I will save my commentary on this until there is more known about the events, but looking at the cause, I think I can see where both parties could be coming from. Though of course having things turn violent is never good, especially on an already dangerous mountain.
I will add this comment, if I was to get in a fight in Camp 3, from my end it would be the sissiest fight in the world and I would get my butt kicked. 🙂
I guess this puts a damper into Ueli Steck’s attempt to para-glide all over the Himalaya, as per this video:
I wanted to share with you guys some amazing climbing as done by Ueli Steck. I first heard of him from the movie “The Swiss Machine”, which we saw at the Best of Banff Mountain Film Festival when it made its stop in Calgary. I will not talk much about that but give you two clips to watch that show a part of that movie. Make sure to go full screen, set it to the highest quality, and enjoy the climbing along with the amazing cinematography:
Part 1:
Part 2:
While finding these clips online I found myself watching his climb over and over again, totally mesmerized. Crazy what this guy can do.
So now, why is he my hero? I don’t plan on doing anything like the above, don’t worry. What is inspiring is his most recent climbing attempt, where he was trying to climb 3 8000m mountains in one season, all alpine style, all without oxygen. There is no movie about this (yet, as far as I know), but he had some pretty great write-ups about it. I might talk a bit more about it in another entry, but if you wanted to read his first-hand account, you can find the entry on Shishapangma here, about Cho Oyu here, and Everest here. If you read just one, I think the Shishapangma one is the best. Crazy dude!
Update: Just found a couple more movies that show his preparation for climbing these 8000ers, find Part 1 here and Part 2 here.