Ricotta
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Everest Base Camp a ‘War Zone’ After Earthquake Triggers Avalanches
Everest Base Camp a ‘War Zone’ After Earthquake
Triggers Avalanches
Massive slides kill climbers, strand others on mountain,
flatten Sherpa villages
By Freddie Wilkinson in National Geographic
Though the epicenter of the devastating earthquake that struck Nepal on Saturday was roughly 150 miles from Mount Everest, powerful
shocks wrought destruction throughout the Khumbu region, where climbing season
is in full swing with dozens of expeditions deployed among several mountains.
The quake triggered a massive
avalanche that swept through Everest Base Camp. Initial reports say 18 people
were killed with several seriously injured. Dozens of other climbers are
stranded at camps farther up the mountain.
“Running for life from my tent,” wrote a Romanian climber, Alex Gavan, in a tweet from Base Camp posted an hour after the
earthquake. Gavan described a “huge avalanche” coming off Pumori, a 23,000-foot
(7,000-meter) peak located adjacent to Everest and directly above Base Camp.
On the Nepal (southern) side of
Everest, teams typically create Base Camp each year, pitching clusters of tents
along a three-mile-swath of rocky moraine on the side of the Khumbu Glacier.
The camp functions like a small city, home to dozens of teams of commercial
guides and their paying clients, Sherpas, and other support workers.
“Huge disaster,” he wrote in a
subsequent message. “Helped search & rescued victims through huge debris
area. Many more to die if not heli asap.”
Witnesses reported the upper part of
Base Camp suffered the most damage, while the lower part was largely unscathed.
The avalanche originated on Mount Pumori, a peak adjacent to Everest, and sent
down tons of ice and rock and created a large air blast that also added to the
destruction.
Washington-based guide Eric
Simonson, of International Mountain Guides (IMG), posted a more detailed report on his company’s blog. “The earthquake caused a huge block
of ice to fall from the ice cliff in the saddle between Pumori and Lingtren”,
he wrote, noting the block was approximately 2,500 feet (7,620 meters) above
the camp. “
The tons and tons of falling ice
going this vertical distance created a huge aerosol avalanche and accompanying
air blast that hit the upper part of Everest [Base Camp] and blew many tents
across the Khumbu Glacier towards the lower Icefall,” Simonson explained.
Other large avalanches were
reported as coming off Nuptse, a subsidiary
peak of Everest located on the opposite side of the valley from Pumori.
Unconfirmed reports filtering out
describe the upper portion of Base Camp as a “war zone,” while the lower portion of Base Camp survived relatively unscathed.
“Many of our friends in Base Camp
have been seriously injured and killed,” reported Everest ER on its Facebook page, a non-profit medical team that provides free healthcare to
climbers and the local Sherpa community in Base Camp.
Climbers and guides carry the
injured from the scene of the avalanche. Early reports say 18 people were
killed at Base Camp with several others badly injured. Efforts to evacuate the
injured have been halted until morning local time.
According to Alan Arnette,
a well-regarded Everest blogger who is climbing on nearby Lhotse this season,
approximately 359 foreign climbers and 350 local Nepali guides are attempting
Everest this year. Including support staff, the population of Everest Base Camp
is more than 1,000 people. Several sources have put the number of confirmed dead in
basecamp at 18, although that number will almost
certainly change as recovery efforts continue tomorrow.
Several factors will further hamper
rescue efforts, including snowy weather that prevented any helicopters from
reaching Base Camp today and the fact that most of the cellular system in Nepal
is not working because of the earthquake.
While those in Base Camp struggled
to survive, approximately 100-200 climbers and Sherpas were acclimatizing at
camps higher up on the mountain when the earthquake struck. Most of these teams
appear to have weathered the disaster without injury—although they now may well
be stuck, since the quake apparently caused substantial shifting of blocks
within the Khumbu Icefall, destroying the route that has been painstakingly
constructed with aluminum ladders and fixed ropes over the last month.
