Day: July 30, 2005

I hadn’t heard about Trevor Stokol until I read this post from Steve Huff.

Trevor disappeared on Mt. Everest in the Himalayas on July 22, 2005. I had no idea how dangerous an Everest climb was until I read Jon Krakauer’s ‘Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster.’ I highly recommend the book. Not only is the story riveting, the details on the toll the climb takes on the body is incredible. I truly felt like I was there, on the glacier, trudging up slowly along with the team of climbers during those March days in 1996.

Trevor’s blog details his round-the-world adventure, then inexplicably stops on July the 12th.

His friend Mark talks more about Trevor’s disappearance, here.

Wouldn’t it be great if this turns out to be one of those miraculous stories of survival? Of course, the odds are against that. Everest is the edge of the world, a dangerous place where many challenge its force. Some beat the elements and stand tall on top. But there are those who miscalculate the energy of the mountain, the weather that changes in seconds, the wind that blows with such a force that it feels like knives piercing the skin. It is then when the mountain takes.

Godspeed Trevor.

UPDATE: August 8 – the last day of the search.

But this one sounds particularly bad.

Teenager murdered in axe attack

Student Anthony Walker, 18, died in hospital after being attacked in Huyton, Merseyside, on Friday night.

Mr Walker was taunted while at a bus stop on St John’s Road with his girlfriend and a male cousin. They moved but were attacked in a park.

His girlfriend and cousin, both 17, ran to get help, but when they returned he was slumped on the ground with serious head injuries.

When I hear or read the words ‘axe attack’ I immediately think of the movie ‘The Shining’. I’m talking about the part when Jack Nicholson hid behind a pillar in a great room of the Overlook Hotel as Scatman Carothers was walking in slowly, trying to find out what had happened to the Torrence family.

There were a lot of ‘jumpy’ parts in the movie, but for me, that scene was the most unnerving.