #1595577
    Rog Tallbloke
    BPL Member

    @tallbloke

    Locale: DON'T LOOK DOWN!!

    "Where are all of the tunnel tents? ;)"

    Dunno. Higher up the mountain probably. ;-)

    The Blue ridge tent in the middle looks nicely pitched.

    #1595578
    Bob Gross
    BPL Member

    @b-g-2-2

    Locale: Silicon Valley

    Mark, $2 was the last figure that I heard for empty bottles.

    You know, Sherpas are incredibly strong for their size, and it would not shock me a bit to see some guy waddling along the trail from Everest Base Camp heading down, and carrying about twenty empty bottles. His family will live for a couple of months on that much reward money.

    –B.G.–

    #1595579
    Mark McLauchlin
    BPL Member

    @markmclauchlin

    Locale: Western Australia

    Wow that is impressive.

    #1595580
    Rog Tallbloke
    BPL Member

    @tallbloke

    Locale: DON'T LOOK DOWN!!

    Sounds dangerous to me. A lot of those bottles will be perched in awkward spots near big drops.

    #1595581
    Bob Gross
    BPL Member

    @b-g-2-2

    Locale: Silicon Valley

    Everybody has their own price!

    For people like you, Rog or Mark, you would pick up the empty and carry it down if somebody paid you (let's say) $1000. Well, the Sherpa people have a lower standard of income, and they will pick them up for $2, even if there is some reasonable risk involved.

    Once they get the empties down low enough, they can haul them out on a yak. But yaks don't operate well when they get onto solid snow, because they have to graze on grass.

    If a yak hauls two man-loads down, the yak owner gets paid the equivalent of two human porters. It's kind of a different economy. No plastic. No ATM.

    –B.G.–

    #1595582
    Rog Tallbloke
    BPL Member

    @tallbloke

    Locale: DON'T LOOK DOWN!!

    At altitude, bringing things down is hideously easy compared to carting them up. Especially as they are full on the way up and empty on the way down. I'd bring mine down for a lot less than $1000, but then, I'm cheap. ;-)

    #1595589
    Roger Caffin
    BPL Member

    @rcaffin

    Locale: Wollemi & Kosciusko NPs, Europe

    > Where are all of the tunnel tents? ;)
    If you can use a square green beach tent as a loo, and a patrol tent as the local bakery/kiosk, then you don't need a tunnel tent!
    Some of those domes look as though you could just about stand up inside them! Huge!

    Cheers

    #1595590
    Jack H.
    Member

    @found

    Locale: Sacramento, CA

    Note that the porters that will carry the bottles out of the wilderness will probably be paid daily standard rates. Many will work for three dollars a day or less in the local economy even if they're carrying twenty o2 bottles.

    #1595793
    Ike Mouser
    Member

    @isaac-mouser

    I don't think its a bad thing that everest is crowded now, or other backpacking areas for that matter. Anything that gets people away from the "blue glow box" is great for society in my opinion, especially with all the overweight people. Im glad to see people enjoying the great outdoors.

    #1595870
    Nick Gatel
    BPL Member

    @ngatel

    Locale: Southern California

    "I don't think its a bad thing that everest is crowded now, or other backpacking areas for that matter."

    Disagree big time.

    #1595877
    BlackHatGuy
    Spectator

    @sleeping

    Locale: The Cascades

    "Disagree big time."

    +1

    Besides, if more people keep living longer, my taxes are going to go up. I encourage people to eat lots of junk food and watch lots of TV. Keeps 'em off the trails and out of my way!

    #1595884
    Mark McLauchlin
    BPL Member

    @markmclauchlin

    Locale: Western Australia

    Nice one Doug :)

    #1595897
    Bob Gross
    BPL Member

    @b-g-2-2

    Locale: Silicon Valley

    There is one very bad thing about the crowding at Everest Base Camp, Nepal side. There are these little petrified artifacts all over the place.