“#Icefall route destroyed,” reported
Dan Mazur, an American guide who is currently
in Camp I above the Khumbu Icefall, on his website. “Please pray for everyone,”
he added.
“The noise and movement was enough
to trip us off our feet,” wrote Rolfe Oostra,
an Australian mountaineer who was just arriving in Camp I at the time of the
earthquake.
“There was the loudest noise I have
ever heard coming from below (Base Camp) which produced an enormous backdraft,”
Oostra says. “It was not easy to work out what was going on, but we were
naturally now pretty wired trying to predict avalanches as well as make out
what was happening. After frantic coms to [Base Camp] it was related to us that
there had been huge avalanches and landslides on a devastation scale into [Base
Camp] triggered by the earthquake.”
“All of us in the Western Cwm are
okay,” Arnette posted on his blog, referring to the narrow glaciated valley
above the icefall where Camp I and Camp II are located.
Dave Hahn, an American guide for
RMI, posted
an update from his team at Camp 1: “About the
same time as the earthquake a pretty good snowstorm commenced up here in the
Western Cwm and down at Base Camp....But we don’t have the ability to travel
right now, good mountaineering sense dictates that we stay put and ride this
storm out.”
Among the dozens of small Sherpa villages
scattered throughout the Khumbu Valley below Base Camp, word is filtering out
describing scenes of widespread destruction. “I am in Thame village which was
almost flattened entirely,” wrote American climber and guide Dave Morton. “All
homes here are gone with some teahouses standing with significant damage. All
in village are in tents tonight outside with food. Amazingly no one in Thame
was killed, some pulled out hurt.”
A significant landslide was also
reported near the village of Phakding, located on the busy trail between Lukla,
where the small airport servicing the Everest region is located, and Namche,
the center of commerce in the Khumbu.
With tens of thousands of remote
villages scattered across a thousand miles of the Himalayas, such reports must
be amplified significantly to get a true sense of the scale of destruction
visited on Nepal.
The quake struck at 11:56 AM on
Saturday, April 25th local time. According
to the United States Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards Program, which monitors global tectonic activity. The epicenter was
near the village of Lamjung, in the Gorkha region, approximately 50 miles
northwest of Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital city.
The USGS rates the initial shock as
7.8 on the Richter scale. In the hours after the seismic event, the USGS has
logged 20 aftershocks, ranging from 4.2 to 6.6 on the Richter scale.
At least 4,000 people have been
declared dead, mostly in Nepal, with additional victims in India and China.
There are more than 7,100 injured in Nepal and the death toll is expected to
rise.
While the worst destruction appears
to be centered in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal’s largest urban region, many
areas of the country are affected.
“Sadly many killed in the town,”
wrote Ian Wall, a British citizen living in Kathmandu, in a message relayed via
social media. “Airport closed and things all very subdued as you would expect
.. helicopters flying .. hospitals at capacity and Gov called a state of
emergency asking for foreign support.”
In the densely inhabited Kathmandu
Valley, home to 2.5 million people, destruction is widespread as many buildings
constructed of brick and concrete collapsed.
Particularly hard hit are the city’s
many temples and other historic structures, including Bhimsen Tower, a 200-foot
minaret-like edifice constructed in the 1800s that has become a popular tourist
destination.
According to the Guardian, up to 160
tickets had been sold to sightseers at the time of the earthquake. “Few had any
chance to escape,” wrote Wall.
Freddie Wilkinson
is a writer and climber based in New Hampshire.
The original post with many graphic
images can be found at: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/04/150425-everest-earthquake-basecamp-nepal-himalaya-climbing-sherpa/
Death of Magellan
Death of
Magellan
1521
The Queen of Cebu was young and
beautiful, one who saw her states, though her lips and teeth were stained deep
red from the chewing of betel-nut. Unlike her royal consort, the fat and jovial
king, she wore clothing sufficient to drape her figure decently, though her
maids of honor "were all naked and barefoot, except for a girdle of
palm-leaves, and all with hair flowing free." These maidens accompanied
the queen in order to carry her triple crowns made of palm-straw, like a tiara,
of which she displayed several, besides the one she wore on her head.
