The story of the disappearance of the Nepalese climber to Everest during a promotional stunt for ASKfm’s ICO has been supplemented with new details. The media hastened their accusations against ASKfm sponsors, not having studied the whole story thoroughly. Meanwhile, mountaineers, representatives of the social network and a witness unrelated to ASKfm expressed their arguments. According to ASKfm CEO Maxim Tsaryk, the company also conducted its own investigation.
To recap: ASKfm 2.0, a relaunch blockchain-based and a world-famous Q&A social network, sponsored four professional climbers to ascend the Mount Everest’s top to place a wallet with social media’s tokens as a promotional stunt. The group was accompanied by trained Nepalese climbers (sherpas) while reaching the summit.
The expedition reached its goals: the group of climbers brought the ASKfm flag and a Ledger with 500.000 tokens to the top. However, it turned out that one of the sherpas disappeared and reportedly died during the expedition.
The incident made the major outlets’ headlines, including those who are not in the crypto-currency area. Media didn’t take long to reproach the sponsor of the expedition, accusing them of the tragic incident. Some attributed that the sherpa was lost because of the “fact” that the group deliberately left him with no help on their way back.
Summarizing what is known at the moment, we have at our disposal the ASKfm’s statements (May 26, May 29, interview with Maxim Tsaryk), climbers’ explanation and evidence from Chinese climber, rescued by the team on the way to the camp.
According to Maxim Tsaryk, after reaching the mountain’s top, the ASKfm team was forced to descend due to worsening weather conditions in advance of sherpas’ support. The disappearance of one of the sherpas, Lam Babu, became known only in the camp along the route in the morning after their arrival.
“Between reaching the summit and the subsequent descent, the three Sherpas, who were descending together as a group, fell behind the mountaineers who were trying to quickly avoid rapidly worsening weather conditions. The news of the missing sherpa Lam Babu was not discovered until the next morning. The two remaining sherpas on this leg of the expedition were the last people to see the sherpa that subsequently went missing,” – Maxim Tsaryk states.
Afterward, Nepalese authorities confirmed his disappearance and alleged death after several unsuccessful search rescue operations.
At the next camp, the mountaineers were forced to call air rescuers for evacuation because of health conditions. Having received the necessary medical care, all of them returned home without harm to their health.
Noteworthy, the team helped to survive an unaccompanied Chinese mountaineer, Saber Liu, who found himself in a critical situation wearing only one glove, having no eye protection mask and a broken oxygen tank. Despite the risks, the group helped him to get to the camp, where his life was safe.
“Here I will say thank you again for your help, without your support I would’ve been left there forever,” – wrote Saber Liu to the team member Roman Gorodechnyi.
To ASKfm CEO, the company became the object to of many speculative and inaccurate reports.
“The story was picked up very fast. Many traditional institutions and mainstream media outlets are skeptical about cryptocurrency, blockchain products, and ICOs.
it’s understandable that for the mainstream media, this incident is not about facts, it’s about a controversial story,” – Maxim Tsaryk adds.
