Deadly Everest avalanche
Witness History
BBC
4.4 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 18 April 2024
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On 18 April 2014, an avalanche on Mount Everest killed 16 men, who were carrying supplies for commercial expeditions to higher camps.
The sherpas were on the Khumbu Icefall, just above Base Camp in Nepal, when the avalanche happened.
It resulted in the climbing season being cancelled and sherpas demanding better working conditions on the mountain.
Lakpa Rita Sherpa helped dig bodies of his dead colleagues out of the ice, before transporting them home to their families.
He speaks to Laura Jones.
(Photo: The south-west face of Mount Everest and the Khumbu icefall. Credit: Eye Ubiquitous/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. Hello you're listening to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Laura Jones. |
| 0:47.0 | Ten years ago hundreds of people were at Mount Everest base camp in Nepal, each raring to get started in their quest to reach the summit. |
| 0:58.0 | But their dreams of making it to the top of the world were about to be shattered. |
| 1:03.0 | Neverland on Mount Everest near base camp has killed. |
| 1:09.0 | It is being said that it is the biggest number of human dates on a single day in the history of Mountie. |
| 1:14.4 | It was like a hill of snow that just fell down. |
| 1:19.6 | It's 5 a.m. on the 18th of April 2014. |
| 1:24.0 | Lachperita Sherper is in his tent. |
| 1:26.0 | He's in charge of a team of Sherpers for an expedition company. |
| 1:30.0 | He's come a long way in his mountain career over the last 30 years. |
| 1:34.0 | My dad used to be a mountain guide. |
| 1:36.0 | 1984, I finished my high school. |
| 1:39.0 | My dad got a frostbite. |
| 1:41.0 | He lost his toes and finger. |
| 1:43.0 | So being an older son, I have to take over and I start climbing without knowing anything. |
| 1:49.0 | Ever since the first expeditions of the 1920s, when their natural ability at altitude |
| 1:55.2 | was recognized by foreign climbers, people living high up in the Himalayas have been crucial on |
... |
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