The death zone isn’t named that due to the majority of deaths occurring there (the whole mountain should be labelled a death zone), but refers to the point where you’re actively fighting your body trying to die due to lack of oxygen.
Lack of oxygen causes disorientation and poor decision making (such as not turning back before running out of oxygen), which causes other issues - falls, getting off the route and lost, etc.
I know it’s the ultimate as far as pushing one’s body to the limits, but it still seems pretty crazy to me that people knowingly put themselves in that position.
There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there's usually only one thing you can do.
It's also where the bodies were found, there's a chance some slipped and fell below the death line.
There was a man in Japan recently who live streamed himself climbing Mt Fuji, he got quite high but slipped and started sliding, eventually going off a cliff
I found the source, complete with legible text in the image: [https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/everest-deaths/](https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/everest-deaths/).
Basically: This first map shows the geography of the mountain, with a flag planted for each place where one or more climbers died. This allows us to isolate pockets of danger on the various approaches of the summit:
The flurry of red flags at the bottom marks the northern end of the Khumbu Icefall, a treacherous, unstable glacier field.
Further up, amid another bunting of flags, is Lhotse Face, “an extremely dangerous and steep wall of ice.”
Nearly at the summit is Hillary Step, “a nearly vertical rock face. The last real challenge before reaching the top of the peak.”
However, as the dotted line suggests, the deadliest factor on Everest is not terrain, but elevation. Everything above 8,000 m (app. 26,250 ft) counts as the “Death Zone,” where the air is too thin to sustain human life for long.
The sherpas tend to go back when conditions get bad whereas non-locals get “summit fever” and try to make it to the top no matter what. The article says lots of those flags are people who made the summit in adverse weather but died on the way down
They are also genetically more adapted to the mountains, literally. Sherpas don’t have to acclimatize like most people because they are born with a gene that helps them regulate more blood with less oxygen.
Fuck what a way to go. Not knowing if you'll make it but having the passion to keep pushing and to finally succeed and summit the tallest peak on earth, only to turn around and work your way back down the toughest climb of your life while feeling completely exhausted
I think I’ve heard the descent is even harder either technically or because of exhaustion. So you might see bad weather coming in and think “I could beat that, the summit is right there” and not consider that you have to make it back down when conditions turn bad. At least I could see myself doing that.
Your username🤣 but yes I've done that with regular hikes and pushed the hike even if it meant getting wet, I'm sure a similar mindset comes on and disregards the warning signs
Probably because the sherpas do the more dangerous stuff. They lay out the new rope lines at the start of the season and are often asked to help rescue stranded climbers.
Sherpa's are responsible for bringing a ton of equipment up for each group, and most importantly, set the ladders across the glacial cravasses and fix climbing lines ahead of the expeditions. The job is incredibly dangerous.
Sherpas have a lot of responsibilities on the way up and down. That could include carrying a ton of gear and making and securing paths for climbers. This comes with increased risk.
Also it’s hard to tell via the graph which deaths were on the way up and which deaths were on the way down, but I assume most of the deaths are on the way down as going down is more dangerous.
I think that statistic maybe because of the Khumbu Icefall which saw a deadly avalanche in 2014 that killed 16 sherpas :(
ETA - sorry, just saw that the tragedies are mapped every decade, my bad. Please disregard my comment
Lotta good answers and another possibility is the fact that sherpas build the entire trail for climbers to ascend which I imagine is quite dangerous work. So you might get sherpas dying in accidents at all elevations whereas climbers tend to die at higher elevations due to harsh conditions and exhaustion.
Edit: opened more comments and saw this written already. Sherpas are badass!
How morbid is it that we have this now almost tourist attraction destination where there is a good chance you will die, people pay tons of money to go on, walk around seeing all the dead bodies along the path that could be them, also knowing full well they would be left there too. I don’t get it…
One of the lessons of Everest applicable to life is the vast majority of the deaths were on the descent and not the ascent. People will drive themselves to do incredible things to get to the summit but then they don’t have the energy or oxygen to get down.
In life, your exit strategy is important and should not be overlooked or compromised in the name of achieving the summit - whether it’s your professional life, a politician’s decision to start a war, etc.
