Last week, 翱耻迟蝉颈诲别听reported on the Ukrainian Everest expedition that left $50,000 worth of cryptocurrency on the summit of Everest. On May 14, Taras Pozdnii, Dmitry Semerenko, and Roman Gorodetskiy summited the mountain and buried the goods as part of a publicity stunt for Ireland-based social media startup听.听A听 shows the climbers on the summit as snow falls.听
But we missed one very crucial piece of information: as the three climbers and their two Sherpa descended, 45-year-old Lam Babu Sherpa disappeared.听
Soon after the summit, the weather began to deteriorate. By their account, the three Ukrainians left Lam Babu and Mingma Sherpa听behind as they raced back to the South Col, at 25,938 feet. Along the way they stopped to help Chinese climber听Saber Liu, who was alone and out of oxygen. Together the Ukrainians and Liu reached the South Col. Pozdnii and Gorodetskiy spent the night there with Liu, while Semerenko descended to Camp 2. 鈥淭he death zone starts at 8,300-meters,鈥 Semerenko told me. 鈥淚t's every man for himself zone.鈥澨
In a written statement to 国产吃瓜黑料,听Semerenko criticized the support they received from Lam Babu and Mingma Sherpa, who both work for听, a low-cost Nepal-based guide company. 鈥淲e could tell by the look [of]听them that they were inexperienced, and had to clarify if they [had] ever been to Everest before,鈥 he wrote to me. 鈥淭hey barely understood English and basically were porter Sherpas.鈥 He said they carried extra oxygen bottles and often lagged behind the three climbers.听
Lam Babu was no rookie in the Himalaya, however. He听summited Everest three times and has ascents of Cho Oyu, Manaslu, and Annapurna, all 8000 meter peaks.
Mingma听Sherpa made it down the mountain, but it鈥檚 still unclear precisely what happened to Lam Babu. , the Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation's听representative at Base Camp, said Lam Babu went missing听and the rescue team stationed at Camp 2 was unaware of the incident as it unfolded. At this point, Lam Babu is presumed dead. Mingma Sherpa did not immediately respond to a request for comment. I'll update this story if he does.