Summit Murder Mystery Series

By Nick Krewen It’s been four months since a powerful earthquake rocked Nepal, killing more than 9,000 people nation-wide, including 19 climbers at the Mount Everest base camp. Now, two of the surviving climbers will share their stories of the disaster in a four-part original web series produced by Sooperfly, the digital video network launched earlier this year by Mumbai-based The 120 Media Collective . Mission Everest 2015 launches on YouTube on Wednesday, Sept. 2, with subsequent episodes released every Thursday for the remainder of the month. Executives with 120 Media have been promising original content creation since bringing Sooperfly to life in April in a joint partnership with U.K. channel management firm Diagonal View. In early August,  Roopak Saluja , 120 Media’s CEO and founder, said original series and longer-form programming would be forthcoming in the wake of a one year strategic deal struck with glob...

Do more than just taking pictures. (Reuters/Adnan Abidi) Susanne Becken Every year 800,000 international visitors travel to Nepal to experience its unique attractions. These include Sagarmatha National Park (Mt Everest), the Annapurna and Langtang trekking regions, and the Kathmandu Valley, which is dotted with UNESCO World Heritage sites such as the Durbar Squares in Patan and Bhaktapur. The April 25 earthquake and aftershocks seriously affected all these places. Tourism is critical to Nepal’s economy. The World Travel and Tourism Council reports that the industry contributed 8.9% to Nepal’s gross domestic product in 2014, supporting 1.1 million jobs. Before the earthquake, Nepal was the 26th fastest-growing tourism economy out of 188 countries. What impact will the earthquake have on tourism? Based on the Nepalese culture, tourism and civil aviation ministry’s tourism statistics, about 23,000 visitors would have been in...

(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 ...

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 ...

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...

By Peter Holley April 25   A senior mountain guide said that at least 17 people were killed after an avalanche triggered by Nepal’s massive earthquake slammed into a section of the Mount Everest mountaineering base camp, and 61 others were injured. Ang Tshering of the Nepal Mountaineering Association said early Sunday that 22 of the seriously injured were taken by helicopter to Pheriche village, the nearest medical facility. Bad weather and poor communications are hampering more helicopter sorties. The avalanche began on Mount Kumori, a 22,966-foot mountain just a few miles from Everest, roared through the nearby Khumbu Icefall and slammed into base camp, sending hundreds of climbers running for their lives, according to the Associated Press. Nepal Tourism Ministry spokesman Gyanendra Shrestha said the death toll could rise and that the avalanche had buried part of the base camp. He said two tents at the camp had been filled with the injured...

(Photo: DIPTENDU DUTTA AFP/Getty Images)   KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) - Human waste left by climbers on Mount Everest has become a problem that is causing pollution and threatening to spread disease on the world's highest peak, the chief of Nepal's mountaineering association said Tuesday. The more than 700 climbers and guides who spend nearly two months on Everest's slopes each climbing season leave large amounts of feces and urine, and the issue has not been addressed, Ang Tshering told reporters. He said Nepal's government needs to get the climbers to dispose of the waste properly so the mountain remains pristine. Hundreds of foreign climbers attempt to scale Everest during Nepal's mountaineering season, which began this week and runs through May. Last year's season was canceled after 16 local guides were killed in an avalanche in April. Climbers spend weeks acclimatizing around the four camps set up betw...

By  Paul Dworin   Mt. Everest  will soon become more accessible to adventurers with the construction of a 65-mile highway linking the village of Jiri to Lukla—considered the gateway to Mt. Everest. Despite the good news, however, the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu, continues to suffer the side effects of climate change. And, as Kathmandu is the nation’s production and consumption center, any climate-related hazards impacting daily life there will have a spillover effect on the rest of this poor Himalayan nation. Nepal’s glaciers have lost about a third of their ice reserves since 1977, according to Bloomberg News . The ice melt is having a serious impact on the weather, as glaciers impact climate dynamics such as the high-altitude jet streams that can bring monsoons or prolong droughts. “It’s affecting daily life,” said Ram Sharan Mahat, Nepal’s finance minister, who projects just a one-half percent economic growth this year due to the...