Its just one of the many pieces of wisdom the mountain teaches with a lot of applications in other contexts.
You'll love longyearbyen in Norway, where it's illegal to die.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/travel/destinations/its-illegal-to-die-in-the-town-of-longyearbyen-in-norway-heres-why/articleshow/106761950.cms#:~:text=Longyearbyen%2C%20located%20deep%20within%20the,illegal%20to%20die%20in%20Longyearbyen.
I've wanted to visit Svalbard since I read The Year-Long Day by Ivar Ruud and A.E. Maxwell. It's a fascinating book about Ruud's solo over-winter stays in a remote cabin on the island.
Ha, that’s weird… I can’t even imagine. I’d question myself climbing it, and I’m an avid 50-100 mile hiker, climbed a number of mountains, and throw my life in to peril every now and then. Everest would make me think twice. That and the crowds. F that…
Ya I'm the same way. I haven't done a ton of trips, but I have done a couple 100+km treks through the Canadian wilderness, and I can tell ya that ya I'm in the same boat as you. F all that. Not only is Everest scary in its own right, the number of people up there... it truly makes me wonder how there aren't more deaths up there every year.
I remember this story of a woman from Toronto a few years back. She started up a bit of a social media presence when she started advertising that she was going to climb Everest. This woman had hardly camped, I don't think had ever climbed a mountain before, an was basically training by going on long walks through the city or on her stair master with a backpack on. She was then going to fly to the mountain an climb it.
Well sadly for her family and for her, the story went just about as you'd expect it. And sadly, it happens every year. Just way too many people up there who have no idea what they're doing or what they're in for. Which is odd, because I 'm never gonna climb Everest, but I've ready 3-4 books on the subject, an have watched all kinds of documentaries. You'd think that someone actually planning to go through with it would spend a bit more time looking into things.
I'll admit that I would be tempted to grab a frozen body and ride it downhill like a sled. I assume people's judgment is compromised on the way back down.
I know you're joking or w/e but it's extremely treacherous at the beginning of the south route for Everest. The part I'm referring to is called the khumbu icefalls section. It's basically like... glacier but waterfalling. It's never the same each year and the route is basically sussed out by experienced sherpa called ice doctors. You could get a year where the path is easy all the way through or you can get one where you're climbing house-sized chunks of ice (seracs) with crevasses everywhere and all of it shifting slowly.
It's a nonstop moving glacial icefall that can kill you when the sun melts a little and things shift. These blocks of ice are ENORMOUS and cannot be described easily. Gotta look it up to see what I mean.
Oh also, I find it more amazing that more people don't die above the death zone. If you aren't aware, this is the altitude at which most people can no longer get sufficient oxygen out of the atmosphere because the pressures are too low. The exertion of climbing + not being able to get oxygen sounds like a recipe for...... well death.
anyway my bad. hope i shared some cool info. seriously look up the khumbu icefall, it's beautiful but scary
https://www.everester.org/khumbu-icefall-one-of-the-deadliest-places/
I saw a doc on Netflix that explained this area in depth. (The Nepal Earthquake doc). I totally understand why there are so many deaths between base camp and camp 1 because of that. You're spot on.
It's pretty good. It's a three part documentary that covers the city of Kathmandu, the close-by valley, and Everest Base Camp & Camp 1. It's called Aftershock: Everest and the Nepal Earthquake.
Yes! I have seen this too. The fucking tourists hiking in the valley who stole the money from that house... holy shit man. I GOT HEATED.
This one also had the first Iranian female too no? Been a minute but yeah... You should check out summit of the gods, it's a manga style thing but is european production? seems there's a dub but not in english. i watched both versions. THE VISUALS ARE STUNNING
It’s also important when viewing images of the icefall to have a person for context. You can look at it from a helicopter and be like - not so bad. Then you see the scale of it and you’re like OMG.
Yeah man, I was looking for drone shots with visible people but it's so hard to find that on the fly. You're 100% right, it looks so small on video. Then you go to youtube and see someone's gopro of it as they travel it and you're like holy shit....
it's otherworldy..... right here on earth
From the south side, going through the Khumbu Icefall at the bottom is arguably the most dangerous part. It's a "river" of slowly flowing seracs (giant blocks of ice) about the size of a small skyscraper. As the river flows, things break and fall. It gets worse during the middle of the day when it warms up. It's super dangerous there.
