Last year I got obsessed with reading about bear attacks. I read about every fatal bear attack on record for a couple of weeks until I ran out of material and got bored. This year, my current obsession is reading about how people died on Mt. Everest. There’s the sudden and obvious like this poor chap, and the sad, long, odd and painful, like this old man from Maryland. And there are the miracles.
I also enjoyed reading this detailed story (.pdf) from a smart bloke who has had the good sense to turn around three straight times before reaching the Second Summit. It has good pictures, too, and it tells the funny story of how China politicized the slopes in 2008 because they were carrying the Olympic Torch to the summit and they didn’t want any Free Tibet signs up top when they got there.
I don’t know why Mt. Everest fascinates me so much. I have no desire to climb it or even to visit it. But it’s so insane to climb over 25,000 feet that I can’t read enough about those who try and then run into trouble.
And then there is the supermodel at the top of the world who needed to be rescued and barely thought to mention it in announcing her accomplishment. Priceless.
A surfer got killed by a shark attack off Santa Barbara yesterday. Considering my daughter took surfing lessons when she was in college there makes me glad she’s now living inland.
There was a mountain lion spotted in the park where I take my constitutionals, but since there have been no deaths from mountain lion attacks in California in a hundred years that might get boring real quick.
By the way, the San Francisco Giants are going to the World Series!!!
Congratulations. I hope you have a better experience than the last three times you got there. Meanwhile a different Giants team will try to avenge the Yanks in Dallas on Monday night.
Here`s a link to mountain lion attacks in California & the deaths that have occurred from them.
Remember, the lions are out for their constitutionals also.
http://tchester.org/sgm/lists/lion_attacks_ca.html
If you were obsessed with bear attacks, did you watch the movie Grizzly Man? I am a huge fan of Werner Herzog, and the story, about a man who was so obsessed with grizzlies that he went to live with them in Alaska for 13 straight summers, was fascinating.
Yeah, I saw that. Bears are a menace. I could tell you a thing or two about bear attacks.
Hope you’ve had no trouble with our black bears, BooMan. In my experience, they’re not very menacing — just a nuisance sometimes, like raccoons. I did come close to attack once, because I surprised a mother bear & her cub on foot — but I was very cool, minded my own business & moved away slowly, so I’m still here to tell the tale.
Talk about intimidating, though! Mama was not happy.
Black bears are just as dangerous and they tend to kill more often than brown bears.
Interesting. I wonder if this has to do with mainly with their character, or the fact that there are more of them close to population centers?
Apparently, I’ve been fortunate & my experience clearly colors my opinion of them. I’ve actually seen a small bear run off by a mother cat when it got too close to her nest.
This in no way suggests that I don’t offer them supreme respect. Absolutely necessary.
Tim Treadwell was a personal friend of mine.
“The bodies of Timothy Treadwell, 46, and Amie Huguenard, 37, both of Malibu, Calif., were found Monday at their campsite when a pilot arrived who was supposed to take them to Kodiak, state troopers said Tuesday.”
So was Grizzly Adams, Dan Haggerty.
What do you think Tim did wrong, ‘Head?
He went back into bear country too late in the season when food was scarce.
That’s too bad. It seems like a mistake easily avoided by someone who knows even a little about bears. His familiarity with them must have confused him.
Wilderness Wench,
I was just watching a show about people who keep dangerous animals or live among them, thinking they have that special “bond” that nobody else has. That they are special, is quite delusional, since a Gabon Viper does not see/feel that specialness.
Tim was one of those people,(thinking he had a human/animal, special relationship)
Mind you he was a very nice person & would make speaking engagements at the local schools & show some of his amazing shots.
He was all about, “save the bears”, while discarding all sensible standards of safety while among them.
This lead to many people claiming he deserved what was a long time coming, but I`m not from that camp.
He was a delusional young man who also brought in a young lady into his “world” where she perished.
Very sad. Yes, especially sad for me that 2 people suffered one person’s delusion.
We do wish so much to be valued & unique ..
Music I’d listen to while climbing Everest:
I wish climbers would stop leaving so much junk on Everest. There is a huge dump at one the high elevation camps. Maybe someday they will figure out how to get helicopters up there and clean it up.
Now that Everest has been conquered, the next goal should be how much trash a climber can bring down.
Most of the garbage was brought up there by climbers & their Sherpa porters.
How colonial.
Hell, we’ve left our junk on the moon, too. If there’s a space, some dopey human will figuratively piss on it. We seem to be very dog-like that way.
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Everest’s death zone
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."You might enjoy this show…
I read about the Antartic expeditions of the early 1900’s. It is fascinating.
Sir Hillary went there later on and a bunch of feul barrels were parked on the ice at the shore. The ice broke and all the barrels went out to sea. Sir Hillary’s attitude was, oh, well. Also, He and his team hadn’t read about the sledging journeys of old and made quite a few mistakes because of it.
A truly amazing survival story is about Douglas Mawson.
If anyone sees the book Home of The Blizzard, read it.
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A nice summary: Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1956-1958
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Not so weird, Boo. I love this stuff – good stories, great photos. When I think I’m having a rough time, I tell myself “at least you’re not caught in a windstorm on the ice, or crossing a crevass on a ladder.”
Have you seen this one? Yikes – Chinese soldiers!
http://www.alanarnette.com/downloads/Everest%202008%20Report.pdf
Alice,
Very cool story.
Aack! Those senior moments are coming too fast. That Alzheimer’s research better speed up.
Yeah, that was linked in the story. But it’s a great perspective on what it’s like to climb the southern route of Everest. I think if I had never smoked and I exercised and got in shape that I could probably get as high as he did. But I would never risk going higher than 26,000 feet because no one can train for cerebral or pulmonary edema. And the oxygen is so thin in the Death Zone that you can’t have any confidence about your stamina or your ability to withstand the cold. To go that high, you are basically rolling the dice even if you feel strong. I’m glad that guy has had the good sense to know his limits. It’s why he’s still alive to write about climbing season every year.
I would have thought just living in America provides sufficient insanity at every turn to last several lifetimes.
Boo, if you haven’t read Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.
Tough but gripping read, especially well detailed about the effects of high altitude and oxygen starvation on the body. Any climb up Everest is essentially a race to get there and back before you die because you are slowly dying the whole while up there.
As with his book on Mormons there were plenty of days it was just too tough to read and I had to put it down.
You recall too my mugging by a bear in the Adirondacks. Worked out very well, but despite doing all the right things I could, it could have been far worse if the bear had been grumpier and/or if I couldn’t have made it back to the car within a few days.