Recently, Makiko Iwafuchi, a 49-year-old Japanese woman, went missing for 12 days in the Himalayan mountains of Nepal. After she was found she explained how she survived by eating bamboo shoots and drinking water. Makiko left her hotel on May 25 to trek to a nearby lake in Gosaikunda, a religious site for Hindus located at an altitude of 4380 meters. Unfortunately, she lost her way in a forest and was only saved when a group found her by accident. "The trail seemed pretty clear and I thought I would not get lost. I was confused and took the wrong trail," Makiko told reporters in Kathmandu. Makiko is an experienced trekker and hiker. For two days she didn't move and stayed in a small cave. To keep herself fed, Makiko ate leaves, bamboo shoots and kept herself hydrated by consistently drinking water. Makiko formerly traded jewelry but is now a full-time traveler. Upon her rescue she appeared exhausted and had minor injuries to her feet, but otherwise suffe...

May 6th marked a significant day for Mount Everest. British climber, Kenton Cool, successfully tweeted from the summit of Mount Everest. From his twitter handle: @KentonCool, Cool told the world, "Everest summit no.9! 1st tweet from the top of the world thanks to a weak 3G signal and the awesome Samsung Galaxy S2 handset." Ncell launched the 3G service on Everest last year. Because of Ncell, video calling is also available on Everest from the height of 5,000 meters. Video communication allows for climbers to have safer climbs and better communication from the side of the mountain to the base. Ncell has nine base stations on the mountain and plans to add five more to strengthen the signal on Everest.

The U.S. military has always excelled at training soldiers for combat, but they've had a tougher time helping them adjust to peace after their service has been completed. After being involved in an accident that left him blind, army veteran Steve Baskis directed his efforts to summiting Mount Lobuche. While serving in Baghdad, Baskis' armored vehicle received a blast from a homemade explosive. It was a metal tube stuffed with explosive material and capped with a concave copper disk. Shrapnel sliced through the car's passenger side door and into Sergeant Victor Cota. Some of the shrapnel went through Cota and into Baskis. Cota did not survive the incident and perished on site. Baskis awoke a week later in a veteran's hospital without his sight. Although the pain was great, Baskis was determined to make the most of his life. Since the incident Baskis has learned to navigate in his now dark world. He has ran in the Chicago Marathon, finished a half Ironman triathlo...

The Yeti has long been an object of folklore. Known to some as the Abominable Snowman the Yeti is thought to inhabit the Himalayan mountains in Nepal, India. In the video below, the indigenous people in the surrounding area also call the mysterious, ape-like creature Meh-The, which translates to "man bear". Sightings of the Yeti have been recorded since climbers have begun tackling the formidable Mount Everest. Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to summit Mount Everest, found a large footprint in the snow and believed it belonged to a yeti. Still, there remains much doubt in the scientific community, due to the lack of conclusive evidence. Until Mount Everest and the Himalayas are completely understood, mankind will never know the truth about the Yeti.

The World's tallest mountain belongs to the Nepalese and China border, nestled into the Himalayas, Mt. Everest rises 29,029 feet above sea level. It is an accomplishment tackled by few and finished even less. In 1865, Mt. Everest was given its official English name by the Royal Geographical Society. Andrew Waugh, the British Surveyor General of India at the time, named it after his predecessor in the post, Sir George Everest. Although the Tibetans still call it Chomolungma or "Saint Mother". Prior to Waugh, Mt. Everest was simply called Peak XV. Waugh also helped to define Mt. Everest as the tallest peak in the 1850's, taking the title from Kangchenjunga. Mt. Everest has two main climbing routes, the southeast ridge from Nepal and the northeast ridge from Tibet. The southeast ridge from Nepal is technically easier and is used more frequently. It was the route used by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay on the first summit of Mt. Everest. There is a small win...

Early in November more than 2000 tourists were stranded at Lukla Airport in Nepal due to bad weather canceling flights. Lukla is the starting point for trips to Mount Everest. The Lukla Airport is also known as the Tenzing-Hillary Airport, after the first men to summit Mount Everest. The Civil Aviation Ministry of Nepal announced flights were canceled all over the region, leaving over 3000 tourists stranded in the region due to bad weather. The ministry is working with the army of Nepal to rescue all stranded tourists. The ministry plans to bring all tourists from Lukla to Jiri with the help of helicopters and sky vans. After Jiri the tourists will be transported to Kathmandu by bus. At Kathmandu they will be able to take flights home. Stranded tourists are not the only problem caused by the flight cancellations. Planes are the only way to provide food in the region. The inability for planes to fly has created a food shortage for many parts of Nepal. The Trekking Agents Associ...