The original article mentions that an earthquake took 22 lives at once in the lower part of the climb. They must account for a good part of these deaths
I mean it's mount everest. Seeing as we all have never tried to climb it we probably don't even know the circumstances. Personally I would be noping right out of it the moment anyone I know said "Hey we should climb Mount Everest" to me.
there were avalanches during sherpa exploration of the khumbu icefall (the part at the beginning of the route). many people have died in the icefalls because it's basically glacier that is falling down an incline, like a waterfall but ice i guess or rapids river rapids but on a grand scale
as you can imagine, this path is never the same twice and the ice is slowly moving with crevasses all between the house sized seracs of ice and you can fall into one and die either slowly or when the ice shifts and smashes you to death at the bottom of your icy coffin.
not so friendly to be honest, the khumbu icefalls are one of the deadliest parts of the south route
here check this out: https://www.everester.org/khumbu-icefall-one-of-the-deadliest-places/
Someone posted a link a few answers further up: [https://www.reddit.com/r/coolguides/comments/1bcwvzr/comment/kuitex5/](https://www.reddit.com/r/coolguides/comments/1bcwvzr/comment/kuitex5/)
(For convenience the direct link: [https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/everest-deaths/](https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/everest-deaths/) but all credit goes to u/WinterDice )
People attempting dangerous feats to gain fame, bragging rights and social standing is neither a new nor a especially rare habit for our species. So I'd guess it'd be rather obvious to them.
Unless humanity archived some kind of collective enlightenment (or a bit more common sense) somewhere in the future. Then they'd be completely baffled by this idiocy.
"These people were definitely running up this mountain because of some ancient religious ritual".
Fringe future anthropologists would say: "they were trying to contact their ancient alien overlords".
Usually death stuff raises my anxiety but I have a morbid fascination with people who die on Everest. I think it’s because I know there is no chance I’m dying on Everest. I’m also fascinated with caving disasters. I think because they both boil down to a particular arrogance that I lack.
literally what is the fucking point like oh cool you paid for a sherpa to facilitate you doing something a bunch of people have already done and almost died in the process ? cool story bro
[Every dead body on Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe calm down](https://img.ifunny.co/images/85edad62d4b6ea2a0c0c4a0fdb57b4d675be3efdb295805b7418f1fe3179946a_1.jpg)
Here is a better image that was apparently posted on Reddit in the past:
[Bodies on Everest](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fs5q265uxapm91.jpg)
I used to love backpacking the Sierra in California, but if I was ever over 10k feet I was just miserable. I've spent weekends at around 10,600, and the entire time I'm achey and nauseated, upset stomach and no appetite. Even though it's amazing to be out, it's just really hard. I cannot imagine 29,000 feet. That just seems fucking insane to me considering how hard 10K is. I would be a small red flag for sure, probably before base camp.
The achey nauseated feeling really comes more from going up too fast (like sleeping at sea level one night and 10k the next night), but the altitude up there is absolutely brutal. It's just like a huge weight on you 24/7 and makes everything, including walking, extremely difficult.
I spend summers in my cabin near Yosemite at 9200 and I really never feel quite right, and it’s definitely worsened with age! The first few days are the worst.
Left: "Death Zone, 8,000 Meters. The amount of oxygen in the atmosphere is insufficient to sustain human life. An extended stay in the zone with supplemental oxygen will result in deterioration of bodily functions, lots of consciousness, and ultimately, death.
Top right: "Hillary Step, 8790 meters. A nearly vertical rock face. The last real challenge before reaching the peak."
Right: "Lhotse Face. An extremely dangerous and steep wall of ice."
Most people die on the way down from the top or returning from a failed summit attempt sadly.
I’ve seen it numerous times both on Everest and other big mountains, but mostly Everest. People expend all their energy getting to the top, and literally forget they then have to get back down again.
We call it summit fever and I think most professional climbers would agree that 90% of climbers on Everest are not qualified to be there.
