Accidents on Kanchengua

Kanchengua is the most dangerous mountain.  People who have managed to survive Mt. Everest and K2 unfortunately, don't manage to reach the top of this deadly mountain. 

Wanda Rutkiewicz wanted to be the first woman to climb the three tallest mountains.  She made the first two but couldn't survive Kanchengua.  It is said that she was mentally weakened as she tried to make the suggestion whether to go down or considering to keep going on.  She decided to keep going but that decision cost her her life.  She had climbed 9 mountains that are 8,000 meters are over.  This would've been her ninth.  The bodies of the people that she was travelling with have been found but hers hasn't.  She died around May 12 1995. 

More recently, is the story of Weidlich.   She successfully made it up the mountain but she was abandoned on the way down the mountain.  She was complaining of her eye beintg really strained and sore and she was starting to lose her vision.  She also managed to damage her right knee.  Therefore, the Sherpa's couldn't wait for her to continue their descent.  I don't agree with leaving a anyone to die.  However,  they probably that she wasn't going to survive much longer and that she would hardly make it down another 100 meters. 

The Sherpa's have to judge if they believe the person has enough energy and will power and strengthh and endurance to make it down.  However,  they sometimes make mistakes and I'm not certain if this was one of the mistakes that they made. 

Difficult and Dangerous Mountains

Everest is the worlds tallest mountain but it is not the most difficult.  There are a least five more mountains more difficult to climb then Everest.  2,700 people have reached the top of Mount Everest and made their way back down. However, approximately 4000 people have tried to climb it.  The death tole has dropped, in 1990 the death tole was 37% but in 2004 the death tole was 4.4% with the year 2007 having the least amount of deaths. 

The most dangerous mountain to climb is Kanchenjunga which is 8598. Making it the third highest mountain in the world.   Only 181 people have managed to reach its summit.  The first people to climb it were Joe Brown and George Band on the 25 May 1995.  Many of the people who have died on this mountain have fallen or disappeared.  

Another dangerous mountain is K2.  It is the second tallest mountain and it is 8,611 meters tall.  K2 is an extremely steep mountain.  Many people use it for snowboarding and for skiing because it is steep.  It is permitted to go on K2 between June and August but it is not uncommon for people to have to wait at least two weeks to scale the mountain due to treacherous weather.

This is a short video of the route that you would take to climb Mt Kanchenjunga.

Read more about the other difficult mountains on
http://mentalfloss.com/article/30757/5-mountains-deadlier-everest

Avalanche on Everest

Mount Everest is in the Himalayas and is the tallest mountain. It is 8,848 meters high.

This is an image of the avalanche on Mount Everest
that happened on the 18th April.


Recently, in 18th April 2014 there was an avalanche on the base camp on Mount Everest. The base camp is 5,364 meters high. The base camp is very important as it gives a chance for the climbers to rest or come back if they are suffering altitude sickness. Unfortunately sixteen Sherpas (people who help people to Mt. Everest) died. So far only thirteen of the bodies have been found. The search for the remaining Sherpas was cut off because it was too dangerous and difficult to find them.

The avalanche started at Khumbu Ice fall which is a frozen waterfall just above Mt. Everest.

Cause:

Some people are arguing that global warming caused the avalanche.  I believe that this could be true.  Everest has loads of snow and glaciers all year round because of its height.  Global warming is causing of the ice and snow to melt which would cause an avalanche.

Professional mountain climbers expressed their concern before the avalanche as fifty climbers would hurry through that part of the climb.  The glacier has also  been known to move as the climate changes. 

Reactions: 
The families of the the sixteen Sherpa's who have died have been given $10,000.  This is to help pay for the funeral.
All of the Sherpa's have agreed to stop all climbing on Mount Everest for the rest of 2014, out of respect for their fellow Sherpa's who have died.

Climbing Mount Everest

Everyone thinks that Mount Everest is a beautiful mountain to climb, with all of it's amazing views and outstanding scenery.  This was the case in the past.  Now, there are too many people climbing it at one time.

At times all you can see our read coats (which are a requirement for the Sherpa's so that they can spot people easily).  It would be worse than going to town on Christmas Eve!! Also,  you have people littering and unfortunately, there are dead bodies all over the mountain as the Sherpa's aren't going to risk their lives to tidy up the mountain.  When you get to the top of the mountain, you only have 10 seconds to enjoy the view before you have to make the treacherous way down the mountain again. This is because you have to get down before your brain stops functioning properly due to the lack of oxygen. 

There was a man, Lincoln Hall who had a horrible trip up mount Everest.  It was his second time climbing mount Everest and he was an experienced climber who knew what he was doing.  He managed to get to the summit but on his way down he started going in and out of consciousness and at one point he nearly pushed the Sherpas off the mountain.  Once he wouldn't wake up after a couple of  minutes and the two Sherpa's declared him as dead and left him, taking away his oxygen and warm coat.  He stayed the night at an altitude of 8700 meters.   Luckily he survived the night.  The next day there was another climbing group and he was helped down the mountain. 

I got the Image from this website: http://bigthink.com/ideafeed/want-to-stand-on-top-of-mount-everest-get-in-line?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20bigthink%2Fmain%20(Big%20Think%20Main)



Hello, my name is Joanna and I'm doing my blog on the worlds mountains and the people who have climbed the mountains and the difficulties they have faced.  I will also write about how the mountains have changed