Choose your meaninglessness

All those cable resources, so little meaningful information despite the glitzy Nepal backdrop

MILWAUKEE PRESS

May 28, 2019

f you are sick of members of congress, former prosecutors, former generals, former intelligence chiefs and cable news hosts taking about whether Joe Biden is a “low-IQ individual” and whether the president should be impeached, this was your weekend.

For the past several days there has been a reprieve: Mt. Everest is a congested death trap and several adventurers who prepared for years for the climb reached the peak, only to drop dead.

Like Hindus in India who go to Varanasi to await death and cremation at the Ganges “burning ghat” (https://tinyurl.com/vara-ghat) and (https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/30884917/burning-ghat-banks-ganges-river-varanasi-india.html), wealthy middle-aged and elderly climbers head to Everest to freeze to death or suffocate. CBS, CNN and others ran the same video all weekend of the “traffic jam” at the peak, and then ran interviews of the families of the victims who “tragically” died living their dreams.

I clicked on CNN this morning to find a 2-minute, 37-second report from breathless and slightly pixelated Istanbul-based senior correspondent Arwa Damon letting me know she had just arrived at the south Everest Base Camp in Nepal. She had good reason to be breathless, one might imagine, reporting from the top of the world on the world’s hottest story from one of its coldest places after ascending to an elevation of 17,600 ft. (https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2019/05/28/arwa-damon-everest-looklive-lon-orig.cnn)

But her breathlessness was not from her assault on the mountain.

I will guess she did not know in advance that so many people would die climbing Mt. Everest last week. Even if she were a great trekker and outdoors enthusiast, Ms. Damon probably would not have had the 1,329 hours it would take to walk the 6,516 kilometers from Turkey to Nepal. That would have left her breathless, no doubt. But her assignment probably began with a seven-hour flight from Istanbul to Kathmandu, Nepal. Let’s also suppose she did not have enough advance notice to trek from Kathmandu to Lukla, where climbers begin their journey to the south base camp from which Ms. Damon educated viewers on the famous ice falls. That would have been exhausting since there are no roads. Even if she had taken the nine-hour bus ride from Kathmandu to Jiri, she would still have had a six- to seven-day hike to Lukla. Or, if she had known in advance, perhaps she would have taken a bus to Phaplu, 13 hours away, then walked for just four days. So that was not the cause of her breathlessness.

More likely, the international correspondent eschewed the rigors of the trekking adventure and took a 30-minute flight from Kathmandu to Lukla’s Tenzing-Hillary Airport, admittedly an adventure itself since it is known as the world’s most dangerous.

“From Lukla,” Wikipedia tells us, “climbers trek upward to the Sherpa capital of Namche Bazaar, 3,440 metres (11,290 ft), following the valley of the Dudh Kosi river.”

“It takes about two days to reach the village, which is a central hub of the area. Typically, at this point, climbers allow a day of rest for acclimatization. They then trek another two days to Dingboche, 4,260 metres (13,980 ft) before resting for another day for further acclimatization. Another two days takes them to Everest Base Camp via Gorakshep, the flat field below Kala Patthar, 5,545 metres (18,192 ft) and Mt. Pumori.”

But Ms. Damon did not have enough advance notice for even that part of the outdoor adventure she was breathlessly covering – the part getting just to the base camp of Mt. Everest, which is 11,429 feet lower than the peak.

In all likelihood, CNN’s senior international reporter flew from Istanbul to Kathmandu, took a helicopter from Kathmandu to Lukla, then refueled for the final copter sprint to the base camp. Along the way, she likely met up with the network’s India-based producers and camera crew who had been covering the area for several days.

For all that travel, she reported for 2 minutes and 37 seconds on a story.

After Damon’s “update,” CNN upgraded to what may be the world’s most pretentious “international” voice, again reporting on the 11^th climber death of 2019 (https://tinyurl.com/cnn-pretns) but at least we were spared the “BREAKING NEWS” graphics.

Honestly, the “traffic jam” visuals make a world-class adventure -- a life-long dream requiring years of preparation -- look like a Disneyland “D” coupon ride, for 60- and 70-year old retired doctors and dentists making up for the years they spent tickling our feet with a rubber triangle affixed to a steel rod.

The coverage makes one of the most challenging destinations on earth look so Mickey Mouse.