Mount Everest Mount Everest - iamWKU

Mount EverestWestern KentuckyUniversity GeographyProfessor JohnAll, who has workedin Nepal on a Fulbright scholarshipto study climatechange, has summitedMount Everest.All, an avid climberof 15 years and an experton climate change,documented his climbof the North RidgeRoute on Mount Everest—thepassage firstattempted by ill-fatedBritish explorer George Mallory—and shared his experience and observationswith the Daily News throughe-mail correspondence and a journalhe kept of the experience.All’s route—accessed throughTibet—is one of two main routesthat climbers can take today to reach“Deaths on Mt. Everest are generally not climbers, butinexperienced people who don’t have the fitness or experiencefor a mountain like this . . . “the summit, but it is the more dangerousby far. There is a 5 percentchance that climbers will not survivethe descent, All notes in his journal.This year about 350 people summitedfrom the safer and more expensiveNepal route and none died.The Tibet route that All took is abouta quarter of the cost. About 150 peopleso far this year have tried toclimb it; only about 50 succeededand seven died—six of those afterthey had summited, he said.One person went blind, anotherhad a heart attack and others diedfrom the cold or from altitude-relatedillness. At least four of the bodiesfrom this year are still on the mountainand will remain there indefinitely.Many climbers choose to gowith large commercial expeditions,but All chose for his partner a Britishclimber named Ed, whose wife hadbeen volunteering with the HimalayanRescue Association while heclimbed for a few months. The twohired a man named Anil to handlethe permits and logistics and twoSherpas to help carry tents and oxygenup to the higher camps.“This year was at least an 8 percentsummit death rate,” All writes.“Be careful what you wish for ...” Allreached the summit May 23.In its history, Mount Everest haskilled well over 200 people, morethan 120 of whom are still on themountain, All said. “Deaths on Mt.Everest are generally not climbers,but inexperienced people who don’thave the fitness or experiencefor a mountainlike this andunscrupulous expeditionagents take theirmoney and let themgo up on the mountain,”he said. “Sincethe expedition teamshave already beenpaid, they aren’t concernedif some people die—they certainlydon’t mention deaths on theirwebsite. I am far more afraid of deathin a Kathmandu taxi than on Mt.Everest.”Climbing friend Brad Schneider,vice president of the developmentalservices division of LifeSkills Inc.,14 | WKU SPIRIT | Fall 2010