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Mountaineering is one of the finest outdoor pursuits one can take part in. It can also be the most dangerous. Hazards include rock falls, avalanches, weather, falls and illness. Despite these dangers, people have been climbing mountains for thousands of years. Mountains draw climbers who have a love of nature and possess an adventurous spirit. Being in the mountains, you experience the raw beauty of Mother Nature, and understand how insignificant you really are in the world. George Mallory is famously quoted as having replied to the question “Why do you want to climb Mount Everest?” with the retort: “Because it’s there.”
Mount Hood climbing accidents are mountain climbing- or hiking-related incidents on Oregon's Mount Hood. As of 2007, about 10,000 people attempt to climb Mount Hood each year. As of May 2002, more than 130 people have died climbing Mount Hood since records have been kept. One of the worst climbing accidents occurred in 1986, when seven teenagers and two school teachers froze to death while attempting to retreat from a storm. The two major causes of climbing deaths on Mount Hood are falls and hypothermia.
Fatal climbing accidents around the world:
- April 2014, Mount Everest: At least 13 Sherpa guides lost their lives in Mount Everest's deadliest avalanche.
- Mount Everest, Earth's highest mountain, has been host to numerous tragedies; over 290 have died on the mountain, with deaths occurring every year since 1978. The most notable events occurred during the 1922 British Mount Everest Expedition, 1970 Everest Disaster, 1974 Everest Disaster, 1996 Everest Disaster, 2014 Mount Everest avalanche, and 2015 Mount Everest avalanches. See the complete list of people who died climbing Mount Everest.
- July 2012, Mont Maudit: A massive avalanche on France's Mont Maudit, one of Mont Blanc's most popular routes, killed nine climbers and injured 14 others.
- Aug. 2008, Mont Blanc du Tacul: Eight climbers were killed by an avalanche caused after a massive block of ice cracked off a side of the Mont Blanc du Tacul in the Mont Blanc range in western Europe.
- Aug. 2008, K2: Eleven climbers from South Korea, Nepal, Pakistan, France, Ireland, Serbia and Norway died after an avalanche of falling ice blocked their party's descent from K2 in the Karakoram range between Pakistan and China. It was the deadliest mountaineering disaster to hit the world's second highest peak.
- July 2003, Alpamayo: Eight people were killed in an avalanche near the summit of glacier-capped Alpamayo in the Peruvian Andes. The climbers — from Germany, Israel, the Netherlands and Argentina — were about 490 feet from the mountain's 19,510-foot summit when they were swept away.
- May 1996, Mount Everest: Seven men and a woman, including veteran climbers Scott Fischer and Rob Hall, died when they were trapped by an unexpected blizzard as they descended Mount Everest's 29,028-foot summit. It was one of the worst tragedies on Everest since its conquest in 1953. Jon Krakauer wrote about the tragedy in the best-seller Into Thin Air.
- Nov. 1995, Nepal's Gokyo valley: Twenty-six people — 13 Japanese climbers and 13 Nepalese guides — were killed by an avalanche in the Gokyo valley of Nepal. At least 46 climbers were killed in avalanches and landslides that weekend in one of Nepal's worst disasters.
- Nov. 1994, Mount Pisang: Nine Germans, one Swiss and one Nepalese Sherpa guide died while climbing down Mount Pisang in northwest Nepal, in one of the worst mountain climbing accidents in the Himalayas. All eleven climbers were attached to one rope.
- Nov. 1993, Mount Chimborazao: Ten climbers died on Mt. Chimborazao, the highest peak in Ecuador.
- July 1990, Lenin Peak: At least 40 climbers from a Soviet-Swiss expedition were buried in avalanche touched off by an earthquake in the Pamir mountains in Central Asia. The avalanche struck their base camp at 16,000 feet, more than two-thirds of the way up Lenin Peak, 1,800 miles southeast of Moscow.
- May 1986, Mount Hood: Seven teenagers and two teachers from Oregon Episcopal School in Portland, Oregon, froze to death during a blizzard on Mount Hood, the worst mountaineering disaster on Mount Hood since records began in 1896. Two other students were rescued from the snow cave the hikers had carved out.
