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Showing posts from May, 2015

Nepal earthquake stirs debate on overcrowding and commercialisation of Everest

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(Mount Everest may be over…) There's no mistaking the twinge of pain in his voice as Jamling Tenzing Norgay speaks on the phone from Kathmandu. Mention the series of avalanches that were set off on the world's tallest mountain, Mount Everest, and on some of the peaks around by the deadly earthquake last Saturday, killing at least 19 climbers of different nationalities, and he remains silent for a few seconds. As a Sherpa mountaineer and mountain guide, Norgay's sense of tragedy is palpable — what makes it even deeper is the family legacy; his father Sherpa Tenzing Norgay was the first summiteer of Mount Everest (along with Edmund Hillary) in 1953. "We respect Mount Everest as a mother and a goddess — both in Hindu & Buddhist cultures. An earthquake is a natural calamity but there's still a deep feeling of sadness," says Norgay, who rushed to Kathmandu from Darjeeling, where he lives, to search for many of his family members

'The earth shook, setting off two avalanches’

DEHRADUN: Ankur Bahl, 54, went missing for two days soon after the April 25 earthquake in Nepal. He was stranded two nights at Camp II, at a height of 22,000 feet above sea level, while attempting to summit Everest for the first time. His anxious wife sent out tweets and messages on social media, and was flooded with offers of support and help. "The ministry of external affairs and the office of the President too reached out to help," Sangeeta Bahl says, recalling that ordeal and the kindness of strangers. Her husband says it was a dream to scale Everest. He was training under the guidance of Garret Madison, seven-time Everester. "I started my expedition for Everest on April 4. At 12 in the day on April 25, when it was all clouded and visibility was poor, the earth shook violently and two pronounced avalanches of approximately two minutes, one from the Nuptse side and the other from Everest side devastated the entire ice-fall route, sweeping

Google Executive Daniel Fredinburg Killed in Mt. Everest Avalanche

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By EMILY SHAPIRO Google executive Daniel Fredinburg was among at least 17 people killed today in an avalanche on Mt. Everest that was triggered by a massive earthquake near the Nepal capital of Kathmandu. Google's Director of Privacy Lawrence You wrote in a statement: "Sadly, we lost one of our own in this tragedy. +Dan Fredinburg a long-time member of the Privacy organization in Mountain View, was in Nepal with three other Googlers, hiking Mount Everest. He has passed away. The other three Googlers with him are safe and we are w