Frank Locke, 41, fears a new “death wave” on Mount Everest

On Tuesday May 11th, former handball player Frank Locke (41) reported that he is I have reached the summit of the tallest mountain in the world, Mount Everest.

A week later, Good Morning Norway had a conversation with a very proud Norwegian when he was away from the mountain. A flight is currently awaiting at “the most dangerous airport in the world”, Lukla, in Nepal.

I am the first Norwegian who can say that I have reached 8,849 meters. In addition, I set a Norwegian record, nobody went so fast from Lukla to the top. I spent 22 days and usually people using more than twice that. So in terms of acclimatization, he’s been on the edge of a precipice, but I’m happy with the Norwegian record, says Luke Good morning Norway.

Watch the video chatting with Good Morning Norway at the top of the box.

“Mount Everest 8849 – on a journey. It only took me 22 days to land at Lukla, the world’s most dangerous airport, and climb Mount Everest on May 11th. – This is just the beginning, ”Locke wrote on his Instagram profile, under a picture of himself on top of the mountain.

Fear of the new “death wave”

Mountain climbing is far from risk-free. In 2019, the mountain received a lot of media coverage after up to 11 people died in one week on their way to the summit..

This year, two people have already lost their lives in the area, and the handball player now fears a similar wave of deaths could happen in the near future.

Now there are an incredible number of teams waiting to attend, so I’m afraid that the photos and fatalities that I saw in 2019 will be repeated again this year. There are now more than 300 clients and 500 Sherpas on their way. There will be a small window now around May 20, where many are planning to go, and in addition, there is a huge monsoon on its way over India that could help define, and possibly stop, the full climb that is now, says Locke and adds:

There are a lot of doubts here now, so I’m afraid things will happen on that mountain. I’m so happy that I was awake, and that we have a very smart and intelligent team captain who manages to be fast.

I climbed over the corpses

Locke dreamed of climbing the world’s tallest mountains since childhood. In addition, the 41-year-old, who calls himself “Actionfrank” on Instagram, is meticulously preoccupied with “pushing boundaries,” something that depends on his implementation.

The first thing I learned in school, geographically, is that the capital of Norway is Oslo and that the highest mountain in the world is Mount Everest. “Everyone has a relationship with Mount Everest,” says Locke, explaining:

– Go overboard after that, I’ve always had a relationship and always wanted to be on top there. Now I’ve already done it, and it’s not quite clear to me yet that I managed to manage it.

But even for the 41-year-old thrill-seeker, a trip can be a good thing along the way. Locke admits he still has to work to accommodate some of the experiences in the trip.

– No, it feels very special to step on a corpse when you stepped on “Hillary Step.” So there’s a lot to take in and I’ve never been tired and so “on steel” as I did when I started in those phases. There may be some acclimatization of my own. But all the training I gave in advance was paid for, so it was a bit good, says the former handball player.

Corona critic

Locke’s climb didn’t just gain words of praise. Many believe that the 41-year-old should have chosen a different time for the trip, compared to the time of the pandemic with the lockdown and travel bans.

– In the most dangerous epidemic of the century, with lockdowns, illness, death, loneliness, loss, and loss everywhere, it’s strange that the Norwegian flag is only hoisted somewhere other than the one you can reach without bypassing direct travel advice – those who are almost everyone trying to follow, he writes Journalist and influencer Ingeborg Senneset (36) in one of Løke’s comment fields.

On the other hand, Locke himself believes that his criticism is not justified.

I might have one person who criticized me, and I had tens of thousands who supported and encouraged me. We raised the money for a man, Jean, who had cancer and had spread to the lungs and liver, he says.

Nepal has been hit hard by the epidemic in recent times, with many cases of infection in the Himalayas as well. So some people believe that the oxygen tanks used for the climbing should have been donated to patients instead.

Locke rejects criticism of oxygen tanks and believes that the tanks are too small and expensive to be used in hospitals.

I think people have a little misleading information. The tanks we used are stocked and not used in any hospital. The oxygen tanks we used are only used for rock climbing. It’s too small and too expensive to be used in hospitals, says the 41-year-old.

Strict measures

While Locke was on his way to the top of the mountain, the aura also erupted at base camp, but the 41-year-old didn’t notice anything.

– No, she was incredibly tough. I had a friend who only counted a hundred yards of me, but we never met. Locke says that our team itself is fenced in, and you weren’t allowed to walk around and talk to other people.

In the mountains, we didn’t notice much of it, then we heard about cases, but at least we managed to stay infection-free.