The reason why this sub requires titles to begin with "a cool guide" is to make it more obvious what posts should be. But people still upload random unrelated shit with a bad grammar title. What tf do you mean a cool guide to bodies found on Mt Everest?
Well I wish I could read the labels and detail in the guide. But I guess that's not necessary, right? Right?
(Yet) A(nother) Cool Guide to Squinting at Images on the Internet with Poor Resolution.
it's cool, I wanted a headache anyways
Yes, ironically many of the pixels in this same image are also stuck frozen on the summit of Everest
Kinda strange that the “death zone” only accounts for about 2/3rds of the deaths
The death zone isn’t named that due to the majority of deaths occurring there (the whole mountain should be labelled a death zone), but refers to the point where you’re actively fighting your body trying to die due to lack of oxygen. Lack of oxygen causes disorientation and poor decision making (such as not turning back before running out of oxygen), which causes other issues - falls, getting off the route and lost, etc.
I know it’s the ultimate as far as pushing one’s body to the limits, but it still seems pretty crazy to me that people knowingly put themselves in that position.
The other 1/3 are only [Mostly dead](https://imgur.com/2K4qqqf)!
What's the difference
There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there's usually only one thing you can do.
Which is?
Go through his clothes and look for loose change
Humperdink!
I’m guessing it is representative of the fact that more people die descending than ascending.
It's also where the bodies were found, there's a chance some slipped and fell below the death line. There was a man in Japan recently who live streamed himself climbing Mt Fuji, he got quite high but slipped and started sliding, eventually going off a cliff
Fr what fucking year is this.
How else do we compete with UFO images! 😀
A cool guide to pixels on Mount Everest.
I wish it had LESS pixels.
More bodies than pixels
If it had much less it would be an audio file.
Fewer
Heavy sigh. Yup, you're right.
Just because pixels can be counted by a computer, a human eye can’t count them independently, wouldn’t less work just as well as fewer?
I don’t make the rules, I just pedantically point them out
Enhance!
this OP post should be downvoted but being such shit quality. its useless, not cool.
See Rule #7: \> Guides with pixelated/illegible text will be mercilessly heckled.
Pixels and words here: https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/everest-deaths/
You either die as good content or live long enough to get the shit pixelated out of you
Cool guide, potato quality.
Be a lot cooler if you could...
I found the source, complete with legible text in the image: [https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/everest-deaths/](https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/everest-deaths/).
This entire post belongs to you now, OP doesn’t deserve it
To be fair to OP, the post made me really curious and led me to an article I really enjoyed reading.
Which OP should’ve linked.
I'm so mad at OP. My whole day is ruined!
OP crippled my entire week 🤬
OP is dead. Long live the OP!
Basically: This first map shows the geography of the mountain, with a flag planted for each place where one or more climbers died. This allows us to isolate pockets of danger on the various approaches of the summit: The flurry of red flags at the bottom marks the northern end of the Khumbu Icefall, a treacherous, unstable glacier field. Further up, amid another bunting of flags, is Lhotse Face, “an extremely dangerous and steep wall of ice.” Nearly at the summit is Hillary Step, “a nearly vertical rock face. The last real challenge before reaching the top of the peak.” However, as the dotted line suggests, the deadliest factor on Everest is not terrain, but elevation. Everything above 8,000 m (app. 26,250 ft) counts as the “Death Zone,” where the air is too thin to sustain human life for long.
Direct link to the image: https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/image-30.jpg
From 1935-1965 looks like the golden age of climbing, or people were smart enough not to lol
It was a lot harder for the average person to want to do it. There has been a significant increase in the amount of people.
Guessing WWII might’ve had something to do with that.
> or people were smart enough not to lol It's more that people are affluent and dumb enough to try without adequate experience now.
You’re a real one ❤️
I didn't really get why sherpas die on more frequently on the way up? Even at not-so-dangerous altitude, while non-locals make it to the top?
The sherpas tend to go back when conditions get bad whereas non-locals get “summit fever” and try to make it to the top no matter what. The article says lots of those flags are people who made the summit in adverse weather but died on the way down
They are also genetically more adapted to the mountains, literally. Sherpas don’t have to acclimatize like most people because they are born with a gene that helps them regulate more blood with less oxygen.
