Climber left to die after going blind on Mt. Everest

By Hum
in Real World News

 Share

Recommended Posts

Grand Master

Hum

Posted
Posted

MOUNT EVEREST ? A climbing team was forced to leave a British man to die on Mount Everest after he went blind at the summit last week.

According to the British newspaper The Independent, Peter Kinloch, 28, suddenly went blind after just a few minutes on the roof of the world at 29,035 feet.

Kinloch's guides noticed that he seemed to lose coordination as the team was coming down the mountain. About an hour later, he reportedly admitted he could not see anything.

It took about four hours for the team leader and a Sherpa to help Kinloch descend just 1,000 feet. Eight hours and two sherpas later, the team realized that they were all in danger if they continued at the same pace. They were forced to abandon Kinloch to die in the cold.

The Independent reports Kinloch's body may never be recovered. He is the 30th person to die on the mountain in the past five years.

Retinal hemorrhages reportedly are a common complaint of mountain climbers.

source

Grand Master

spacer

Posted
Posted

What a sad and scary way to die. Mountain climbing is dangerous, I think everyone knows that. And if you're going to do it, you obviously have to be ok with putting yourself in such danger. But to have your eyes unexpectedly stop working isn't something you can anticipate.

I hope this guy didn't suffer very long. :/

Community Regular

selphj

Posted
Posted

A few weeks ago I heard a guy in person that had been up there. They know full well what they are getting into when they go. You walk past a number of dead bodies before you make it to the top, because no body is ever recovered and they stay frozen forever.

Mentor

|Rapture|

Posted
Posted

There is a short follow-up to this story on the Gawker... Must have been horrible when he realised he wasn't going to make it down and having to admit he'd gone blind.

http://gawker.com/5815087/everest-climber-discovers-missing-friend-preserved-in-ice

Grand Master

Hum

Posted
  • Author
Posted

It's more than a moment of "nice view", it's a challenge. It's not like every damn climber who died there was blind... Get your facts straight

I can think of a lot of 'challenges' that don't involve death and disability.

I don't believe in taking stupid changes with your life.

You eat your cake -- I'll eat mine.

Veteran

Twiddle

Posted
Posted

It isn't uncommon for a mountaineer to prematurely dig their own grave and leave markers. A lot of them know whether or not another will make it or not. Many dangers on a mountain, hope for the best, plan for the worst, though.

Reminds me of this music video. (Near the end)

Grand Master

neufuse Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

you should watch some documentaries on Discovery and National Geographic, maybe then you will understand.

I've seen a bunch of documentaries about climbing Everest, and I still don't understand why people do it.. sure it's a thrill, but when you know you can die there pretty easily, just seems odd

Grand Master

webeagle12

Posted
Posted

I can think of a lot of 'challenges' that don't involve death and disability.

I don't believe in taking stupid changes with your life.

You eat your cake -- I'll eat mine.

But you can't call people fools because they decided to take and acept a channle for themsefls.

You could eat your cake at home, roof falls and you die, **** happens!!! I feel very bad for a guy especially I love taking along hikes in mountains myself.

Grand Master

DirtyLarry Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

I wonder if he attempted to make it down still after they left him. I have to believe if I was in a similar situation, knowing I was incredibly likely to die anyway, I would ask one of them for a cell phone, get on my hands and knees, and "crawl" down so to speak. I know I am obviously over simplifying it, but my point is I think a will to live kicks in with most people, so I really do wonder what his last moments were. Just peacefully sitting there accepting the inevitable, or giving getting down on his own a try.

Mentor

|Rapture|

Posted
Posted

It's not really a case of just sitting down and accepting your fate, they tried to get him down the mountain for a good 12 hours after he told them he'd gone blind, his symptoms would probably have got worse as time passed.

He might not even have been conscious when they finally left him. Hypothermia and altitude sickness can have some bizarre effects.

Grand Master

bjoswald

Posted
Posted

I would have brought a pistol just in case of something like this happening to me. Can you imagine how scary it would be to be alone, freezing and abandoned on a mountain top? I think this is one of the few situations where suicide is a viable solution. I'd rather shoot myself or leap off the cliff rather than freeze to death!

