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A Geek On Everest

Posted by kdawson on from the high-adventure dept.

mysterious_mark writes "Recently I was recruited by Altitude Films to be the IT geek for a filming expedition to the north side of Mount Everest. I have written an account of my experience. It is a tale of high latency, low bandwidth, blown hard drives, and frozen fingers. Summit day is June 14th. See the expedition's site for the overall picture (caution: total Flash site)."

4 of 125 comments (clear)

  1. Stay warm! by Billosaur · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Laptop computers provide most of the computer power we need on the mountain but they have to stay lower on the mountain, at or below advanced base camp at 21,000 feet. For redundancy we brought three laptops, all different brands, just in case one particular brand proved problematic. The primary mode of failure for laptops in this environment is hard drive failure since hard drives rely upon the viscosity of air to provide lubrication and damping among the moving parts, the same manner that oil provides lubrication and damping for moving machine or engine parts.

    And depending on the make and model, the second failure mode, the batteries bursting into flames, will keep you warm on those chilly Everest nights.

    It is safe to say that climbing Everest has no more significance now than parking your car. Every year, a cavalcade of people charge up the mountain, to the point there are actual people jams at the approach to the summit. Ho hum.

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  2. Great, and I'd like to hear more... by dfdashh · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I liked the article, but I really wanted to hear more about the particular problems he experienced with the equipment, and what (if any) type of workaround he used to get them back into shape. In such extreme weather, he HAD to have more failures or problems other than that one hard drive. On the other hand, he didn't go above a certain altitude, and maybe everything was fine and dandy. For that, I can think of the ads now: "ABC Corp's hard disks survived EVEREST - put them to work in your demanding data center today!"

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    df -h /my/head
  3. 2000 climbers in 2007; about 600 summits so far by peter303 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Beats previous 2006 record of 480 summits. Gets pretty crowded on top when the 1-2 week weather window opens in late May. This year the window was unusally long, so more peole had second chances. Theres a second, much smaller season in October for a handful of remaining summits.

    The factor that greater increased climbers was the entry of cut-rate Chinese climbing companies from the north. Nepal permits cost about $10K per climber, total expedition is $20K - $60K. China cost be below $10K, thus attracting hordes. 2006 had the second highest death total (8), mostly blamed on the shortcuts and inexperience of Chinese companies. I saw (6) so far in 2007.

  4. Re:Man ... by NMerriam · · Score: 3, Interesting

    and comment "frist pots frum EVEREST."


    I know I posted on Slashdot from Everest back in 1999, I suspect it was frist. It probably had nothing to do with Everest -- it's a place with lots of hurry up and wait (and I do know they rejected my story on our mission, bastards!).
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