Being a bit of a bibliophile (especially for old books), I bought a set of two books printed in 1865 about mountain climbing in the Alps. It's so interesting to read about the bare bones equipment the climbers would use -- antiquated backpacks, survival gear, etc. -- you wonder how they ever made it half way to the top.

Avalanche sensors are some of the most valuable equipment climbers and skiers can take with them today.

Hey, they died doing something they really wanted to do - a great way to die! Beats the hell of dying because someone ran a red light while talking on their cell phone.

Dead is dead.

Mountain climbing makes no sense unless someone is paying you. Same with sky diving or bungee jumping.

q: why did the snowman pull his pants down?

a: he saw the snowblowers coming...

.rimshot.

"Dead is dead." - True, and we all will die - I only hope mine happens doing something I want to do; not a bad epitaph.

Who cares what your epitaph is? You won't be reading it.

Dead is dead, but this is about how you lived your life. I always told my children, that at the end of the day, they had traded a day of their life for whatever they accomplished that day. Take time at the end of the day to understand what you did that was worth a day of your life.

"The Serbians say they buried their team member as it was impossible to bring his body back."

Fuckers polluted my hill! You are not supposed to store dead guys up there!

SAWDUST, I'm not sure you get JOMAMA's point----How you led your life means nothing because dead is dead. "You won't be reading your own epitaph".

KO'd on K2.

That we could all afford to spend upwards of $12,000 and take off more than 2 months to go climb a mountain.

As they were slowly freezing to death, they were no doubt thinking that at least they died doing what they wanted to do.

Let us begin the lamentations for these heroes.

Even their mountains are terrorists.

Even their mountains are terrorists.

K2 is a gentle hillock compared to Nanga-Parbat... also known as the killer-mountain. Look up how many it has killed so far. LOL

Incompetent hill climbers used to places like the Alps, come here and think they can take the Himalayan/Karakoram chain as well? Not that easy.

See this.... rescued 2 Italian guys off Nanga Parbat. Ought to have sent them a bill for chopper fuel....

"Ought to have sent them a bill for chopper fuel...."

I don't know the economics of it - how much tourism revenue mountain climbing brings, if there are fees for permits and stuff like that, etc.

But unless mountain climbing brings in so much money that officials don't want to do anything to discourage mountain climbers, I'd say people should be charged for these rescues. There are alot of situations like this all over the world where governments have to spend big bucks every year to rescue a handful of idiots who went looking for trouble.

They should stop all climbing on those mountains. We need to protect people from themselves.

Obama says that republican policies caused the avalance. He has promised an end to all deaths if he is elected.

K2 is a gentle hillock compared to Nanga-Parbat... also known as the killer-mountain. Look up how many it has killed so far.

K2 death rate = 26.77%
The Naked Mountian = 28.24%

Not that easy

Indeed!

You are not supposed to store dead guys up there!

See this.... rescued 2 Italian guys off Nanga Parbat.

"Simon Kehrer and Walter Nones became stranded on Nanga Parbat in Pakistan at nearly 7,000 metres after Karl Unterkircher, a renowned mountaineer who was leading the climb, plunged to his death down a crevasse."

I would love to have seen the look these guys gave each other when they saw that happening.

"K2 death rate = 26.77%
The Naked Mountian = 28.24%"

You get better odds playing Russian Roulette.

Hey, they died doing something they really wanted to do - a great way to die!

Posted by MSgt

tell that to the parents of the brain dead 16 year old who is in a coma right now, resulting from a motorcross accident.

K2 is a gentle hillock compared to Nanga-Parbat... also known as the killer-mountain. Look up how many it has killed so far. LOL

Incompetent hill climbers used to places like the Alps, come here and think they can take the Himalayan/Karakoram chain as well? Not that easy.

Posted by Tosser

tosser is suffering mountain-penis envy

Ha ha! Let's start handing out the Darwin Awards!

"tell that to the parents of the brain dead 16 year old who is in a coma right now, resulting from a motorcross accident."

Posted by truthhurts

And at times the truth does hurt, in this case, the parents probably allowing if not fully supporting their boy doing motocross, knowing the risks in advance. Who's to blame? The parents? The kid? The organizers? The sport?

Some live to be 100 years old. Some are taken early. Some seem to go out of their way and tempt death, while others are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And that's the truth.

"""I bought a set of two books printed in 1865 about mountain climbing in the Alps."""

Came across a few books from the early 1800s in amazing condition at a country book fair last summer. One of them was on "the art of swimming", from the brits. Hilarious stuff, funnier still: they suggest strongly that they (the brits) essentially invented swimming, that everyone was basically dog paddling before they "perfected the art of swimming". Illustrations are even funnier.