This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Posts

    • This Chinese company is reportedly developing a feature Apple and Samsung can only dream of

      By Hamid Ganji · Posted

      This Chinese company is reportedly developing a feature Apple and Samsung can only dream of by Hamid Ganji While companies like Apple and Samsung have been relatively conservative with their devices’ battery capacities in recent years, Chinese manufacturers have taken the competition to the next level by introducing significantly larger batteries. However, the latest report from China suggests that a local company may already be developing a smartphone with a whopping 14,000mAh battery. Chinese leaker Digital Chat Station claimed on Weibo that a smartphone maker is developing a device with a 14,000mAh battery. If true, it would be the largest battery ever used in a smartphone and could, in theory, provide up to a week of battery life on a single charge. The leaker did not reveal the name of the company behind the device, but there are some clues. This week, HONOR unveiled the X80 Pro Max in China with an 11,000mAh battery and 90W wired charging support. The company also launched the Honor Win in January, which packs a 10,000mAh battery. HONOR, a former subsidiary of Huawei, has a proven track record of developing smartphones with unusually large batteries. However, other Chinese brands, including Xiaomi, have also launched devices such as the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max with 7,500mAh batteries. Though Chinese users on Weibo also believe the company behind the new battery is HONOR. Interestingly, Digital Chat Station said the device with the 14,000mAh battery weighs around 220 grams, making it lighter than the Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max (233 grams) and slightly heavier than the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra (214 grams). The iPhone 17 Pro Max currently packs a 5,088mAh battery in eSIM-only versions, while the Galaxy S26 Ultra features a 5,000mAh battery. Neither device is expected to see a dramatic increase in battery capacity in its next-generation successor. So when it comes to battery comparison, Chinese brands are unbeaten. HONOR smartphones are currently available in the EU, but the Chinese brand has no official presence in the United States due to restrictions imposed by the U.S. government.
    • IBM reveals sub-1nm chip technology, production expected in another 5 years

      By xrobwx71 · Posted

      https://i.imgur.com/dNY9tNv.png
    • Rufus alternative Ventoy now supports Windows 11's mandatory update, fixes major boot bug

      By Skyfrog · Posted

      I'm not sure I would call Ventoy a Rufus alternative.
    • Qualcomm takes on NVIDIA with new Dragonfly CPU and AI chips

      By pradeepviswav · Posted

      Qualcomm takes on NVIDIA with new Dragonfly CPU and AI chips by Pradeep Viswanathan Microsoft, Google, Amazon, AMD, Meta, Apple, OpenAI, and several others have been developing their own chips for AI infrastructure. However, NVIDIA still remains the dominant player in the market. Today, Qualcomm announced a major expansion of its data center infrastructure portfolio to better compete with NVIDIA. The new lineup includes the Qualcomm Dragonfly C1000 CPU, Qualcomm High Bandwidth Compute technology, the Dragonfly AI300 inference accelerator, new connectivity products, and custom silicon solutions. Qualcomm claims that this new lineup improves performance per watt, token throughput, and total cost of ownership for AI data centers. The Dragonfly C1000 is a new data center CPU built with Qualcomm’s custom Oryon cores. This chip will feature more than 250 cores, frequencies above 5GHz, and a chiplet-based design. Qualcomm claims that this new C1000 can deliver more than 2x better performance per watt compared to existing server CPU offerings based on specifications. The Dragonfly C1000 will support PCIe Gen 7 with more than 2TB/s of connectivity, along with CXL, advanced RAS features, and both air and liquid cooling. Qualcomm expects the Dragonfly C1000 to be commercially available in 2028. Additionally, Qualcomm and Meta announced a multi-year, multi-generation agreement under which Qualcomm will supply Dragonfly C1000 data center CPUs for Meta’s next-generation server fleet. Qualcomm also announced High Bandwidth Compute, a new near-memory computing architecture designed to address AI’s memory bandwidth bottleneck. HBC Gen 1 will debut with the Dragonfly AI250, which is expected to sample in mid-2027. The AI250 will deliver 133TB/s per card, an 18x increase in effective memory bandwidth compared to the AI200 with LPDDR5X. The new Dragonfly AI300 with HBC Gen 2 is a rack-level AI inference platform from Qualcomm. Qualcomm claims that the AI300 can deliver 4x to 8x better performance per watt compared to existing GPU-based architectures based on memory bandwidth per watt per card. The Dragonfly AI300 is expected to be available in 2028.
    • Politically funny images of the World

      By Rigby · Posted

  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      Meta Plast earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • First Post
      kinowa earned a badge
      First Post
    • Rookie
      krychek57 went up a rank
      Rookie
    • Grand Master
      Jaybonaut went up a rank
      Grand Master
    • One Year In
      Philsl earned a badge
      One Year In

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      461
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      171
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      136
    4. 4
      Michael Scrip
      78
    5. 5
      Xenon
      77
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!