miércoles, 5 de junio de 2019

Fatal ascents | The Indian Express

Written by Stephen Alter |Updated: June 5, 2019 12:20:36 am

Alter is the author of 16 books of fiction and non-fiction. He lives and writes in Mussoorie.

Fatal ascents

Mountaineering is a perilous, sometimes fatal, pursuit. For those who take part in this sport, it is a risk they accept as part of a transcendent and sometimes tragic fascination for high places

Everest deaths, Mount everest deaths, everest traffic jams, deaths on mount everst, mount everest climbing, Himalaya, mountaineering — Nobody can deny that mountaineering is a perilous, sometimes fatal, pursuit. (Illustration/C R Sasikumar)

News from the Himalaya this climbing season has been grim. In addition to the recent deaths on Everest, Kanchenjunga, Makalu and Nanga Parbat, eight climbers are now missing and presumed dead on Nanda Devi East, in Uttarakhand. Though it is too early to be sure, from initial reports they seem to have been buried beneath an avalanche. The leader of this team was Martin Moran, an experienced mountain guide, based in Scotland, who focused his attention on peaks in Garhwal and Kumaon. While most of Moran’s ascents were commercial climbs, with clients paying him to help them reach the summit, his approach to mountaineering was, in many ways, the antithesis of what is happening atop Everest these days.