The Dark Side of Everest...

Compilation of videos from TED and National Geographic on the 1996 Everest disaster. Eight people died on May 10, 1996 during summit attempts.

One of the survivors, Beck Weathers, who was left to die - spent a whole night in an open bivouac in a terrible blizzard with both hands and his face exposed. His fellow climbers said that his frozen hand and nose looked and felt as if they were made of porcelain, and they did not expect him to survive. With that assumption, they only tried to make him comfortable until he died, but he survived another freezing night alone in a tent unable to drink, eat, or keep himself covered with the sleeping bags he was provided.

Beck Weathers had his right arm amputated halfway below the elbow. All four fingers and the thumb on his left hand were removed; his nose was amputated and reconstructed with tissue from his ear and forehead and he lost parts of both feet to his injuries. He continues to practice medicine, and deliver motivational speeches from Dallas.
SOURCES:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beck_Weathers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Everest_disaster

The Dark Side of Everest - A film by National Geographic narrator Paul Boucher
The dark side of everest - part 1
The dark side of everest - part 2
The dark side of everest - part 3
The dark side of everest - part 4
The dark side of everest - part 5

remembering that insane Kashmir motorbike trip...!

Came across this on somebody's blog today. It is the first part of what we did last year in Kashmir. The stretch between Pang to Tanglang La was the most testing... I really did not know whether I would reach Leh alive - especially after the army doc at Pang told me that I was a retard to have taken two Diamox pills within 4 hours due to mountain sickness and that a Russian dude died there a year before because they could not get him to a lower altitude in time). The good news is that I did live to tell a lot of guys that this was by far the best trip of my life. Pics: http://tmakhija.blogspot.com/2009/07/kashmir-2009-motorbike-trip-pictures.html

I might not do this on a motorbike again, but would definitely be up for hiring a car and doing it all over one more time! Vince on the other hand is planning to take it t0 a different level altogether this time. But then thats Vince... and you can expect him to do the impossible.

Check out: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?v=feed&story_fbid=108285165865860&id=571932209

Sharp Peak calling again

Sharp Peak was being missed. The last time I had been there was more than a year ago. Luckily on Friday, Dave proposed hiking on the Hong Kong trail. Now, we all know that the HK Trail has no scenery to offer and it is an almost flat (albeit long walk of as long as you want - 50kms). This clearly as not happening and convincing Dave on Sharp Peak was not that difficult (he had never been there!)

So on Saturday, we started walking from Pak Tam Au, reached Sharp Peak in about 2 hours, went down to the beach which took another 2.5 hours, took a 1 hour lunch break, and walked back to the starting point i.e., Pak Tam Au which took as another 1.5 hours i.e., a TOTAL of say 6.5-7 hours which included half an hour of getting lost and a 1 hour (heavenly) lunch break. Felt good to have done some proper hiking after a long long time! But the amount of time we took was a rude reminder of how unfit I am!