Diving and climbing

[dmaziuk]

So...

Nepalese government = Training Agencies

Sherpas = Instructors

??

I hear in some places in rightpondia they roll their eyes when they hear "Russian diver". Or at least they did a decade ago or so, perhaps things have changed recently.

 

[dmaziuk]

Oh, wait, wasn't there a video of a dive in Blue Hole, Dahab just recently? Isn't there a Tarek Omar somewhere out there?

 

[doctormike]

The statement is 11 deaths in this "climbing season".... Do you realize it is 11 deaths in 10 days?

Wow! Didn’t get that...

 

[rhwestfall]

 

[Dan G]

There are many aspects of mountaineering and diving that are comparable, but I am not sure how exactly to compare what is happening on Everest to diving. It's basically a zero to hero phenomena going on with Everest, in which the people who can afford the guide get to go. The problem with an equivalent is that the technical ability to climb Everest is minimal, so people with a minimal skill set can still summit and survive. Many of these people, if they needed to earn their way to being invited on an expedition, would never come close to making the short list of invitees, like mountaineers who want to climb K2 might need to do. That means years of experience and a pretty strong resume of accomplishments.

Without the guides, far fewer people would summit each year. Eleven deaths in a season is a lot.

 

[martincohn]

Peak permit costs are $11,000 per climber charged by the Nepalese goberment. In a country where the average annual salary is $4500.

Follow the $$$. The answer to most of the problems with the human race.

 

[tridacna]

Peak permit costs are $11,000 per climber charged by the Nepalese goberment. In a country where the average annual salary is $4500.

Follow the $$$. The answer to ALL of the problems with the human race.

Fixed.

 

[rjack321]

The statement is 11 deaths in this "climbing season".... Do you realize it is 11 deaths in 10 days?

Back in 2015 twice that died in one day (exact numbers are hard to find since many bodies were never recovered).

But most were Sherpas and they "don't count" in western media. And our global attention span is short.
2015 Mount Everest avalanches - Wikipedia

Looking at risk of death, Everest is actually safer than the K2 and Nanga Parbat where the fatalities/attempts ratio is quite a bit higher. They don't get the press either.

 

[MaxE]

I have been thinking whether there are analogies to diving since reading the stories about the increasing number of deaths on Everest, but I haven't been able to come up with anything interesting. The factors in the case of Everest seem to be complicity of the tourism-hungry Nepalese government, growing popularity of climbing as a sport, cheaper airfares, and more generally, growing affluence of the middle classes. Rebreathers, DPVs, trimix, etc., and the ability to dive all over the world are now within reach of many divers, yet we haven't really seen a rash of deaths in recent years, have we? It seems to me that, for an endeavor with the potential to kill you easily, the diving world actually regulates itself surprisingly well these days. For all the anecdotes we discuss here on SB, such at that "trust-me trimix dive," not that many involved serious injury or death. However, I suppose if we're considering the past, there were periods in which factors of the day combined to create a rash of deaths. Maybe we're about to see another such period?

I have removed my original reply. I have realized that explaining climbing and the desire to climb things to non climbers who have no desire to catch a glimpse of the view is futile, not entirely dissimilar to explaining my desire to dive.

 

[rhwestfall]

Back in 2015 twice that died in one day (exact numbers are hard to find since many bodies were never recovered).

But most were Sherpas and they "don't count" in western media. And our global attention span is short.
2015 Mount Everest avalanches - Wikipedia

Looking at risk of death, Everest is actually safer than the K2 and Nanga Parbat where the fatalities/attempts ratio is quite a bit higher. They don't get the press either.

Those deaths were due to an avalanche.... Basically unavoidable. A number of these recent deaths are from stupidity, and completely avoidable...