What the final hours of a Mount Everest climb are like, as written by a Canadian medical team last year (photographs enlarge nicely if opened in a new window). The month of May is the only safe window for climbing Sagarmatha, and this week Sherpas are desperately trying to get the route prepped. Journal entries from the mountain during the past day show excited teams awaiting the big push: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. The Discovery film crew got some nice shots last week, too. The climb is not without immense danger -- about 6 die on the mountain every year, and in 2006 David Sharp died right on the trail, raising a firestorm of debate.
posted by crapmatic on May 5, 2009 - 56 comments

What do you do after you climb Mt. Everest? Climb it again from the other side, of course. The first woman to accomplish that feat. And then what? Cathy O’Dowd calls it the E to E Challenge. Everest to Everyday.

So let’s round up a couple of friends, hitch up the dogs and mush from Styggedalen to Nordkapp across 650 km of Arctic wilderness to support the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund. And why not blog it daily with a website run from the back of a sled? Today, the sled fell in a river. Sure makes my life seem dull.
posted by Geo on Apr 16, 2004 - 3 comments

It's just after mid-May and that means one thing: it's summit time on Everest. Current reports are mostly good with only a broken leg and attempted rescue reported so far. If you've ever followed Everest, you'll certainly know about the 1996 disaster, the stories that surrounded it, and the constant death toll (4 out of every 100 that attempt the climb will die trying). There are a lot of teams going up this year, including a team with the youngest american to ever peak and an attempt from the oldest (who was also the guy that first climbed all seven summits). Yesterday and today look like the big summit attempt days, with the north side route having the best luck (though it has the more difficult route). Should be interesting to watch over the next few days, especially to see if the british climber with the broken leg will survive.
posted by mathowie on May 21, 2003 - 27 comments

Blog from the top of the world A blog from Everest could prove to be the most remote location for a web diary yet.
posted by turbanhead on Apr 28, 2003 - 19 comments

A Sad Day. Sometimes it seems like all the people I admire die before their time. It's a long list: Dan Eldon, Ned Gillette, Ciriello, Galen Rowell, Alex Lowe, Dan Osman, (plus many others), and now: Goran Kropp, died a few days ago. "The Crazy Swede" became famous for riding a bicycle from Stockholm to Everest, climbing it solo and without oxygen, and riding back. This story is told in Ultimate High:My Everest Odyssey.
posted by ig on Oct 3, 2002 - 7 comments

A 38-year-old Slovenian became the first person ever to ski non-stop down the world's highest mountain, Mount Everest, on Saturday. "I feel only absolute happiness and absolute fatigue," Davo Karnicar told Reuters by satellite phone after the descent
posted by Mars Saxman on Oct 8, 2000 - 10 comments

byron smith of the current canadian everest expedition has made it to the summit! he was going to send a live broadcast from the summit, but unfortuantely the conditions have prevented that from taking place; so the team is going to descend to camp IV and try to broadcast from there. stay tuned for it, it should prove interesting. --Everest 2000 - Daily Dispatch
posted by palegirl on May 20, 2000 - 3 comments