It happens every year. People die on Everest. The worst year in recently
history, as many people remember, and as was amazingly recounted in
Into Thin Air, was 1996. But on May
1, 39-year-old Seattleite Michael Corey O’Brien
slipped while attempting to
descend the Khumbu Icefall, and fell into a crevasse to his death. O’Brien and his brother Christopher were attempting
to become the first American brothers to reach the summit together. They were also seeking to raise money and awareness
Huntington’s disease, which led to the deaths of their mother, sister and other family members. Tragic.