    Climbers have been camping in that one spot for over fifty years now, except that it is not exactly solid ground. It is the Khumbu Glacier, so it is a ground up mixture of ice, rock, and little petrified artifacts.

    The air is so cool and dry there that things do not decay in a normal fashion, so there is some risk of viral and bacterial infection all around. Also, the human body does not heal quickly at those elevations, so if you get a normal scratch, it may stay with you for a long time.
    –B.G.–

    #1595921
    W I S N E R !
    Spectator

    @xnomanx

    Perhaps the best thing we can do for backpacking and the outdoors is to only share tales of extreme misery, suffering through cold, wet nights, harrowing encounters with animals, and life-threatening weather conditions…as well as the necessity of carrying 75 pounds of gear to survive.

    I remember once seeing a Nor Cal bumper sticker on a truck (racks loaded with surfboards) reading simply:

    SURFING SUCKS,
    DON'T TRY IT.

    #1595932
    BlackHatGuy
    Spectator

    @sleeping

    Locale: The Cascades

    "I remember once seeing a Nor Cal bumper sticker on a truck (racks loaded with surfboards) reading simply:

    SURFING SUCKS,
    DON'T TRY IT."

    Much like former Oregon governor Tom McCall. "His love for Oregon led to the famous 1971 statement to a CBS news reporter, “Come visit us again and again. This is a State of excitement. But for heaven's sake, don't move here to live.” "

    #1596024
    Mike McHenry
    Member

    @mtmche2

    "I don't think its a bad thing that everest is crowded now, or other backpacking areas for that matter."

    Disagree big time.

    Nick,

    It might be a bad thing for you and me and our desire to be secluded, but I have to agree with Isaac here, any activity that gets people off their butt and outside makes the society you and I live in a healthier and more efficient one. I realize that might mean crowded national parks on Memorial Day weekend, but at some point isn't it nice to see people out hiking instead of hanging out and McDonald's?

    NOTE: The next time I visit a crowded park and get annoyed with the hoards of people, I will retract my statement : )

    #1596035
    Nick Gatel
    BPL Member

    @ngatel

    Locale: Southern California

    Mike,

    Yes and no.

    It would be good to see more people leading active lives, and reducing the crisis we have in the U.S. with obesity and associated problems related to inactivity. But to be honest, if those folks don't care enough to take care of their health, well so be it. In that case, I don't care about them either.

    I can still find secluded places, even on holiday weekends.

    But think about what we are doing to our natural resources. Everest has become a dumping ground. And the same with so many places where I used to hike a lot. I doubt anyone on BPL would even think about tossing an empty gas cannister into the bushes. But on Everest, tossing trash is no big deal.

    There was a time when I spent a lot of my youth on the JMT and vicinity. I could climb Whitney anytime I wanted. The only permit needed was a campfire permit. I could hike for days on end on the Kern Plateau in the summer, and not see a single person in a week. We now have a permit system because we were doing too much damage to our national treasures; because they had become over-populated, and abused. We keep building roads to make it easier for more people to get into the wilderness.

    Too many people and too many of them have no regard for protecting the land. Keep in mind that I am not an some sort of hardcore environmentalist. But the blantant disregard for public lands is disgusting. It is a lack of education, and too many people who just don't care.

    About 40 years ago, I decided to hike from Kernville to Yosemite. I had never seen Yosemite. Well, I didn't make it all the way… I was shocked at all the people, smoke and smog. So I turned around and went all the way back. I eventually made it to Yosemite in 2005, when my son wanted to go there. It is a disgrace. I say remove the city in the valley and blow up the entrances from the west and close Tioga pass on the east. Let it revert back to the way we found it.

    We make it too easy for hordes to descend into these places. Wouldn't bother me at all if we removed all the roads from Joshua Tree also. Oh, and lets dismantle the Palm Springs Tram while we are at it. That would solve a LOT of problems in the San Jacinto Wilderness.

    Sorry for the rant, but it is how I feel.

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