Following the example of the king,
she abandoned her idols entirely, but begged Magellan to give her a carved
wooden image of Jesus, which he did gladly, telling her to keep it in their
place. He then sprayed her with perfumes, and also her women, at which they
were exceedingly delighted. That the queen treasured her little wooden image,
and after her those who inherited her possessions, may be inferred from the
fact that it was found in Cebu more than forty years afterwards, greatly
reverenced by the natives, who ascribed many miracles to its presence. Thus the
place in which it was found received the name of the "City of Jesus,"
and a monastery was founded there, in which the image was preserved.
Magellan did not confine himself to
the imparting of religious instruction only, but sent a large stock of goods
ashore and opened a shop, or market, for barter. Trade was good from the first,
and the people were ready to fight for such articles as they were in need of,
giving gold for bronze and iron, almost weight for weight. For the less
valuable things they gave in barter goats and kids, pigs, fowl, and rice, so
that the ships of the fleet once more abounded in plenty. These people were
very fair in their dealings, for "they lived in justice, and gave good
weights and measures." Their scale was an extremely simple contrivance,
consisting of a spear-shaft suspended in the middle by a cord, with a bronze
basin hung by three strings to one arm, and a piece of lead, to balance it, on
the other. So lavish were they of their gold and precious stones, that Magellan
issued an order forbidding promiscuous trading by the sailors, as "there
were some who would have given all they had for a small amount of gold, and
would soon have spoiled the trade forever."
The pious example of Magellan, in
erecting and then humbly worshipping the holy cross; his tenderness and
generosity towards the king and the queen, and his restraint in the matter of
trade, with his eminent fairness towards everybody in all things, aroused the
enthusiasm of the natives to the highest pitch. They brought their idols and
laid them at his feet—such as had not been previously destroyed—and the king's
nephew who had been restored to health by Magellan's intervention finding an
image which had been secreted in his hut by an old woman of his family, became
so enraged that he chastised her severely. He then led the way to the shore,
where were several temples erected in honor of the idols, which he and his
followers tore down and destroyed, shouting at the top of their voices,
"Castilia! Castilia!" as the Tlascalans of Mexico had done only a
short time before, when they marched into Tezcoco with the timber for Cortes's
flotilla.
The man who led this mob was the
prince's brother, "the bravest and wisest man in the island," so he
must have reflected the universal sentiment; yet only a short time elapsed—a
few days, in fact—before he was seen conducting the chaplain of the fleet to
his house, with intent to slay him! These natives of Cebu were either the most
susceptible, or the most treacherous, of any people on earth, judging them by
what soon after took place, for while they were wrought upon by the visit of
the Spaniards to offer them the warmest of welcomes, to accept and adopt their
religion—falling at their feet in worship, from the highest to the lowest—they
revolted, recanted, and accomplished their downfall as quickly as they had
raised them to the dizzy heights of adulation.