- June 1981, Mount Rainier: Eleven climbers were killed on Mount Rainier by a massive ice fall on the Ingraham Glacier between Disappointment Cleaver and Gibraltar Rock.
Notables dying from Mountain Climbing
- Wikipedia - List of people who died climbing Mount Everest (297 listed 9/1/18)
- Wikipedia - Mountaineering deaths on Mount Everest (43 listed as of 9/1/18)
- Wikipedia - Mountaineering deaths on K2 (14 listed on 9/1/18)
- Wikipedia - List of deaths on eight-thousanders (The eight-thousanders are the 14 mountains that rise more than 8,000 metres (26,247 ft) above sea level; they are all in the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges. This is a list of mountaineers who have died on these mountains.)
- Ranker - Famous People Who Died While Climbing Mountains (51 listed 9/1/18)
- Wikipedia - Mountaineering deaths (161 listed as of 9/1/18)
- George Mallery (1886-1924) - English mountaineer; (Wikipedia - George H L Mallory)
- Rolf Bae (1975-2008) - Norwegian Arctic adventurer & mountaineer; (Wikipedia - Rolf Bae)
- Peter Boardman (1950-1982) -British mountaineer, author; (Wikipedia - Peter Boardman)
- Andrew Irvine (1902-1924) (aka: Andrew Comyn “Sandy” Irvine) - English mountaineer; (Wikipedia - Andrew Irvine, mountaineer While attempting the 1924 British Everest Expedition, he and his climbing partner George Mallory disappeared somewhere high on the mountain's northeast ridge. The pair were last sighted only a few hundred meters from the summit, and it is unknown if the pair reached the summit before they perished. Mallory's body was found in 1999, but Irvine's body has never been found.)
- Rob Hall (Robert Edwin Hall) (1961-1996) - New Zealand mountaineer; (Wikipedia - Rob Hall)
- Scott Fischer (1955-1996) - American mountaineer, mountain guide; (Wikipedia - Scott Fischer)
- Anatoli Boukreev (1958-1997) - Russian mountaineer; (Wikipedia - Anatoli Boukreev
- Alison Hargreaves (1963-1995) - English mountain climber; (Wikipedia - Alison Hargreaves)
- Jean-Christophe Lafaille (1965-2006) - French mountaineer; (Wikipedia - Jean-Christophe Lafaille
- Julie Tullis (1939-1986) - British climber, film-maker; (Wikipedia - Julie Tullis)
- Alan Rouse (1951-1986) - British climber; (Wikipedia - Alan Rouse
- Ginette Harrison (1958-1999) - British professional climber, physician; (Wikipedia - Ginette Harrison)
- Arne Raab Næss, Jr. (1937-2004) - Norwegian businessman, mountaineer, shipping magnate; Ex-husband of Diana Ross; ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arne_N%C3%A6ss_Jr. Wikipedia - Arne Naess Jr] “Næss was staying with his friend Johann Rupert on 13 January 2004 when he died in a climbing accident while descending from a peak on Rupert's estate in the Groot Drakenstein mountains near the town of Franschhoek outside Cape Town, South Africa. According to police reports, Næss' anchoring equipment loosened from the porous mountainside, leading to a 103m fall. He was 66 years old.”)
Resources & Additional Reading:
- The Oregonian, Pacific Northwest News - From Mount\ Rainier to Mount Everest: List of deadly mountain climbing accidents. updated 2 Jun 2014
- List Verse - 10 Tragic Mountaineering Accidents. by: Dan Lepore, 28 Jul 2011
- Traditional Mountaineering - Notable mountain climbing accidents analyzed by experts
- Wikipedia - Mount Hood climbing accidents
- Chicago Tribune - 8 mountain climbers die in 3 different accidents in Austrian Alps. by Associated Press, 27 Aug 2017
- High Country News - Death in the alpine. by: Sarah Tory, 14 May 2018
- Rock and Ice, The Climbers Magazine - New Route and Deaths on Annapurna-World’s Deadliest Mountain. by Hayden Carpenter, 28 Jul 2015
- ATI - The Bodies of Dead Climbers on Everest Are Serving as Guideposts. by Katie Serena. updated 5 Jan 2018