7.8 Earthquake in Nepal; 1800+ dead; Avalanche Kills 17+ on Everest

Damn! Heart goes out to them.

I am surprised that they don't have a Starbucks up on Everest by now. So many damn people climb that thing.

News from these mountains is always sketchy because people are spread out all over the mountain. Reports of injuries and casualties will be all over the place but this sounds really bad. Two years in a row with a tragedy that appears to involve many deaths on the mountain.

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one of my friends was just posting yesterday on fb about her friend currently climbing Everest. I hope her friend is ok.

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Hopefully it was a rest day for her and she wasn't on the mountain. It looks like the people above in Camp 1 are ok but their path down is destroyed. Reports say the avalanche was between the Khumbu ice fall and base camp but base camp appears to be intact. Very preliminary reports.

Sounds like the death toll on Everest is going to be much larger than 8. I wonder how many were on the mountain or are typically on the mountain at any given time? Fortunately the temperatures in Nepal have warmed up highs in low 70's, different time of year with freezing temps and the tragedy could have been much worse.

It was snowing on the mountain today. Temperatures in Nepal don't equate to temperatures around Mount Everest.

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Based on what?

Not a flame, just curious.

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I almost asked the same question. Because of the limited communications and people all over the place reports generally overstate deaths and injuries. Let's hope that is the case in this instance.

Gotcha. I hate to see this happen anywhere but in a place as remote and with the construction they use there it has to be terrible.

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Based on what?

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That's why I asked the question regarding how many are on the mountain on average at one time. Google just told me it can be as many as 20. And now the path down is much more dangerous made up of loose snow and rock from the avalanche. The decent is treacherous enough when they are exhausted and the path down is well known, familiar, and stable. That's all I was alluding to. Maybe there were only 8 up there when the quake hit or maybe all but 8 have made it down, I was just speculating nothing more.

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That's why I asked the question regarding how many are on the mountain on average at one time. Google just told me it can be as many as 20. And now the path down is much more dangerous made up of loose snow and rock from the avalanche. The decent is treacherous enough when they are exhausted and the path down is well known, familiar, and stable. That's all I was alluding to. Maybe there were only 8 up there when the quake hit or maybe all but 8 have made it down, I was just speculating nothing more.

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Way more than 20 can be on the mountain at any given time.

It's early in the climbing season there so most mountaineers are acclimatizing and are low on the mountain. It generally takes several weeks just to acclimatize properly to prepare for an ascent. We're still 2-3 weeks from that typical date which will then run through the end of May when the monsoon season hits and the mountain becomes unclimbable.

Reports say that today was a practice day on the mountain which usually means a LOT of people are on the mountain. Because it's early in the season unfortunately most of them would have been in harms way today unless they were above at camp 1 or resting in base camp.