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- trafficlight, on 04/05/2009, -4/+54Mess is the codeword for bodies.
- pandaxrage, on 04/05/2009, -4/+42He will be climbing with no oxygen, in shorts, a wife-beater, and sandals.
- deysman, on 04/05/2009, -7/+42Last name Sherpa. Coincidence?
- replaysMike, on 04/05/2009, -5/+39world's coolest garbage man.
- Dotcommer, on 04/06/2009, -0/+26I expect to see Mike Rowe there documenting the cleanup.
Mike: *huffing and puffing through snow, removing garbage* I'm Mike Rowe... *finds a frozen hand sticking out* ... And this is my job. - veled, on 04/05/2009, -0/+16Too may people forget how deadly the climb can be.
This isn't an escalator ride, folks... and truth be told, given the difference in oxygen and air pressure at the top, you wouldn't want it to be. - accn112, on 04/06/2009, -0/+14Its OK, they're frozen. No mess!
- okinau, on 04/05/2009, -4/+18Yes, his father just happened to have the last name Sherpa too...
- SoonerRoadie, on 04/06/2009, -0/+13Almost all of the Sherpa people have the last name Sherpa. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherpa
- Shiftgood, on 04/05/2009, -0/+11look at your comment.
...played like sega. - akchrs, on 04/05/2009, -1/+12They call him Apa Sherpa so as not to confuse him with Apa Canadian.
- dwninjungleland, on 04/06/2009, -0/+9it's mostly spent oxygen tanks. i had a professor in college who'd do this. we thought he was indiana jones.
- themadrammer, on 08/18/2009, -0/+7Yeah, because...he is a Sherpa, and lives there at the base of the mountain. Only the Sherpa are able to make those climbs 18 times. Foreigners make a handful and call it quits...or just die.
- veled, on 04/06/2009, -1/+7Mostly B.
- inactive, on 04/05/2009, -6/+12Damn, brave man. Hope his trip goes well.
- williepepper, on 04/06/2009, -1/+7WTF, who let them litter on the mountain to begin with?
That's a hefty fine. - Ellsworthskate, on 04/06/2009, -0/+6Whenever I hear a reference to the WWF, I always think it means "World Wrestling Federation" really threw me off for a second.
- mitrovarr, on 04/06/2009, -1/+65. Die from the exertion of carrying the equipment necessary to inflate helium balloons that can carry hundreds of pounds of weight at Everest's altitude.
- centran, on 04/06/2009, -0/+4A lot of the litter are oxygen tanks. After the tanks are used they leave them as you can't afford to waste energy.
- wondertwins, on 04/06/2009, -1/+5literally
- Spandia, on 04/06/2009, -3/+6A) You can't afford to carry your trash around when you're climbing Mt. Everest.
B) They died - Rivetgeek, on 04/06/2009, -1/+4fine, 12 volt solar array, and a small torch to melt snow into water. Electrolysis creates hydrogen which lift the balloon
- veled, on 04/06/2009, -1/+4A lot of the "litter" is dead bodies and their gear. (Dude, would YOU want to carry around all of your dead friend's heavy gear when you can barely carry your own? Taking a momento / prised possession is one thing...)
- rajib238, on 04/06/2009, -0/+3Wad do u mean by almost? His full name is Tenzing Norgay Sherpa. Same last name. "SHERPA"Okay?
- mitrovarr, on 04/06/2009, -1/+4Some of it was probably dropped or abandoned during emergencies as well.
- Therion596, on 04/07/2009, -0/+2Perhaps there is less water for the surrounding areas because the overall amount of melt every year correlates directly with how much ice there is left to melt? You, sir, are a fool.
- centran, on 04/06/2009, -0/+2I think that a lot of the bodies that are possible to recover have been already. Many of the bodies up there are buried in snow and who knows where they are.
- BallistiCrayon, on 04/06/2009, -2/+4Flummoxes?
You must love your word of the day calender. - Spoomeister, on 04/06/2009, -0/+2Probably the only environmentally conscious person with credibility that you will read about today. How many other people care about nature so much they'll hike Everest and clean it as they go?
- mitrovarr, on 04/06/2009, -0/+2It takes a lot of electricity to electrolyze water. Any solar panel you carried up would be insufficient to accomplish the task in any reasonable period of time, and you wouldn't be able to just leave the balloon to fill anyway (it would be destroyed by the weather and the panel covered by blowing snow.) Besides, a helium balloon large enough to haul hundreds of pounds of stuff is fairly sizable on its own. I simply don't think you understand how much air displacement it takes to carry a significant quantity of weight - I looked up the size of a helium balloon that could hold 200 lbs of weight (about right for a body recovery or a bunch of air cylinders) and it was an 18 ft. balloon. Which requires roughly 13 100 lb. helium cylinders to fill. (I couldn't find any information on the balloon itself, but I'm sure it would be pretty heavy on its own and probably incredibly delicate and breathtakingly expensive.)