It was the captain-general's religious
enthusiasm that tempted him to court disaster, by mingling in the affairs of
the natives. He felt, indeed, that it was his duty to bring all the tribes of
the great archipelago under the influence of his church and religion. He had
accomplished the conversion and apparent subjugation of Cebu's people so
quickly, and had, to all appearances so firmly established Spanish rule and the
Catholic faith, that he anticipated no more trouble in dealing with other
islands and natives of the Philippines. When, therefore, he received a message
from a sub-chief in the island of Mactan, named Zula, informing him that the
rajah, Chilapulapu, was oppressing him severely and breathing defiance against
the King of Spain, Magellan considered it his duty to proceed at once to
Mactan. There was situated, it is thought, the village he had destroyed by
fire, and Chilapulapu may have been the ruler whose rights he had infringed in
so doing, for he could not understand, he said, "why he should do homage
to the potentate of Cebu, whom he had so long held under his thumb." Zula
had sent a small gift to Magellan, accompanied by a message stating that, owing
to the oppressions of the rajah, he could do no better, and requesting the
assistance of a boat-load of soldiers. With only a boat-load, he said, combined
with his own gallant warriors, he could overcome the rajah and conquer the
island for Magellan. In listening to the request of this sub-chief, Fernan
Magellan allowed his reason to be subjected to religious fanaticism; his desire
to promote the general welfare of the islanders to be overcome by a stronger
desire for conquest. He submitted the proposition to his officers, and they,
without dissent, were decidedly opposed, especially stubborn being Juan Serrao,
veteran of many fights in the East, and a man of tried courage. As usual,
however, the captain-general had determined upon his course before calling a
council, and, though all were opposed, he had resolved to push matters to a
conclusion.
The little island of Mactan lies off
the harbor of Cebu, only a few miles distant, and its invasion was not a matter
of difficulty—provided no opposition were offered. Shortly before midnight of
April 26th, Magellan's expedition against Mactan set forth: sixty Spaniards,
and about a thousand natives, commanded by the King of Cebu. With this
expedition went also the chief historian of Magellan's voyage, Antonio
Pigafetta, to whom we are already indebted for many details; and as a
description of events by an eye-witness should be more vivid than one by a
narrator nearly four hundred years removed from the time of their occurrence,
we will let him tell the story.
"The captain-general decided to
go thither with three boat-loads of soldiers. We begged him repeatedly not to
go himself, but he, like a good shepherd, refused to abandon his flock. At
midnight, sixty men of us set out, armed with corselets and helmets, together
with the Christianized king, the prince, and some of the chief men, in twenty
or thirty balanguais.
"We reached Mactan three hours
before dawn. The captain did not wish to fight then, but sent a message to the
natives by the converted Moro, to the effect that if they would obey the King
of Spain, recognize the sovereignty of Cebu, and pay us tribute, he would be
their friend; but that if they wished otherwise, they should wait to see what
our lances could do!
"They replied that while we had
lances, they also had them, made of bamboo, with points hardened in the fire.
They requested us not to attack them then, but to wait till after daylight, as
they expected reinforcements, with which they could meet us on more nearly
equal terms. This was a ruse, intended to decoy us at once to the attack, for
they had dug a long, deep ditch, faced with sharp stakes, and our destruction
would have been sure.
"The coral reefs, by which
Mactan was surrounded, prevented the approach of the boats near shore, and when
morning came forty-nine of us leaped into the water up to our thighs, and
walked through it for more than two crossbow-flights before we could reach dry
land. Eleven men remained behind to guard the boats and serve the
lombards." Magellan himself led the way, with naked sword in hand, and
regardless of the missiles of the foe, which soon filled the air around him.
The dawn of that morning, Saturday, April 27, 1521, was the last which Magellan
was to witness on earth; but no premonition of disaster oppressed him then. He
and his men struggled through the water to shore, and formed upon the sands.
Opposed to them were thousands of islanders, who, forming in three divisions,
so as to attack the Spaniards front and flank, charged down upon them
furiously, brandishing their spears, and yelling like mad.
"When our captain saw that, he
formed us into two divisions, and thus did we begin the fight. The musketeers
and cross-bow-men shot from a distance for about half an hour, but uselessly,
as their shots either fell short, or passed merely through the shields with
which the natives were armed. Seeing this, our captain cried to them: 'Cease,
cease firing!' but his order was not heeded. When, therefore, the natives saw
that we were shooting our muskets to no purpose, they redoubled their shouts
and their efforts to break into our ranks. They leaped hither and thither, to
defeat the aim of the musketeers, at the same time covering themselves with
their shields. They shot so many arrows at us, and hurled so many bamboo spears
tipped with iron at our captain-general, besides fire-hardened stakes, stones,
and mud, that we could scarcely defend ourselves.
