The Everest Season

This is one of a couple of posts I'll be making highlighting some articles out of this month's Outside magazine.  In particular, a little graphic feature there on page 36 caught my eye - it summarizes the expedition activity and summiting records for Mount Everest this year, where evidently, the season has already ended - it's "in the books," as the graphic reads.

News from Everest started catching my eye a few years ago when my friend Dave started working on the "Seven Summits," a challenge that is designed to scale and summit the highest points on the seven continents.  For a couple of years there, Dave took in four of them: Erebus (Europe), Denali (North America), Kilimanjaro (Africa), and Vinson (Antarctica).  He did these in honor of a friend who had died of cancer in 2008 - I was very impressed with the effort and thought it was a fitting tribute to Dave's friend.

While he is on hiatus from the quest - if it ever was one for him (he never actually told me he had set a goal of all seven summits) - he shared some great adventure stories that I put up on the blog, and also Mary and I got to take a look at photographs from a couple of the climbs.

Back when I wrote this post:  http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2009/01/7-summiters-its-small-world.html, Dave had encountered a young person and his family on one of the climbs.  This youth had set a goal, with the support of his family, of summiting all seven peaks by the time he was 14.  Well, in this month's Outside, I finally get some closure on that one - apparently George Atkinson, a 16-year-old from England, is the youngest person to complete the seven summits.  The moral...if there is one...I won't make a guess.

Another bit of news includes the report that Apa Sherpa, the man who was honored by the special edition Suunto Core Everest watch I reviewed under the Tech-watch Geek label, summited with an expedition this year - for the 21st time.  Even for people who live in the region, and climb those mountains as an avocation, that summit is challenging, and can probably only be completed once a year.  To do it again and again 21 years is really saying something. 

I read that Apa Sherpa has established a trust, and proceeds from the watch roylaties will form part of the establishment funds.  He has given the money to benefit his home town, to increase literacy there, among other goals. 

That's a far better effort that the other five or six summiting escapades that the rest of the graphic features.  Some of them are truly just adventure for adventure's sake - showing off.  I'll write about Apa Sherpa any day over them.