Things I didn't know about Mt Everest

In the past couple of weeks, I've had two separate events about climbers summitting Mt Everest come up in my daily history search, so I've been reading a lot about the mountain.

I thought I'd take a moment today to pay tribute to a recently passed anniversary of sorts, of the deadliest day in Mt Everest's history, May 10/11, 1996, when eight people died near the summit as a result of congestion along the route and a surprise storm that apparently dropped the oxygen content in the air from 33% of that at sea level to somewhere near 27%. It's terrifying that anyone could climb there without supplemental oxygen, but people have done just that.

The event has been much explored thanks, primarily, to the presence of author Jon Krakauer who was writing an article about the tendency for people to pay their way up the mountain and who subsequently wrote the marvelous - if debated - book Into Thin Air.

If you have an illusions about climbing Mount Everest or simply want to read a white-knuckle account of what that could be like, give his book a try. It's a brilliant read.

Take a listen to Ken Kamler's take on the event. He was there that day.