Ten years after

Ten years ago this month, disaster struck on Mount Everest. In a massive snowstorm, eight people died, including expedition leaders. Outside Magazine still maintains the Web pages (http://outside.away.com/peaks/fischer/index.html) from that tragic month, and this month is following climbers currently on a quest for the summit.

Veteran guide and mountaineer Dave Hahn is on the mountain this year with the 2006 International Mountain Guides Everest Expedition, and he is sending regular dispatches on www.greatoutdoors.com.

In an e-mail on http://outside.away.com, Hahn wrote that the tragedy hasn't seemed to bother the current slate of climbers. "Prospective climbers here are so caught up in their own dramas and their own modern obsessions to reflect too heavily on the tragedies of ten years ago," Hahn wrote. "To me, the surprise in contemplating the anniversary is realizing that the rest of the world still considers the 1996 state of Everest climbing to be the up-to-the-minute snapshot on what goes on here, but of course that is not true, ten years have gone by."