Sherpa Dies in ICO Publicity Stunt
According to the latest news reports a Ukraine-based social network company, ASKfm, as part of its publicity campaign for its upcoming Initial Coin Offering (ICO), gave crypto-enthusiasts a challenge to complete. Sadly, this stunt led to the tragic death of one person.
The Publicity Stunt
ASKfm announced that it was sponsoring four Ukrainian “crypto-enthusiasts” to scale Mount Everest and bury a Ledger wallet containing cryptocurrency at the mountain’s summit. The “enthusiasts” sponsored were Taras Pozdnii, Dmitrii Semenko, Irina Galay and Roman Gorodechnii, and the wallet contained 500,000 ASKfm tokens. However, while Galay was featured as one of the climbers in the promotional video, she did not make the climb
An ASKfm spokesperson revealed that these token are worth about $50,000. The figure as an estimate of the tokens’ value once the ICO pre-sale and launch takes place. The promotional video on YouTube told viewers to get ready for the highest cryptocurrency token – literally. The video went on to say that that Ledger wallet was being offered to anyone who was brave enough to go and get it.
The firm also shared the challenges their team faced on Mount Everest. ASKfm reported that two of the team members were stuck above the 7,000 meter mark with no reserves of oxygen. By the second day, they had to call a helicopter squad to rescue them. The social networking company stated that they were all safe.
Preventable Death
What ASKfm glossed over was what happened to one of their guides (called Sherpas). A local Nepalese called Lam Babu Sherpa died while making this trip with them.
Originally, the social networking site told the media that there were 4 Sherpas on this trip, one assisting each of the climbers. However, when asked about the death of Lam Babu Sherpa, ASKfm changed its story completely, stating that there were over 100 Sherpa’s assisting their expedition, which also included people from other groups.
When one of the climbers – Pozdnii – was interviewed telephonically, he stated that the Sherpa went missing between the Camp IV and the summit of the mountain. Camp IV is the highest camp on the mountain and not many people get that far, so ASKfm’s statement about Sherpas assisting other groups as well as the huge numbers sounded suspiciously like lies.
According to a representative of the Nepalese Ministry of Tourism, the Sherpa died making this trip, despite being an experience guide. It is believed that he was struck by snow blindness, a very painful condition that leads to temporary blindness.
Alan Arnette, a man from Colorado who records all events related to summiting season, wrote about this incident in his blog post, terming it a Preventable Death. Basically, the team lost track of the Sherpa and failed to report the incident, which could have saved his life.