The 2007 Spring climbing season on Everest, and the Himalaya in general, has begun. Teams of climbers have descended on Kathmandu with literally tons of gear and plenty of ambitions. Over the coming weeks they'll head out to Everest, Annapurna, or any number of other mountains, some of which we've never heard of, and being the long, slow process of acclimatization and setting up fixed ropes and high camps.
To kick off the season ExWeb has posted an excellent essay on climbing on Everest and how it has become a haven for commercial climbing and reality TV shows. It's a good commentary on not only climbing on the "Mother Goddess", but high altitude climbing in general.
Almost as if to underscore their point, there is this publicity stunt by Discovery Channel to promote their show Everest: Beyond The Limit which I covered extensively when it aired here in the United States. To draw attention to the show in Sweden, Discovery paid climber Philip Junaeus to sleep in a tent, suspended from a billboard promoting the show, for seven days leading up to it's first airing. I think this story pretty much speaks for itself. Thanks for the tip GoBlog, not to mention the plug!
When you're done with those articles, head over to Alan Arnette's 2007 Everest Page for a complete listing of teams heading to Everest for the Spring season. This excellent page has all kinds of links to websites for the climbers and is broken down nicely between the South Col and North Ridge Routes. Scroll down the page even further to see some excellent articles and interviews about the topic. Great stuff Alan!
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