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Everest - Mountain at the Millenium (2001) Overall rating:  A Nat Geo documentary, introduced by Sting for some unfathomable reason. You probably know the style, quick history of Everest expeditions, profile of the main climber Pete Athens, and the campaigns goal: sixth ascent by a Westerner and GPS measurement of Everest's height. They take the "safer" South route. At the same time, on the North side, the Mallory & Irvine expedition is searching for evidence. The doco is a good overview of the South camp system and the features at each stage, and the acclimatisation system to be able to summit. Now that there are so many climbers on the mountain these days, that must be a nightmare. In 1999 they were quoting $65k for a summit! There's some good shots of the upper ridge below the summit near the Hilary Step that are quite unnerving. And then the Sherpas have to lug GPS gear and set it up on the summit. After that, they rescued a climber who fell off a cornice that simply sheared off the ridge without warning. And then at the end you find out why Sting introduced the doco. A plug for his album of the time.  On the DVD there is a nice chain of little vignettes of the early part of the expedition. Instead of freighting in all their food, they buy it at the local market and give gifts to the lamas in return for blessings for two months. You get some insight into the enormous contribution of the Nepalese altogether, not just the Sherpas. Each segment on the way up the mountain is about 8 mins long and worth watching, there's a lot here that I've not seen covered in any detail, a lot of the nuts and bolts of the expedition system of almost 20 years ago, which has probably changed now.
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Feb 20, 2017 09:53
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ewe2 posted:Everest - Mountain at the Millenium (2001) Maybe my memory is off, but it seems like that expedition was like the opposite of every other, "Looking for something lost a long time ago," documentaries. They always find the thing they are looking for at the last moment, but with that trip, my memory is like, "Ok, let's get started -- hey look, there's a body." And it was Mallory's.
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Feb 20, 2017 22:44
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Mr. Funny Pants posted:Maybe my memory is off, but it seems like that expedition was like the opposite of every other, "Looking for something lost a long time ago," documentaries. They always find the thing they are looking for at the last moment, but with that trip, my memory is like, "Ok, let's get started -- hey look, there's a body." And it was Mallory's. IIRC they also wanted to test if Mallory could actually have climbed the Second Step, so during the climb they unbolted the ladder from the mountain and had Conrad Anker climb it free to get his take on how hard it actually was and whether Mallory would have had a chance.
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Feb 20, 2017 23:17
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Mr. Funny Pants posted:Maybe my memory is off, but it seems like that expedition was like the opposite of every other, "Looking for something lost a long time ago," documentaries. They always find the thing they are looking for at the last moment, but with that trip, my memory is like, "Ok, let's get started -- hey look, there's a body." And it was Mallory's. Yeah, they did a lot of acclimatisation before they got started and it was literally the first day of searching and Ankers caught sight of something. I did some wiki digging and they've tried a few times since to find Irvine, and got sidetracked with bad weather and rescue operations. gohuskies posted:IIRC they also wanted to test if Mallory could actually have climbed the Second Step, so during the climb they unbolted the ladder from the mountain and had Conrad Anker climb it free to get his take on how hard it actually was and whether Mallory would have had a chance. Yeah it's interesting that at the time (1999) he found Mallory, Ankers was convinced he couldn't have summitted (is that a word?) but by the time he tried to do it himself with similar equipment and free-climbed the Second Step he was equally convinced that if Mallory was fast as he usually was, he could have done it. I think Irvine will be found when the glacier's good and ready, or perhaps he's already gone past decades ago.
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Feb 20, 2017 23:27
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Global warming should expose Irvine at some point.
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Feb 21, 2017 01:25
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I've heard people say "Everest was conquered with wool, leather, fur, down, and silk" as a retort to the idea that you need modern fabrics to set foot outside your door for day hikes. Aside from that dumb quagmire of a debate, I was curious just how true that statement was. What did Norgay and Hillary use?
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Feb 22, 2017 00:49
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OMGVBFLOL posted:I've heard people say "Everest was conquered with wool, leather, fur, down, and silk" as a retort to the idea that you need modern fabrics to set foot outside your door for day hikes. Aside from that dumb quagmire of a debate, I was curious just how true that statement was. What did Norgay and Hillary use? There was this experiment with replicas of Mallory’s clothing.
