Everest, The Bus Station: It was unclimbed just over 50 years ago. But guess how many climbers hit the summit this weekend. 10? Nope. 30? Nope. 50!? Nope. Try 71 climbers, heading up and down from Camp IV like lemmings, jostling and bumping each other all the way (TWC note: one of the 71 was Bond…Annabelle Bond; no report yet, though). Wonder if that’s how each climber pictured the moment when they wrote that check for $70,000? Climbers are still summitting, pumping the numbers even higher, and Explorer’s Web has a cool video that somehow manages to make topping Everest seem like a unique and private experience.

Over on the other side of the mountain, the Wetass climbers (i.e. the Russians) have reached 8270 meters on the central North Face. Expedition leader Victor Kozlov reports that if they manage to fix ropes up to 8400 meters, and stick a tent there, they’ll make the push for the summit from that elevation. So what are they worried about? Weather? A little. The last pitch? Not really. Their major concern right now–get this–is the oxygen cylinders raining down on them from above, as the tourists who are currently summitting toss their empty air bottles off the top of the mountain. Two near misses, so far. Nice. Imagine returning from Everest and bragging in your office: “I was the 131st climber this year to get to the summit this year. Oh yeah, and I killed a Russian climber…”



“There goes another motherf*cking oxygen cylinder. If we get to the top I swear I’m going to punch someone’s lights out…”