Shriya Shah-Klorfine

Shriya Shah-Klorfine (January 11, 1979 – May 19, 2012) was a Nepal-born Canadian woman who died while descending from the summit of Mount Everest in 2012.[1][2]

Early life

Shah-Klorfine was born in Kathmandu, Nepal, according to CityNews.[1] At the age of nine, Shah-Klorfine had taken a helicopter tour of Mount Everest with her father.[3] She attended Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, Nepal.[4]

She grew up in Mumbai, India, which she left to work on cruise ships as a purser.[1] While working on a cruise ship, she met her future husband Bruce Klorfine, who was a jazz and event piano player. They married and settled in his hometown of Toronto, Canada where she became a fashion buyer for the Fairweather women's clothing chain.[5] [4] They were together for about a decade before she died on Everest.[3] [2][6]

Shah-Klorfine was also a businesswoman who started "SOS Splash of Style Inc."[1] She was also a candidate during the 2011 Ontario general election in the riding of Mississauga East—Cooksville.[3][7]

Everest experience

Shah-Klorfine had booked a climb with Utmost Adventure Trekking, which was a new guiding company.[2][6] The cost of the climb was reportedly $36,000 to $40,000 which was on the lower end of what other guide firms had charged. The total cost after adding in airfare and equipment was around $100,000. Shah-Klorfine solicited donations via the website www.myeverestexpedition.com which included a computer-generated photo of her purportedly in front of Mount Everest, and also organized several fundraising events which raised little or lost money. As a result, her expedition was financed by taking out a second mortgage on her home.[8]

Neither she nor the guide firm had significant climbing experience.[9] The leader of the guide firm said he had asked her not to try to summit on that day, and previously warned her she was a below-average climber.[6] However, another guide firm said she was not given enough bottled oxygen.[6] One issue noted by the guide firm and other climbers that day was long waiting times on the mountain, caused by slow passage through certain bottlenecks on the climbing route.[10] The 2012 season was noted as the worst since 1996, with about 11 deaths for the season.[11]

The Himalayan Database records that she died on May 19, 2012, on the south side of Mount Everest at 8400 meters altitude.[12] Further fatalities that season include two on the north and eight on the south side including Shah-Klorfine, with four other deaths on the same day as Shah-Klorfine.[12] She is said to have died 250 meters (~820 feet) from Camp 4 (Nepal side).[13] She was 33 years old when she passed away.[6]

The day after she died, climber Leanne Shuttleworth came across her body.[7] Shuttleworth and her father with whom she was climbing had to go around Shah-Klorfine's body, as she was still clipped to the climbing line.[7] Her body was on the mountain for about ten days before it was carried back down.[2] The body was retrieved from over 8000 meters altitude and then taken off the mountain by helicopter.[14] On July 8, 2012, a memorial service was ministered for her at a church in Toronto, Canada.[15]

Legacy

In a 2012 documentary,[16] Bob McKeown travels to Nepal and pieces together what happened, including video of Shah-Klorfine's final hours on Everest.

Shah-Klorfine has been noted as a case of the pros and cons of risk taking.[17] The Vancouver Sun noted that dangerous adventures can offer achievement but that danger can also result in death.[17] An Everest summiter who was Canadian noted the cruel dangers of mountain climbing.[18]

Another analysis questioned the common sense of a novice going with an inexperienced guiding firm,[4] also noting that there has been an increase in "tourists" attempting to summit mountains like Everest to seek glory despite their lack of ability. Widely resented by professional mountaineers, the "tourists" are seen as clogging out routes and being a potential danger to themselves and others while their self-promotional behavior also violates alpine traditions. [19]

See also

References
  1. News Staff (May 29, 2012). "Body of Canadian Everest climber taken off mountain by helicopter". CityNews. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
  2. "EXCLUSIVE | Canadian Everest victim used inexperienced company, lacked oxygen". CBC News. September 13, 2012. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
  3. Tapper, Josh (May 22, 2012). "Toronto woman dies on Mount Everest descent". Toronto Star. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
  4. Amiel, Barbara (June 1, 2012). "The lure, and the cruelty, of Mount Everest". Maclean's. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
  5. "Shriya Shah-Klorfine". Notes to Women. May 22, 2012. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
  6. Koul, Scaachi (September 14, 2012). "More details, and blame, in the death of Canadian Everest victim". Maclean's. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
  7. Smith, Nicola (May 29, 2012). "Ego-driven climbers fall to Everest's lethal lure". The Australian. Archived from the original on May 31, 2012.
  8. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/death-on-everest
  9. Arnette, Alan (October 16, 2016). "What is Wrong with Everest". The Blog on alanarnette.com. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
  10. Tu, Thanh Ha; D'Aliesio, Renata (May 22, 2012). "'Save me,' Canadian climber told sherpas after being urged to turn back". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
  11. Eberle, Lukas (October 5, 2012). "The Story Behind another Deadly Year on Everest". Spiegel Online. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
  12. "Deaths - Spring 2012". The Himalayan Database. The American Alpine Club. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
  13. Shah, Maryam (May 22, 2012). "Everest climber's last words: 'Save me'". Toronto Sun. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
  14. "Canadian climber Shriya Shah-Klorfine's body removed from Mount Everest by helicopter". National Post. CP. May 29, 2012. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
  15. "Friends of 33 year old Shriya Shah-Klorfine, hold a memorial Sunday July 8, 2012 at Malvern Methodist Church in Toronto, Ontario". Getty Images. July 8, 2012. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
  16. The Fifth Estate (2016-08-20), Mount Everest : Into the Death Zone - the fifth estate, retrieved 2019-05-29
  17. Todd, Douglas (July 28, 2012). "The pros and cons of risk". Vancouver Sun. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
  18. "Mount Everest descent claims Canadian woman, 2 others". CBC News. AP. May 21, 2012. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
  19. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/death-on-everest
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