Death on Everest: A Reading Guide

Why is Mount Everest the source of such controversy? Catch up to the developing story of the 2015 Nepalese earthquake and Everest avalanche with this handy guide.

Into Thin Air
Jon Krakauer, Outside Magazine, September 1, 1996.

Everest deals with trespassers harshly: the dead vanish beneath the snows. While the living struggle to explain what happened. And why. A survivor of the mountain’s worst disaster examines the business of Mount Everest and the steep price of ambition.

Take a Number
Grayson Schaffer, Outside Magazine, September 12, 2012

In the 16 years since Into Thin Air, Mount Everest has become safer in many ways, with better storm forecasting and amazing high-altitude rescue helicopters. So why did 10 people die in 2012?

Maxed Out on Everest
Mark Jenkins, National Geographic, May 17, 2013

Too many inexperienced climbers are attempting to scale Mount Everest. A few are losing their lives, and many others are littering the mountain with garbage.

The Disposable Man: A Western History of Sherpas on Everest
Grayson Schaffer, Outside Magazine, July 10, 2013

In the past decade, climbing Mount Everest has become a multimillion-dollar tourist attraction. Nepals’s Sherpas have been hired to do most of the dangerous work on the mountain—fixing ropes, stocking camps shuttling gear for climbers—but are paid much less than Western guides. When Sherpas die working on the mountain, they often leave behind families who receive little in terms of life insurance payments.

The Man who Fell to Earth
Daniel Duane, Men’s Journal, December 1, 2014

A profile of wingsuit pilot Joby Ogwyn, who has climbed Earth’s highest summits and flown off of them. Ogwyn was set to climb and jump off Mount Everest for the Discovery Channel, but then tragedy stuck, killing most of his crew.

The Value of a Sherpa Life
Grayson Schaffer, Outside Magazine, April 18, 2014

In the 16 years since Into Thin Air, Mount Everest has become safer in many ways, with better storm forecasting and amazing high-altitude rescue helicopters. So why did 10 people die in 2012?

Charting Deaths on Mount Everest
Svati Kirsten Narula, The Atlantic, April 21, 2014

Who dies where on Earth’s highest mountain? An avalanche illustrates the disproportionate risks that Sherpas face in Himalayan expeditions.