"Seeing that, our
captain-general sent some men to burn their houses, in order to terrify them;
but when they saw them burning, they were only roused to greater fury. Twenty
or thirty houses were burned; but two of our men were killed, of the party that
made the attempt. So many of them now charged upon us that they pressed us
close, and shot our captain through the right leg with a poisoned arrow. On
that account he ordered us to retire slowly, but the men, being unaccustomed to
defeat, were terrified at such an order, and most of them took to flight
immediately—all except six or eight of us, who remained by our captain. Seeing
that our vulnerable spots were the legs, as they were exposed, the natives shot
only at them, and so many were the spears and stones they hurled at us, that we
could offer no resistance.
"The mortars in the boats could
not aid us, being too far away; thus we were in a terrible plight. So we
continued to retire, for more than a good cross-bow flight from the shore,
always fighting up to our knees in the water. The natives continued to pursue
us, and picking up the same spears, hurled them at us again and again.
Recognizing our captain, so many turned upon him that they succeeded in
knocking off his helmet twice; but he ever withstood them, like the good knight
he was, and at last we made a stand for more than an hour, refusing to go any
farther.
"Finally, an Indian cast a
bamboo spear into our captain's face; but he set upon and killed him instantly
with his lance, which he left in his body. Then, attempting to draw his sword,
he was unable to do so, because of a wound in the arm by a bamboo spear. This
act was the sealing of his fate, because, when the natives saw that, they all
hurled themselves upon him. One of them gashed his leg with a huge scimitar,
which caused him to fall forward upon his face, when they all rushed upon him
with their iron-tipped bamboo spears and their scimitars, and thus they ran him
through—our mirror of chivalry, our light, our comforter, and true guide—and killed
him. Thereupon, beholding him dead, we, wounded, retreated as best we could to
the boats, which were already pulling off. Had it not been for our gallant
captain, not a single one of us would have been saved, for while he was so
desperately fighting, the others had time to retire to the boats. While the
savages were most closely pressing him, in sooth, he several times turned round
towards us, to see if we were all in safety, as if his protracted resistance
was to cover our retreat."
Thus fell Fernan Magellan, with his
face to the foe, sacrificing himself for the safety of his comrades. That he
threw away his life for no good cause, having gone to his death through his own
stubbornness, does not detract from the heroism of his latest hours, which was nothing
less than sublime. He was brave and unselfish to the very last, as we might
have expected of the Fernan Magellan who rescued his friend Serrao from the
Malays; who remained with his men on that wreck in the Indian Ocean whence all
his brother officers had fled.
"Among other virtues which he
possessed," says Pigafetta, he was more constant than ever any one else,
in the greatest of adversities; he endured hunger better than all others; and
more accurately than any other man in the world did he understand sea-charts
and navigation. And that this is the truth was seen openly, for who else had so
much natural talent, or the boldness, to learn how to circumnavigate the world,
as he attempted, and had almost accomplished?"
When the King of Cebu heard of Magellan's
death, he is said to have shed tears, and lamented that he could not have saved
him by going to his rescue. He had been expressly forbidden to mingle in the
fight, as the captain-general wished to show him what Spaniards could do, thus
he and his thousand men remained idle spectators of the battle, though by
participation they might have turned the scale in favor of their allies. With
all the fighting, only twelve of the allies were killed, and fifteen of the
enemy, so it appears that the hero of the Indian Seas, of the great strait, and
the Pacific, perished in an avoidable skirmish with barbarians whom he had no
reason whatever to notice.