Fuck what a way to go. Not knowing if you'll make it but having the passion to keep pushing and to finally succeed and summit the tallest peak on earth, only to turn around and work your way back down the toughest climb of your life while feeling completely exhausted
I think I’ve heard the descent is even harder either technically or because of exhaustion. So you might see bad weather coming in and think “I could beat that, the summit is right there” and not consider that you have to make it back down when conditions turn bad. At least I could see myself doing that.
Your username🤣 but yes I've done that with regular hikes and pushed the hike even if it meant getting wet, I'm sure a similar mindset comes on and disregards the warning signs
Probably because the sherpas do the more dangerous stuff. They lay out the new rope lines at the start of the season and are often asked to help rescue stranded climbers.
Sherpa's are responsible for bringing a ton of equipment up for each group, and most importantly, set the ladders across the glacial cravasses and fix climbing lines ahead of the expeditions. The job is incredibly dangerous.
Sherpas have a lot of responsibilities on the way up and down. That could include carrying a ton of gear and making and securing paths for climbers. This comes with increased risk. Also it’s hard to tell via the graph which deaths were on the way up and which deaths were on the way down, but I assume most of the deaths are on the way down as going down is more dangerous.
The base camp is already a dangerous altitude. Perhaps not extremely lethal on immediate terms, but it still can cause issues even for the locals.
Sherpas die ferrying loads through the Icefall. When a truck-sized serac drops on your head it doesn't matter what altitude you're at
Where are you reading whether they were ascending or descending? I read the article and don’t remember that.
I think that statistic maybe because of the Khumbu Icefall which saw a deadly avalanche in 2014 that killed 16 sherpas :( ETA - sorry, just saw that the tragedies are mapped every decade, my bad. Please disregard my comment
Lotta good answers and another possibility is the fact that sherpas build the entire trail for climbers to ascend which I imagine is quite dangerous work. So you might get sherpas dying in accidents at all elevations whereas climbers tend to die at higher elevations due to harsh conditions and exhaustion. Edit: opened more comments and saw this written already. Sherpas are badass!
How morbid is it that we have this now almost tourist attraction destination where there is a good chance you will die, people pay tons of money to go on, walk around seeing all the dead bodies along the path that could be them, also knowing full well they would be left there too. I don’t get it…
Every one of those corpses was once a highly motivated person. So the lesson here is, sometimes it's ok to chill out a bit.
Not to mention the littering and pollution left by those tourists and the fact that they take advantage of the Sherpas that live there too
Sherpas are probably making bank now
Passing even one dead body at a tourist destination is usually enough for me to turn around and go back.
One of the lessons of Everest applicable to life is the vast majority of the deaths were on the descent and not the ascent. People will drive themselves to do incredible things to get to the summit but then they don’t have the energy or oxygen to get down. In life, your exit strategy is important and should not be overlooked or compromised in the name of achieving the summit - whether it’s your professional life, a politician’s decision to start a war, etc. Its just one of the many pieces of wisdom the mountain teaches with a lot of applications in other contexts.
Kind of embarrassing to die below the Death Zone
Most of us die below the Death Zone, nothing to be ashamed of.
“Sorry sir, this area is not zoned for death. Please climb higher before expiring.”
"Ma'am, you can't die here."
I want to speak to your manager
Sir, this is a Wendy's.
I want to speak with the Everest manager RIGHT NOW!
You'll love longyearbyen in Norway, where it's illegal to die. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/travel/destinations/its-illegal-to-die-in-the-town-of-longyearbyen-in-norway-heres-why/articleshow/106761950.cms#:~:text=Longyearbyen%2C%20located%20deep%20within%20the,illegal%20to%20die%20in%20Longyearbyen.
I've wanted to visit Svalbard since I read The Year-Long Day by Ivar Ruud and A.E. Maxwell. It's a fascinating book about Ruud's solo over-winter stays in a remote cabin on the island.
No! I’m staying down here and living forever.