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Feb 22, 2017 00:54
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The race has began! http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/melbourne-father-dies-in-nepal-after-descent-from-everest-base-camp-reports-20170305-gur8m7.html
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Mar 5, 2017 21:25
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Man, auto playing videos are really making me want to just deal with the inconvenience of Noscript running at all times.
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Mar 6, 2017 00:19
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Do we score one for the mountain? http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-39175660
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Mar 6, 2017 08:58
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simplefish posted:Do we score one for the mountain? I think it counts.
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Mar 6, 2017 09:04
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Curses, beaten to it. He didn't even get further than that.
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Mar 6, 2017 09:49
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And keep in mind that China apparently want to Disney up their side of the mountain so you can drive right to the hotel they're putting at basecamp. (I hope they don't put stairs in it lol) I mean, the hike in to EBC is what, four days to a week of useful acclimatization? And people like this guy still die because of the altitude. What happens when instead you can spend a day or two on a bus and be at the same(ish) altitude? 
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Mar 6, 2017 12:26
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DumbparameciuM posted:And keep in mind that China apparently want to Disney up their side of the mountain so you can drive right to the hotel they're putting at basecamp. (I hope they don't put stairs in it lol) It's 17,600 ft. The roads to Pikes Peak and Mt Evans are about 14k ft and people regularly get mild altitude sickness, no idea how that extrapolates.
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Mar 6, 2017 13:58
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AreWeDrunkYet posted:roads to Pikes Peak So you're telling me we can do a rally race on Everest soon?
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Mar 7, 2017 21:36
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ewe2 posted:Yeah it's interesting that at the time (1999) he found Mallory, Ankers was convinced he couldn't have summitted (is that a word?) but by the time he tried to do it himself with similar equipment and free-climbed the Second Step he was equally convinced that if Mallory was fast as he usually was, he could have done it. In his book, I'd gotten the takeaway that Anker ultimately seemed to be more sure that free-climbing the second step was improbable for Mallory? Though improbable doesn't mean impossible so it's not like the conjecture is totally off.
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Mar 16, 2017 01:16
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He seems way more convinced in the doco that Mallory could have free-climbed the Step after doing it himself. Therefore if he did, he could have summitted. I haven't read the book, perhaps it uses more cautious language.
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Mar 16, 2017 05:19
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Okuyasu Nijimura posted:In his book, I'd gotten the takeaway that Anker ultimately seemed to be more sure that free-climbing the second step was improbable for Mallory? Though improbable doesn't mean impossible so it's not like the conjecture is totally off. Most people who have climbed the second step without the ladder have graded it around 5.8-5.9. Mallory is known to have climbed up to 5.9 on rock before, Irvine up to 5.7. So if Mallory and/or Irvine did climb the step, it would be among the hardest rock climbs of their lives before even taking the altitude into account.
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Mar 16, 2017 06:13
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You also have to account for summit fever as motivation. It's all a wash. I don't think we're ever going to get a better answer than we have now, unless someone finds their camera.
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Mar 16, 2017 06:19
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gohuskies posted:Most people who have climbed the second step without the ladder have graded it around 5.8-5.9. Mallory is known to have climbed up to 5.9 on rock before, Irvine up to 5.7. So if Mallory and/or Irvine did climb the step, it would be among the hardest rock climbs of their lives before even taking the altitude into account. Yeah, given Mallory's skill it wouldn't surprise me; I was just curious about Anker's take. I feel like he said in the book that he actually rated it 5.10 after returning home and mulling it over? I was really surprised by that (though it's been a bit since I finished reading it so I could well be remembering incorrectly) The book itself was interesting, but there's not a lot of story about finding Mallory himself because, well, it happened so quickly.
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Mar 16, 2017 16:31
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I know there have been book recommendations and reviews in the thread before, but I'm having trouble paging through finding them. I've read into thin air, dark summit, and the climb. Are there go-to recommendations on what to read? vvv thanks, any extreme mountaineering is interesting, doesn't need to be about Everest. In fact I'd like to read about the more technically challenging ones as well. uwaeve fucked around with this message at 10:08 on Mar 17, 2017 |
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Mar 17, 2017 03:20
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uwaeve posted:I know there have been book recommendations and reviews in the thread before, but I'm having trouble paging through finding them. I've read into thin air, dark summit, and the climb. Are there go-to recommendations on what to read? I enjoyed Denali's Howl though it is clearly not about Everest.
