From the category archives:

Mountaineering

Down the Rabbit Hole with … Wait for it … Cannibalism

by Sasha Stone on July 29, 2009

It all started when I found a book on homesteading.¬† It just so happened that the book I picked up had some letters from members of the Donner party.¬† And that was all it took.¬† Down the rabbit hole I went in search of all available information on the Donner party – who were they, how did they get into such bad straights?¬† Where exactly were they when most of them died frozen and starving in the snow?¬† Did they really resort to eating human flesh as has been rumored?¬† Were the recent stories about there being no proof of cannibalism to be believed (turns out, no, they’re not).¬† The letters specifically said that many of them stayed alive by eating flesh.¬† Those who didn’t felt proud of this fact.

I found many great sites on Donner info, like the Donner Party Library, but the best one is the Donner blog.

The Donner doc done by PBS’ The American Experience is on YouTube.¬† You can watch the whole thing if you’ve a mind.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1ceO0gtlJ4[/youtube]

I thought when that quieted in my mind it was all over with.¬† But then I happened to catch the film Alive on cable recently.¬† It all started over again.¬† The plane crash in the Andes mountains in 1972.¬† The movie isn’t bad – Ethan Hawke has never been better, really.¬† Oh and if you think you’re afraid of flying…I hate planes.¬† I am not emotionally mature enough to tolerate the intense fear.¬† Anyway, so here’s a cheery clip of Alive.¬† I think you can actually watch the whole film on YouTube as well:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyoh84rdOrk[/youtube]

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Summit Push

by Sasha Stone on May 15, 2009

May reminds me that a whole bunch of optimistic crazy people are trying to summit Everest.  On one of the blogs I follow this time of year, one group is ready to go.  This, after weeks of preparing their lungs for the lack of oxygen.

And now here at base camp Willie organizes summit gear for the team, Tomaz makes up med kits, Adele packs the food, and I’m working on a back up power system for 19,000 feet. Tomorrow, weather permitting, our squad of Doug, Bill, Nick, Carlos and Willie head up to camp two and get themselves in position for a summit push after the weekend.

Tomaz, Adele, Chris, Neil, Neil, Amanda, Dave, Ian, and Kevin angle to be a day behind. So, in another 48 hours we should see the whole team back up the mountain readying for our final launch. I’ll keep you updated regularly over these next days and then all things running smooth, next week should be filled with news of our team pushing to the top.

So far, it looks like there is one death on record, a sherpa, who died in an avalanche near the Khumbu Ice Fall, that treacherous path that must be crossed and is the site of so many injuries and deaths.  There was a time a while back where I could imagine feeling the urge to do something like this.  But that feeling has long since faded.  Still, whenever May rolls around I imagine all of those climbers reaching, or not reaching, the summit and whether it was worth it or not.

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K2 Tragedy Unfolding, Worse than 1996 Tragedy

by Sasha Stone August 3, 2008 Mountaineering

Got this from The Adventurist: This quote is coming from the Spanish news site Gara.com and represents some of our worst fears.  The tragedy on K2 could be one of the world’s deadliest mountaineering disasters ever, even surpasing the tragic 1996 disaster on Mt. Everest. I am having a very hard time confirming these foreign reports, however.  EverestNews and ExplorersWeb are both staying quiet until climbers reach the area and can investigate, but these reports are pretty wide-spread in the foreign press. Some climbers are talking to their country’s press about this tragedy and most agree that at least 6 people have died, while at least 11 others are missing, and there are more that are in severe danger of dying from injuries suffered after an ice serec dislodged and caused an avalanche. I do not have a list of names, other than those thought missing that I have already [...]

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