A Deadly Season: Everest 2006

The 2006 has seen a record number of summits (c.500) but with at least 10 fatal accidents confirmed, only south side numbers are confirmed by officials, this years toll will be high. When compared to the record spring season of 1996, with 12 victims which spawned ‘into thin air’.

For years this culture in the hazardous world of high-level mountaineering had gone largely unnoticed by the wider public. It could be seen as an inevitable consequence of the dangers inherent in entering a place where any exposed skin will freeze solid within minutes, and even breathing in the wispy thin air is a struggle. Climbers who get into trouble at altitudes of more than 26,000ft are largely considered beyond rescue – they are in an area known as the “death zone”.

“At that height, the only thing climbers have on their mind is their own personal survival,” says Alfie Ingram, chairman of the Mountain Rescue Council of Scotland. “When you get above 20,000 feet people start to lose the desire to help others, as their own survival is at stake. They have also invested a lot of time and effort into tackling these big summits, so giving up their own attempt becomes far harder.” [4]

Depending on which sources are referred to, this season may go as high as 17 fatalities. mounteverest.net have a fair overview, but as they state there are a large proportion of incidents that are undisclosed/unconfirmed. The Independent Online details 11 deaths.

Keeping things clear is an issue, for example with the extra attention generated Harry Kikstra’s posts to the SightOnEverest Blog are unavailable;

http://sightoneverest.com/ blog will not be going back online for the near future. The site was/is hosted on a shared server and the terms for hosting just did not take into account the amount of volume that hit it. The hosts were worried that we would crash the server, so it was not just a question of paying more to get the bandwidth. Getting it back online will require setting up a dedicated server which could take a week to migrate to.

All SightOnEverest blog requests are being forwarded to the Summits Forum, where the following is posted (go and read the entire post);

About Thomas
I waited in camp for an hour, got my stuff I had left there and decided that I should go down asap and started the dreamlike descent towards North Col, in a snowy white-out. Every rock looked like a corpse and I heard voices mumbling strange sounds that I could not understand. I was glad when I reached North Col, where my friend Doctor Andrey Selivanov had felt me coming as he came out of our warm mess tent and welcomed me. He told me that Lincoln had died. I was shocked. 2 people I got to know well perished within hours. I could not grasp it and Andrey gave me some herbal pills to make me sleep. But I could not. I hated this mountain, for causing harm to friends and family of the people I had to leave here. For luring me into making me feel so incredibly alive while climbing, while secretly stealing the lives of others as it were a trade-off.
– Harry Kikstra, 7summits.com [1]

Some excellent news is that Australian climber Licoln Hall who was left for dead on Thursday, was found alive on Friday and brought down to Advanced Base Camp (ABC) has walked into Base Camp!

Is this the difference of being an accomplished climber, with Himalayan Apline experience? When things go pear-shaped you have the skill set available to deal with things?

Hall is a respected member of the Australian climbing community making this Excellent news!!