This might be interesting...



"A climbing expedition on Mt. Everest is devastated by a severe snow storm."

    Link: Everest (2015)

Steve, let me know if it is any good. Maybe has nice pictures. Is this a version of 1996 Into Thin Air story?

Keira Knightly, eh? Pride and Prejudice.

There were no fall 2014 expeditions up Everest this year from the Nepal side. This is a result of the avalanche and many deaths in the Icefall above basecamp in spring 2014. You cannot make up stuff that is any more incredible than the real life and death events of 2014, 1996, and all the way back to George Mallory in 1921-1924.

Here is a nice discussion from respected climber and chronicler Alan Arnette about the 2014 issues on Everest:
Alan Arnette Everest blog

I just returned Nov 21 from my second trip to the Everest region, no mountaineering this time, just trekking to 18,000 feet; Chuckhung Ri, Kalapattar, Cho La, Gokyo Ri, etc. Lots of medical events and helicopter evacuations for HAPE and orthopedic injuries. All we had were foot blisters and GI illness. The two of us lost 30 lbs between us. Nice to be back home.

I hope it comes to my city. Not sure it will. :-|

Harvey, if I remember from pictures, you don't have extra weight to lose! That part of the trip must have been less than fun. Seems like when you are losing weight like that, you wouldn't have much reserve energy to actually hike and climb.

Jake Gyllenhal as Scott Fischer: yes this is the '96 disaster.

Be interesting to see which slant they take - Krakauer's or Boukreev's?

or Graham Ratcliffe
A Day To Die For

Uber-details but he finds that the so-called "sudden storm" was predicted, shared with some teams but not all, and even some of those who knew went up anyway, damn the torpedoes.

One of the survivors told me about 5 yrs after the disaster that she was told it really was a sudden quirk of nature, but she was a client and not privy to some of the leaders decision making. A Day To Die For goes into all of that.

We all know that mountains make their own weather, orographic lifting, adiabatic lapse rate, jet stream winds, supercooling, etc, etc, but maybe there was some of both; predicted storm that was ignored, AND worse conditions than anyone would have predicted. Armchair quarterbacking at this point.

Does the cover of "A Day to Die for" really still proclaim it "Everest's Worst Disaster"? Ouch.

the deaths started with Alexander Kellas in 1921 - he died of diarrhea on the 300+ mile approach march from Darjeeling to Tibet. That was the first British expedition.

This death list starts with the 1922 avalanche (because it was on the actual slopes)

List of deaths on Everest

Ratcliffe's book was written and published before the 2014 big avalanche.

I don't obsess about these numbers, but I did see a whole lot of memorial monuments when I was there, and stayed at the Holiday Inn Express.