Of Risks
Dear TomHa,
It's been said that those French climbers who, while attempting to summit Mount Kanguru in Nepal and met with an avalanche are all but dead. My heart goes out to them as even their foreign minister is accepting the fact that they are dead, given the scale of the avalanche. A miracle is unlikely, but I hope that it does happen.

Thus is the beauty, majesty and cruelty of mountaineering as a sport whereby you are not fighting with anybody but Mother Nature. It is a sport wherby any wrong decisions on your part can get you killed. Have you heard of any athlete, whether he is canoeing, running, playing soccer, basketball etc getting killed in their pursuit for an Olympic Gold? Highly unlikely, except for those sad cases of sudden heart arrests and wrongful intake of drugs I guess. However, all I can say that at least they can get out of what they are doing at the snap of the finger. Giving up would not take your life. But in mountaineering, it is different. Going up is optional, going down is mandatory.. You climb Everest and you give up at 7000m but you still have an even arduous path of going down. That is perhaps why no one will label you sissy or whatever for giving up in the mountains. You give up only when you had reached your limit. However, you still have to face the elements again at that state of physical condition while going down. How tough is that?

Another example, of all those who had climbed K-2 and died trying so, more than half died during the descent. Sad but true fact. Thus, another aspect of mountaineering would be in risk assessment. You can't say you are a good climber if you can't assess the risks that are presented to you. You are flirting with death and really, the god of death is more than willing to send you to hell. It's been 51 years since K-2 was first summited. The number of climbers who had survived it is only a tenth of those of Everest. Imagine, there were NO attempts on K-2 in the 2001-2004 period. Such is the beauty of the world's hardest climb. And with a casualty rate of 26%, compared with Everest's 9.3%, it is an Olympic Medal meant to kill.

So enough crapping and back to studies. Let's hope that Miracles do happen.