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Mar 17, 2017 03:47
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Sherpa (2015) Overall rating: This movie is really about respect, the lack of it. Bonus: Renan Ozturk (from Meru) was one of the directors of the movie, he talks about it in a DVD extra. Yes, after Meru. When 16 Sherpas died in the Khumbu Icefall, it was in the middle of shooting a movie about the Sherpas, and all hell broke loose. If you can get the DVD it's worth it for the extras, otherwise the film itself is a much needed perspective on the Sherpa side of the Everest story. I won't spoil it further, but if anything shines a light on this most bizarre of industries, this is the film to watch.
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Mar 17, 2017 16:07
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For people interested in the safety aspect of winter conditions in mountains, we have a really great website forecasting avalanche conditions in the mountains of Western Canada. And things are pretty insane right now in the Rockies. http://avalanche.ca And Kananaskis Public Safety, which is in charge of the region I spend most of my time in, posted this on their Facebook page: quote:We currently have another storm on our doorstep. It is expected to bring an additional 30cm of snow and alpine winds of 100km/hr plus! As good as this sounds, we are very aware that it will create extreme avalanche hazard within the Kananaskis area. We are advising people to not even go into the backcountry for the week-end. Ski hills, groomed XC ski trails are both reasonable options. There were two deaths earlier this week in Banff, two snowshoers were caught in an avalanche. It's just really ugly right now, I hope none of my friends say "gently caress it" and head out.
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Mar 17, 2017 23:58
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Picnic Princess posted:For people interested in the safety aspect of winter conditions in mountains, we have a really great website forecasting avalanche conditions in the mountains of Western Canada. And things are pretty insane right now in the Rockies. "Confidence: High" - rather ironic since that's going to be how people who'd actually choose to go out in it must feel
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Mar 18, 2017 02:37
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simplefish posted:"Confidence: High" - rather ironic since that's going to be how people who'd actually choose to go out in it must feel http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/77501034/Tourist-trampers-ignore-advice-and-pay-ultimate-price-in-Fiordland-National-park A couple of french-canadian tourists died in a small avalanche on one of our Great Walks when they did it out-of-season (and thus in significant avalanche paths), didn't tell anyone where they were going, didn't rent crampons or ice axes or any avalanche gear because they didn't think they'd need it, and ignored the many people who told them don't do it. quote:"They did not understand the dangers they were facing and, more significantly, did not understand the fact they did not understand these dangers." It's a tragedy, but probably a good way to sum up many avalanche deaths.
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Mar 19, 2017 08:45
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Blood for the (canadian) mount gods? What does a canadian mountain god even look like? I'm in ontario and am pretty sure i am safe from avalanches
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Mar 20, 2017 00:33
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Jimmy Hats posted:What does a canadian mountain god even look like?
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Mar 20, 2017 02:17
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You mean Samsquanch.
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Mar 20, 2017 03:00
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It's not Everest, but I've been reading about another woefully unqualified man who got himself and others killed, Robert Falcon Scott of the Antarctic. In contrast to Roald Amundsen's five-man crew, which got to the pole first, didn't lose a single man and gained weight on the return journey, Scott and his four companions all died on the way back from the pole. Highlights of the Scott expedition: - Not even starting to plan the logistics of reaching the South Pole until he arrived in Antarctica - Relying on Mongolian ponies (that couldn't handle snow), motorized sledges (which broke) and man-hauling (which burns 7,000 calories per day) to transport supplies rather than dog sleds, which everyone had told him to bring - Leaving the engineer who designed the motorized sledges at home because his naval rank was too high and would cause chain-of-command issues - Not requiring participants to learn skiing, and ordering one team to abandon their skis for unfathomable reasons - Leaving the one pre-laid food depot 37 miles short of its intended destination, then starving to death just 12 miles away from said depot on the return journey - Adding a fifth person to the final pole-bound team, despite planning rations for four men - Stopping on the return to gather 50 pounds of rocks while they were starving to death - Planning for the best-case scenario and leaving no margin for error There were a lot more mistakes and I feel really bad for the guys that Scott got killed.  The book I read was Race for the South Pole and it's pretty good. Really shows the differences between the two expeditions.