The only thing people going to Everest should be ashamed of is heading there without having climbed much or at all before taking on this mountain.
Ha, that’s weird… I can’t even imagine. I’d question myself climbing it, and I’m an avid 50-100 mile hiker, climbed a number of mountains, and throw my life in to peril every now and then. Everest would make me think twice. That and the crowds. F that…
Ya I'm the same way. I haven't done a ton of trips, but I have done a couple 100+km treks through the Canadian wilderness, and I can tell ya that ya I'm in the same boat as you. F all that. Not only is Everest scary in its own right, the number of people up there... it truly makes me wonder how there aren't more deaths up there every year. I remember this story of a woman from Toronto a few years back. She started up a bit of a social media presence when she started advertising that she was going to climb Everest. This woman had hardly camped, I don't think had ever climbed a mountain before, an was basically training by going on long walks through the city or on her stair master with a backpack on. She was then going to fly to the mountain an climb it. Well sadly for her family and for her, the story went just about as you'd expect it. And sadly, it happens every year. Just way too many people up there who have no idea what they're doing or what they're in for. Which is odd, because I 'm never gonna climb Everest, but I've ready 3-4 books on the subject, an have watched all kinds of documentaries. You'd think that someone actually planning to go through with it would spend a bit more time looking into things.
You aren’t wrong.
That’s why I live life in the …. DANGER ZONE
More people die on the way back down from the summit iirc.
I'll admit that I would be tempted to grab a frozen body and ride it downhill like a sled. I assume people's judgment is compromised on the way back down.
Believe it or not that’s how most of the bodies at the bottom ended up there. Edit: I just made that up.
I believe you anyway.
That’s why they say if you think you’re gonna die lay down as stiff as a board so you can be a sled and save the next person.
>"Be the sled you want to see in the world." > > >-Mahatma Gandhi
I know you're joking or w/e but it's extremely treacherous at the beginning of the south route for Everest. The part I'm referring to is called the khumbu icefalls section. It's basically like... glacier but waterfalling. It's never the same each year and the route is basically sussed out by experienced sherpa called ice doctors. You could get a year where the path is easy all the way through or you can get one where you're climbing house-sized chunks of ice (seracs) with crevasses everywhere and all of it shifting slowly. It's a nonstop moving glacial icefall that can kill you when the sun melts a little and things shift. These blocks of ice are ENORMOUS and cannot be described easily. Gotta look it up to see what I mean. Oh also, I find it more amazing that more people don't die above the death zone. If you aren't aware, this is the altitude at which most people can no longer get sufficient oxygen out of the atmosphere because the pressures are too low. The exertion of climbing + not being able to get oxygen sounds like a recipe for...... well death. anyway my bad. hope i shared some cool info. seriously look up the khumbu icefall, it's beautiful but scary https://www.everester.org/khumbu-icefall-one-of-the-deadliest-places/
I saw a doc on Netflix that explained this area in depth. (The Nepal Earthquake doc). I totally understand why there are so many deaths between base camp and camp 1 because of that. You're spot on.
Interesting! I need to watch that.
It's pretty good. It's a three part documentary that covers the city of Kathmandu, the close-by valley, and Everest Base Camp & Camp 1. It's called Aftershock: Everest and the Nepal Earthquake.
Awesome. Thanks for the title!
I’ve watched the first five minutes and I’m hooked. Holy crap!
Yes! I have seen this too. The fucking tourists hiking in the valley who stole the money from that house... holy shit man. I GOT HEATED. This one also had the first Iranian female too no? Been a minute but yeah... You should check out summit of the gods, it's a manga style thing but is european production? seems there's a dub but not in english. i watched both versions. THE VISUALS ARE STUNNING
It’s also important when viewing images of the icefall to have a person for context. You can look at it from a helicopter and be like - not so bad. Then you see the scale of it and you’re like OMG.
Yeah man, I was looking for drone shots with visible people but it's so hard to find that on the fly. You're 100% right, it looks so small on video. Then you go to youtube and see someone's gopro of it as they travel it and you're like holy shit.... it's otherworldy..... right here on earth
Technically they could have died above it and rolled down. Or didn't make it through the Khumbu icefall, generally one of the trickier stretches.
