The risks and responsibilities of taking on mt. everest - Portable Interactive Whiteboard

Debate followed about whether the large number of climbers onEverest contributed to at least some of those deaths. But that isprobably only part of the story, experienced climbers say. The six who died had all successfully reached the top, CanadianShriya Shah-Klorfine among them. There are still unanswered questions about what happened in hercase but reports are that she died about 50 metres below thesummit, still in the so-called death zone where oxygen levels arelow and the slopes are steep and icy. Like many climbers, Shah had arrived in the high-altitude region atthe end of March.

That gives the body time to acclimatize beforeattempting a push to the top. In the spring, the weather window for a successful Everest climbruns from early May to early June. Until the weather breaks, theclimbers bide their time at base camps. When the first good breakcame a week ago, an especially large number of climbers had beenwaiting and took off as soon as they could. Climbers on the southern approach, which was pioneered by EdmundHillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953, ascend following a rope linethat runs over almost 10 kilometres to the summit.

Running out of oxygen Nick Heil, a climbing instructor and author of Dark Summit: The True Story of Everest's Most Controversial Season , writes, "On summit day, you race the clock, trying to get up anddown before your oxygen runs out and your body gives in to thehypoxic environment," which can lead to pulmonary or cerebraledema. This time it was a slow race, due to traffic jams enroute. A guidewith Shah's Utmost Adventure Trekking, Ganesh Thakuri, told CBCNews, "We had to wait 2 hours for the traffic to pass theroute." Shriya Shah-Klorfine, of Toronto, waits at Everest's base camp onMay 12. She died shortly after achieving her dream of scaling MountEverest. (Canadian Press) Thakuri claims he asked Shah, "to go back and try next year or someother year," adding: "But she didn't listen." With the delays, Thakuri said that on her descent, Shah ran out ofoxygen bottles and died.

That high up, it helps a climber to have oxygen bottles but theyare not essential. As of 2006, 144 successful summits of Everesthad been made without supplementary oxygen, according to AdventureStats.com . Still, the fatality rate is about twice as high for thoseattempting to reach the summit without supplementary oxygencompared to climbers using it, according to the website. In an interview with CBC News, veteran mountaineer Alan Arnettenoted that, "the best expeditions, like Peak Freaks or IMG[International Mountain Guides] or Alpine Ascents, they willactually send up extra Sherpas carrying extra oxygen for their teamin case there's a malfunction, or in case there's an emergency." Weather a determining factor As far as the Shah climb went, the delays may not have been fatalhad the weather not taken a sudden turn for the worse. Adding tothe inhuman cold, a windstorm swept into the area, trappingclimbers who were ascending and descending.

Eric Simonson , one of the world's top mountaineering expedition leaders and theauthor of two books about climbing Mount Everest, understands thedilemma Shah faced when she had to decide whether to continue or goback. He successfully climbed Everest in 1991. But he also told CBC Newsthat in other years he "turned back three times, because it wasn'tright." "It's hard to turn around and go down and not make it when you'veinvested so much into it," Simonson allowed. Simonson also directs IMG's Himalayan programs and has 10expeditions under his belt, including two this month.

IMG's firstteam had 11 climbers and 11 Sherpas on the summit on May 19, withthe second team of 12 climbers and 14 Sherpas reaching the peakearly on May 26. Climbing Everest from the north vs. the south While climbers on the south slopes faced traffic jams last weekendit was another story for mountaineers approaching from the north.That's the route that Sam Wyatt and Steve Curtis were on. Wyatt spoke to CBC News from his hotelin Kathmandu, Nepal's capital. Along with Wyatt and Curtis, there were about 75 people trying toclimb Everest from the north but there were no bottlenecks, Wyattsaid.

While the climbers on the south have a higher success rate, theyfollow the same rope and "so it's very easy for people to getbunched up and trapped behind each other." On the north, "theclimbing's much more technical, so as a result, the field ofclimbers gets spread out more." Wyatt said that when they reached the summit they were able to seea line of people approaching from the other direction, and that thenumber of people on that line was getting larger. Wyatt said the lineups occur, "not because the mountain's not bigenough to accommodate everybody, it boils down to the weatherwindows." With almost all the climbers using weather forecasts and gettingsimilar weather advice, "everybody winds up going up on the sameday because those are the best weather days." So when there aremore good weather days, the lineups are shorter, and vice versa. Two Guinness World Records holders, Tamae Watanabe of Japan, at 73,the world's oldest woman to climb Mount Everest, and Apa Sherpa,who has summited Everest a record 21 times, attend a pressconference in Kathmandu, Nepal on May 25. (Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters) Wyatt explained that on the north side this was actually a verylight year.

He estimates that in total there were about 200climbers, half of them Sherpas. By contrast, there were about twice that number in 2009 when Wyattattempted and failed to reach the summit, due to weatherconditions. This year, 73-year-old Tamae Watanabe of Japan reached the summitfrom the north side, becoming the oldest woman to climb Everest andbreaking the previous record, which she had set in 2002. Government issues expedition permits Permits to climb from the south are issued by the government ofNepal, and cost about $10,000 per expedition. Simonson explainedthat sometimes smaller outfitters band together and climb under thesame permit.

This year, permits for about 32 expeditions have beenissued. Rita Limbu of Gorkha FM Radio in Kathmandu told CBC News that although Everest expeditions arean important source of income for Nepal's government, the safetysituation is not a big issue right now because of the focus on thepolitical situation in the country. (Nepal is trying to draft a newconstitution after years of civil war.).

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