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Mar 20, 2017 04:26
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Left out the very best bit: On the same day, Oates, whose toes had become frostbitten,[87] voluntarily left the tent and walked to his death.[88] Scott wrote that Oates' last words were "I am just going outside and may be some time".[89] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Falcon_Scott
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Mar 20, 2017 05:22
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 Smoking at 5364 m seems like a bad idea.
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Mar 21, 2017 19:03
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Platystemon posted:
We can wrap him in a Canadian flag, but you know, green, and with a slightly different leaf.
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Mar 21, 2017 19:25
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The scale of those pictures never works for me. They're like automatic optical illusions. Those ARE a bunch of tents on the left, yeah?
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Mar 21, 2017 20:14
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Re the scott expedition, this was a really good piece I read a while back looking at it from the context of medical science deciding limes weren't the cure for scurvy despite 100 years of results because they didn't make a distinction between limes and lemons. "Egads! These green lemons don't work, there must be another cause at play and they were never the healing factor after all" P troubling in the age of anti-vax. http://idlewords.com/2010/03/scott_and_scurvy.htm shame on an IGA fucked around with this message at 21:05 on Mar 21, 2017 |
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Mar 21, 2017 20:59
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uwaeve posted:I know there have been book recommendations and reviews in the thread before, but I'm having trouble paging through finding them. I've read into thin air, dark summit, and the climb. Are there go-to recommendations on what to read? I recommend Kiss or Kill by Mark Twight. He was one of the best alpinists in the world in the late 80's to early 00's. He took huge risks climbing but was good and lucky enough to survive a lot of poo poo. There's a lot of written stuff on his website as well. He also wrote a textbook of a sort called Extreme Alpinism which is pretty much what it sounds like.
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Mar 21, 2017 21:03
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My Facebook is completely filled with avalanche posts right now because Parks Mountain Safety has been doing a LOT of avalanche control due to the crazy conditions, plus people witnessing natural slides too. https://www.facebook.com/deryl.kelly.7/posts/10158381732380720 https://www.facebook.com/rockiesice/videos/pcb.1417154168334856/1417154071668199/?type=3&theater This is a natural size 4 seen on Cascade Mountain from HIghway 1 right outside Banff townsite. The highway runs right past the mountain, but a bit to the left of the slide path. 
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Mar 22, 2017 02:29
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 Mountaineering safety, a primer for Canadians.
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Mar 22, 2017 04:56
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I have a ton of mountaineering books and highly recommend these: The Boardman Tasker Omnibus https://www.amazon.com/Boardman-Tasker-Omnibus-Shining-Mountain/dp/0898864364 Joe Tasker and Pete Boardman were two British dudes who did some amazingly challenging climbing in the 1970s. They both died trying to summit Everest in 1982 Addicted to Danger https://www.amazon.com/Addicted-Danger-Affirming-Life-Death/dp/0671019910 Jim Wickwire was the first American to summit K2. He lost a lot of friends while climbing with them and one in a horrible way that had nothing to do with climbing Nanda Devi: The Tragic Expedition https://www.amazon.com/Nanda-Devi-Expedition-John-Roskelley/dp/0898867398 In 1976 a group of experienced Himalayan climbers assemble a team to climb a remote peak in India. Willi Unsoeld is one of the old pros and brings his daughter Devi, who was named after the mountain The team is a mix of strong personalities, a few have little or no experience on such a difficult objective. It doesn't end well
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Mar 22, 2017 08:28
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shame on an IGA posted:Re the scott expedition, this was a really good piece I read a while back looking at it from the context of medical science deciding limes weren't the cure for scurvy despite 100 years of results because they didn't make a distinction between limes and lemons. "Egads! These green lemons don't work, there must be another cause at play and they were never the healing factor after all" those "100 years of results" were mostly down to steam power making voyages short enough that nobody got scurvy despite the uselessness of pre-juiced, stored-in-copper lime juice. so when people discovered that the pre-juiced, stored-in-copper citrus juice that had been "working" for a hundred years did not, in fact, work, it took a while to figure out why. In the meantime, attempts to figure out why hit a lot of dead ends. e: literal dead ends in the case of Scott 
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Mar 22, 2017 15:06
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