Everest Beyond the Limit
Apr. 4th, 2014 07:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ivyficI am continuing with the ridiculous Everest interest. Latest is watching the Discovery channel reality show Everest: Beyond the Limit, which I watch with the list of deaths on Everest open beside it. What the show shows that the books can't is what these places--the Khumbu Icefall, the Lhotse Face, the Hilary Step--actually look like. What the show also shows is some people making really good decisions (I cheer every time a climber recognises their physical limitations and turns around) and some people making some really shit decisions, notably in season one, when Russell Brice tells two climbers to abort and neither of them do. They both survived, but one lost one or two knuckles on all of his fingers, so.
What I did not expect is the number of people who try to climb Everest after a major injury: motorcycle accident that left his spine, leg, and foot held together with pins; kneecap replacement surgery that left one knee prone to dislocating; climbing accident that crushed both feet and left the ankles with almost no mobility; two weeks after having a cancerous kidney removed. And the most extreme, a double amputee who lost both of his feet to frostbite. It seems like some sort of a redemption thing for these people, proving that their injury doesn't limit them. But, you know, it does. A fair number of the above summit, but some almost die, and some do even more extensive damage. If you want to throw yourself at Mt. Everest to prove you're not mortal, guess what.
Also, in light of earlier posts about people being abandoned on the mountain, it is amazing the number of rescues there are. A substantial portion of the paying climbers on the show survive only because they are rescued. Usually from only partway up the mountain, but a whole lot of people don't make it down under their own power. Despite all the protests that it's impossible to rescue someone from Everest, people do try awfully hard.
One other thing the show illustrates is the increasing danger of traffic on Everest. Nothing like seeing a line of people waiting on a ridge that is only a few inches wide for climbers ahead to make it up a cliff to point out how lethal traffic can be. Course, since I'm taking operations right now, I look at that and think, well, that's clearly a bottle neck. What they need is a second Hilary Step, and it would clear that traffic jam right up.
What I did not expect is the number of people who try to climb Everest after a major injury: motorcycle accident that left his spine, leg, and foot held together with pins; kneecap replacement surgery that left one knee prone to dislocating; climbing accident that crushed both feet and left the ankles with almost no mobility; two weeks after having a cancerous kidney removed. And the most extreme, a double amputee who lost both of his feet to frostbite. It seems like some sort of a redemption thing for these people, proving that their injury doesn't limit them. But, you know, it does. A fair number of the above summit, but some almost die, and some do even more extensive damage. If you want to throw yourself at Mt. Everest to prove you're not mortal, guess what.
Also, in light of earlier posts about people being abandoned on the mountain, it is amazing the number of rescues there are. A substantial portion of the paying climbers on the show survive only because they are rescued. Usually from only partway up the mountain, but a whole lot of people don't make it down under their own power. Despite all the protests that it's impossible to rescue someone from Everest, people do try awfully hard.
One other thing the show illustrates is the increasing danger of traffic on Everest. Nothing like seeing a line of people waiting on a ridge that is only a few inches wide for climbers ahead to make it up a cliff to point out how lethal traffic can be. Course, since I'm taking operations right now, I look at that and think, well, that's clearly a bottle neck. What they need is a second Hilary Step, and it would clear that traffic jam right up.