For the time being the “Top of the World” series is finished. It consists of 11 portraits of climbers on Mount Everest and two landscapes.
Some of the climbers summitted and successfully descended and some of them died. A later enhancement of the series is possible, espacially by the climbers who abandoned their summit attempt to help others. But for the near future I will investigate others things related to Mount Everest.
Peter Kinloch, a 28 year old British climber died in 2010 of frostbite and exhaustion in deteriorating weather hours after he summited Everest.
Three sherpas spent 12 hours administering drugs and oxygen in an attempt to coax him down the mountain but at 2am they finally had to leave him at 8,600m as the weather closed in in order to save their lives.
The weather condition in Himalaya and especially on Mount Everest is extreme. Not only the very low temperature of in average between −36 °C and −19 °C on the summit and the thin air make it difficult to cope with the terrain.
Also the wind is a challenge for itself. For the reason of the small distance to India humid air reaches the summit of Mount Everest. It can be up to 300 km/h fast and lead to more than 3 meters fresh snow per day.
Apa Sherpa has reached the summit of Mount Everest 21 times (by 2011).
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Francys Yarbro Distefano-Arsentiev was born in 1958 in Honolulu Hawaii. At six her father took her to the Colorado Mountains. She was forever hooked. In 1992 she married Sergi (Serguei) Arsentiev, a Russian climber. Both of them died six years later on Mount Everest.