The
Spaniards, many years ago, raised a monument on or near the spot where Magellan
fell—or, at least, on the site of the village he attacked and burned in the
island of Mactan; but more lasting memorials exist, in the strait that bears
his name, and those celestial nebulm—the Magellanic clouds—that illumine at
night the sky of the southern hemisphere. As to monuments and memorials, or
posthumous fame, Fernan Magellan seems to have concerned himself but little, if
at all, thus presenting quite a contrast to the great Genoese, Columbus, with
whom, having achieved a similar success, we naturally compare him. He was nobler
and more generous than Columbus, less fanatical, quite as persistent, and in
nautical knowledge probably surpassed him. Whether or not we subscribe to the
assertion of a learned writer, that he "is undoubtedly the greatest of
navigators, either ancient or modern," we cannot but admit that the world
owes him a mighty debt of gratitude.
Gaiters: How to Choose
Gaiters: How to Choose
Snow, water, dirt and pebbles have a
way of sneaking into even the most waterproof of boots. To prevent this, put on
some gaiters. Gaiters cover the vulnerable tops of your footwear to fully
protect your feet from the elements.
Gaiter shopping is not complicated.
This article gives you the basics.
What's
Your Activity?
The right pair of gaiters depends on
the kinds of trips you have planned and the conditions you expect. The main
types:
- Trail gaiters: These lightweight, breathable gaiters offer basic protection against rocks, grit and light rain while on mild-weather excursions.
- Alpine gaiters: These are designed for all-around hiking, snowshoeing, mountaineering and cross-country skiing. They offer added protection against rock abrasion and water.
- Expedition gaiters: These provide heavy-duty protection and add insulation for extended mountaineering trips in harsh conditions. Most feature a waterproof, breathable fabric for superior comfort and protection.
- Women's gaiters: While these can fall in any of the above categories, women's styles are typically shorter in height and have a bit more top girth to specifically accommodate a woman's calf.
Low
Versus High
Gaiter height depends on how much
protection you need.
- Low gaiters are ankle high, about 8" to 12" tall. These are best for less-than-extreme conditions when you just need to keep trail debris and rain out of your boots.
- Regular gaiters are calf high, around 15" to 18" tall. These are designed for rugged conditions such as hiking through deep snow, wet brush or in bad weather.
Entry system: Gaiters are usually
opened and secured by front rip-and-stick fasteners (VELCRO® brand
or similar), although a few models feature a sturdy zippered entry. Older
models tended to be rear entry, which offered less convenient on/off access.
Top closures: Basic gaiters are
typically cinched with toggles and elasticized drawcords; some models are a bit
fancier and feature a dedicated top strap with cam buckle.
Instep straps: These secure the
lower edge of your gaiters around your boots' insteps. Basic gaiters come with
simple lace straps. Premium gaiters feature beefier leather/synthetic straps
for extra durability.
Lace hooks: Offered on some styles,
these let you attach your boot laces to your gaiters for added security.
Much like with outerwear, fabrics
help define the level of gaiter performance you're going to get. Most gaiters
feature a lower section that is abrasion-resistant to fend off scrapes and an
upper section that is waterproof or highly water-resistant. Here's a breakdown
of the most common fabric players:
- Gore-Tex®: This well-known laminate provides superior waterproof, windproof protection and breathability. It's ideal for tromping through wet or snowy conditions.
- Cordura® nylon: This super-rugged fabric is designed to withstand the abrasion of ice, rocks and the occasional nick of crampon points.
- Coated nylon: Basic gaiters are very light and are usually made with polyurethane-coated nylon. If a short day hike or fast-packing through talus, sand and wet brush is on your agenda, this type of fabric will work just fine.
- Schoeller® fabrics: This family of soft-shell fabrics offers flexibility and stretch as well as excellent weather protection
Get a snug fit: Most gaiter styles
come in sizes, which are aligned with a range of boot sizes. When you try on
gaiters, adjust the straps to make sure the fit is snug. Your goal is to
achieve the best possible seal around your boots.
Wear low gaiters under your rain
pants: This creates the most waterproof seal.
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