Inside the high-stakes, death-defying world of scaling Mt. Everest
NY Post
In April, 2013, a group of Sherpas, the iconic Nepalese mountain guides, hung off the side of the mountain they call Sagarmatha, installing 3,000 feet of the 12 miles of fixed ropes added to Everest each year to aid inexperienced climbers.
Because it was dangerous work, the Sherpas carried hundreds of pounds of rope, ice screws and carabiners — most Western climbers took a rest day so the experienced crew could complete their task in relative safety.
Three experienced Europeans didn’t rest though, and their climbing eventually led to a shower of snow and ice landing on the rope workers below.
The Sherpas angrily converged on the Europeans, the insults flying.
Then a European climber foolishly called one Sherpa a “machikne,” a severe slight in Nepali referring to a person who enjoys sexual congress with his mother.
The Sherpas packed up and silently went down the mountain, leaving the job unfinished.
The killing of Iran’s tyrannical Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday in an unprecedented joint military attack by the US and Israel called Operation Epic Fury set off widespread celebrations from Iranians around the world — as President Trump said it would give them their “greatest chance” to “take back the country.” Meanwhile, in Iran, a lack of internet has made it impossible for Iranians to easily communicate daily conditions. Over a period of three days, with limited VPN connection, an eyewitness currently in Tehran — who, for her safety, is concealing her identity — shared her account of life under a country in the midst of battle with The Post’s Natasha Pearlman.
After exactly 120 years, the curtain has fallen on the Theater District institution Barbetta, with the iconic Italian restaurant having served its final course Friday night.