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Everest-climbers-form-a-l-001.jpg

 

:veryshocked:

 

Everest mountaineer says crowding by 'hobby climbers' is path to tragedy

 

Ralf Dujmovits, who photographed 'human snake' of 600 climbers on ascent, pleads for stricter curbs on tourist flows

 

Ralf Dujmovits had reached the South Col of Mount Everest, at a height of just under 8,000m, on 18 May when he made the painful but necessary decision to turn back due to the stormy conditions that had taken hold at the summit.

 

The 50-year-old German, who is considered to be one of the most experienced mountaineers in the world, was astounded and horrified to see a long queue of tourists snaking their way up the mountain as he struggled to descend in difficult conditions.

 

He described his experience on Wednesday after an image from his camera caught the attention of picture editors around the world with its depiction of human overcrowding on the most popular mountain in the world.

 

"I was at around 7,900m and saw in the distance on the Lhotse face a human snake, people cheek by jowl making their way up. There were 39 expeditions on the mountain at the same time, amounting to more than 600 people. I had never seen Everest that crowded before."

 

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Go home Ralfy! You're crowding the mountain!

 

If he was "struggling to descend in difficult conditions", at least he had some amazing viz to enjoy the scenery.

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Would love to climb Everest if I get the chance.

 

It actually costs a lot of money to climb it apparently, although anyone can climb it even without experience, which would surely be a death wish!

Apparently their are also many dead bodies scattered around the mountain, where people have perished attempting to reach the summit. Because it is just too expensive, time consuming and difficult to remove the bodies from the mountain.

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you need a permit to be allowed to climb and it differs depending on which side you climb from (the Nepal side or the Chinese side). Some of these permits will include support services and some of them won't. I read a book a while back about a disastrous expedition a few years back when a large number of people died on the mountain. It was called "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer......very good read and if anyone harbours the slightest of thoughts about climbing Everest, this should dispel them right away. :D

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What's the money for, snowdude?

Guides?

 

Yes, and as Tb stated the permit, which I think costs money too.

 

Not including the equipment that you would need to buy to even attempt to climb it!

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In Nepal there's a very structured permit system based on the height of the mountain you wish to climb and of course Everst being the highest is the most expensive. On Everest the permit cost also depends on the route you take up the mountain. The SE ridge which is the most popular route as it is not very technical costs from $10,000 per person for groups of 8 or more. It goes up to $25,000 for those attempting it solo. Route changes after being issued a permit can attract up to an extra $20,000 fee. All major routes into base camps of major mountains have stations you have to pass through where your permits will be inspected before allowing you to go further. These costs are purely for permission to climb the mountain. Add in the expedition costs and climbing Everest is a very expensive undertaking but as we see from the pic above one that many people are willing to pay for.

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Surely gnarly people, like us, would just not bother and get hiking with a few jam butties in their backpack.

 

Naked of course.

 

:party:

 

maybe throw in a thermos of tea....its is Everest

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The Nepalese government gets it. It's a fairly significant income source for the country's economy. Expedition costs will normally include local guides and porters. This brings quite a lot of money into areas that would otherwise basically just be subsistence farming communities living mostly outside of a cash economy.

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There's been plenty of issues though with exploitation of porters. Low pay, excessive loads and insufficient gear for accessing high altitude. Obviously very poor villagers will agree to almost any conditions for a little money and of course whenever money is involved in developing nations there will be exploitation and corruption. A fair bit has been done though to improve this situation.

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