Such terrible news! So sad to see the deaths around the country in Nepal and in the region. There are climbers on other mountains as well, such as reported 40 stranded (unverified) at Makalu ABC. Makes me wonder about smaller expedition groups too dotted around the Himalayas. On Twitter about Makalu: NorthmenPK: #Makalu 40 climbers still stranded on Advance Base camp 5700 m. (photo @ferranlatorre) #NepalQuake http://t.co/lL4D3RxtFe On Everest, some friends have been choppered out of C1 today back to BC, at 2 people per flight from the reported 100+ group above the icefall.
Indeed terrible news - a devastating loss of life in the country and impact on Nepalese communities, aside from the mountaineering impact. The Jagged Globe website seems to be doing regular updates concerning Everest base camp.
I do wonder about about choppering everyone out from C1. Fine if they are injured or deteriorating but surely a priority at present would be getting copters to remote villages where people have life threatening injuries and no way of getting to hospital. How long could aclimatised uninjured climbers stay up there with food/water drops occuring when deteriorating climbers need to be taken out?
I was talking with someone about this earlier. Their suggestion was that it might be the case that the Nepalese authorities would veer towards rescuing the nice rich Western climbers, with their insurance policies, rather than poor farmers out in the sticks. This would result in: 1. Payouts by the insurers 2. Potential future climbers/trekkers being reassured that if they got into trouble, they would be first on the list to be rescued, thus protecting future revenues. I would be interested to hear what others think about this standpoint.
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