The idea that you might fill such a thing with hydrogen on-site through electrolysis is ludicrous. I checked the energy requirement, and I found that it would take (assuming a 30 watt panel and 100% efficiency) 23 years of daylight before it would fill even one 18' balloon. I've got no doubt I screwed up the math somewhere, but I suspect the order of magnitude is about right - small man-sized solar panels produce absolutely piddly amounts of power (especially in poor conditions) and water electrolysis takes a lot of power. Filling a weather balloon capable of hauling substantial weight with a solar array in the field is hopeless.
Oh, and if the balloon breaks in the atmosphere, it's going to drop trash mostly consisting of empty air cylinders on whatever lies below. Those could easily be lethal to anyone below. - mitrovarr, on 04/06/2009, -1/+3It seems like it would make a lot more sense for him to make a series of short expeditions out to get as much trash as his party could carry and then return, instead of going for the summit. What he's doing is a nice gesture, but there's so much trash up there that the trash one party can carry out along with the gear they need to summit is pretty trivial. Hell, it'd probably take dozens of trips just to accomplish the body recoveries alone.
- Rivetgeek, on 04/06/2009, -0/+2it takes 12VDC to causes electrolysis. Hence why I said a 12v solar array. Over a span of a year, multiple climbers leave panels that are connected in series up produce a sizable array. You leave the array up there, each climber brings up a balloon. Sets it to fill ont he way up, releases it on the way down.
And your math is all wrong, who said anything about 200 pounds? Send it down one canister at a time. Im not talking about bodies.
Not to mention the solar panel will work far more efficiently at that altitude.
Is my idea practical? Of course not. Would it theoretically work? Most likely.
Now go ahead, I dare you to google up some studies on solar hydrogen production at altitude.
Google only makes you sound smart til someone that doesn't have to google it hears you. - RoboRay, on 04/06/2009, -0/+2What about Tenzing? He DID say "almost all."
- HABU2babU, on 04/06/2009, -0/+2A person that does, not talks about it. With a drive like that, i wonder what else he has/is doing.
- Therion596, on 04/07/2009, -0/+1Saying that the mountain and environment do not care about garbage is foolish, as well as dogmatic - you don't know that, and an ecosystem is an ecosystem, regardless of whether humans live there. Even if nothing at all lives where the garbage is, it will eventually get to someplace where something does live. Every little bit of refuse that humans drop that won't bio-degrade for years and years to come should be removed from wherever it can be found; as far as removing it from Everest goes, it may not be the most practical place to start cleaning up as far as making an impact goes, however it goes a long way in sending a message to people, which is the ultimate purpose of this journey.
I request further thought in the future. - borez, on 04/06/2009, -0/+1A wife-beater? What... a pint of Stella?
- Therion596, on 04/07/2009, -0/+1I think, plainly and simply, that this is an awesome way to send a good message.
- armakaryk, on 04/05/2009, -3/+4dugg for being a smartass.
- fireashes, on 04/06/2009, -0/+1If their last name is not Sherpa then how is he a Sherpa?
- helipilot, on 04/06/2009, -1/+2Next he plans to enter earth orbit to continue his exotic trash collecting expedition.
- inactive, on 04/05/2009, -6/+7His name is Sherpa? That's fitting.
- Cannonballkid, on 04/06/2009, -0/+1RTFA "Apa will leave something on the mountain as well: a vase containing 400 sacred Buddhist offerings at the summit. The offerings are intended to raise awareness about climate change and restore the sanctity of the Himalayas"
- RoboRay, on 04/06/2009, -0/+1With bite marks on their arms?
- fireashes, on 04/06/2009, -0/+1what about Tenzing Norgay Sherpa with the last name sherpa? What about him
- sun4u, on 04/06/2009, -1/+2We need some body to clean up politicians also..
- brownsin07, on 04/06/2009, -0/+1First hes not going up there with an empty trash back by himself, hes likely going with a team of at least a dozen people. I highly doubt he touches a single dead body up there. 90% of what he brings down will be used oxygen bottles.
- inactive, on 04/06/2009, -1/+2+6 / -5? I fail to see how my comment was controversial.
- inactive, on 04/06/2009, -1/+2I love it when people leave behind a place cleaner than when they found it! Living in Baltimore, the opposite seems to be the default case. Especially the young kids just walk along and drop the wrapping of what ever they're eating where ever they happen to be at that time. Then when they get older they throw trash out the window of their car so they won't get their car dirty.
Ultimate selfish stupidity in my opinion. - xxacefirexx, on 04/06/2009, -4/+5Comment graveyard. It's just one of those articles.
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