Oswego climber dies on Everest

[hillman1]

A guy from my town died yesterday in the khumbu icefall. He apparently lost his footing and slid into a crevasse. He was climbing with his brother to raise money for Huntingtons Chorea research, which has afflicted his family. He spoke to his family moments before his death, relaying a message of helping another climber with a broken leg. They were repeatedly climbing from base camp to camp one to acclimatize. He was, along with his brother, hoping to become the first set of brothers to summit together. They had a site up www.obrienseverest.com

[Skyclimber]

That is really sad. They looked to be young too.
Did you know them Doug?

[Mavs00]

Ugggh, That's awful. How horrible for his family and friends.

[hillman1]

I knew of him. They just had a big fundraiser to help offset the cost of climbing there. Not to second guess thier trip, but Everest is not a tourist mountain. They had climbed Ranier, Kili, and Cho Oyu, but I'm not really certaion that means you are ready for Everest. I'm certain they were in excellent physical condition, and felt ready, but that mountain is very unforgiving of any mistake. I feel terrible for the family. But these guys wanted to live every moment due to the chance of having thier lives taken away by a terrible disease. At least he checked out doing something awesome.

[ADKatie]

Wow, that's really awful! :cry:

With all that we hear nowadays about people summiting Everest like it's a trip to Disneyworld and trying to do some new zany thing to be able to set a record and be the "first" to do this or that ascending or descending Everest, news like this really brings the reality back to the forefront that Everest is NOT, as Doug perfectly put it, a tourist mountain. It's a deadly risk that many people take every year and often not for the right reasons.

It's really sad to hear that a life was lost undertaking an effort to save lives. Ironic.

[Everest NBD]

Wow! That is sad, poor guy. I feal realy bad for the family also, it must have been a real loss. :cry:

[pete_hickey]

Not a good year. A co-woker of mine dies there on Friday. Lung infection, and things just got worse.

http://newmud.comm.uottawa.ca/~gavroche/SEgan/SEindex.htm

[AlpineSummit]

Sad is right - both stories.
More people have died in that damn icefall than in all other parts of the climb combined.