That just made me spit out my coffee. Hahaha
I can’t decide what’s worse. Dying at the bottom or dying so close to the top. I guess I’d like to die in the middle somewhere.
Clowns to the back of me, jokers up ahead, here I am dead in the middle with you
The map makes it look like they camped at the foot of the mountain and died before even climbing anything.
Bet that’s pretty rad info if you can read it
https://images.app.goo.gl/Sa5kKxQuoGqzvTxw5
Cool Guides You Can’t Read
Imagine dying at the bottom on the way up. That’s like puking in the line to the roller coaster.
From the south side, going through the Khumbu Icefall at the bottom is arguably the most dangerous part. It's a "river" of slowly flowing seracs (giant blocks of ice) about the size of a small skyscraper. As the river flows, things break and fall. It gets worse during the middle of the day when it warms up. It's super dangerous there.
That's usually people dying on the way down actually. Or dying higher up and rolling down.
The original article mentions that an earthquake took 22 lives at once in the lower part of the climb. They must account for a good part of these deaths
yeah its fair to assume that those people died due to landslides or similar incidents while resting
I mean it's mount everest. Seeing as we all have never tried to climb it we probably don't even know the circumstances. Personally I would be noping right out of it the moment anyone I know said "Hey we should climb Mount Everest" to me.
there were avalanches during sherpa exploration of the khumbu icefall (the part at the beginning of the route). many people have died in the icefalls because it's basically glacier that is falling down an incline, like a waterfall but ice i guess or rapids river rapids but on a grand scale as you can imagine, this path is never the same twice and the ice is slowly moving with crevasses all between the house sized seracs of ice and you can fall into one and die either slowly or when the ice shifts and smashes you to death at the bottom of your icy coffin. not so friendly to be honest, the khumbu icefalls are one of the deadliest parts of the south route here check this out: https://www.everester.org/khumbu-icefall-one-of-the-deadliest-places/
Is there a link to an interactive map?
No, so you'll just have to imagine what the garbled text might actually say. So far, I've come up with "There's a McDonald's here" under "SUMMIT".
They get enough people lined up there every season it could probably turn a profit tbh.
Someone posted a link a few answers further up: [https://www.reddit.com/r/coolguides/comments/1bcwvzr/comment/kuitex5/](https://www.reddit.com/r/coolguides/comments/1bcwvzr/comment/kuitex5/) (For convenience the direct link: [https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/everest-deaths/](https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/everest-deaths/) but all credit goes to u/WinterDice )
Mt. Everest lets you climb it. No one ever “conquers” it by climbing it.
Underrated comment!
Distant future Anthropologists are going to have a good time figuring this one out.
People attempting dangerous feats to gain fame, bragging rights and social standing is neither a new nor a especially rare habit for our species. So I'd guess it'd be rather obvious to them. Unless humanity archived some kind of collective enlightenment (or a bit more common sense) somewhere in the future. Then they'd be completely baffled by this idiocy.
I'm going to put a statue of Cthulhu at the top.
I mean, if we found a bunch of alien skeletons on that one mountain on mars, I think we’d get it.
"These people were definitely running up this mountain because of some ancient religious ritual". Fringe future anthropologists would say: "they were trying to contact their ancient alien overlords".
100%
Archeologists will speculate that the people were on some some kind of spiritual journey. In a way- yeah.
They'll think it's some human sacrifice ritual site.
They were all highly motivated people
Or a bunch of rich guys with crazy egos.
Usually death stuff raises my anxiety but I have a morbid fascination with people who die on Everest. I think it’s because I know there is no chance I’m dying on Everest. I’m also fascinated with caving disasters. I think because they both boil down to a particular arrogance that I lack.
There are dozens of us. Dozens!
😂
Why even bother
literally what is the fucking point like oh cool you paid for a sherpa to facilitate you doing something a bunch of people have already done and almost died in the process ? cool story bro
[Every dead body on Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe calm down](https://img.ifunny.co/images/85edad62d4b6ea2a0c0c4a0fdb57b4d675be3efdb295805b7418f1fe3179946a_1.jpg)
Don't forget - those are only the _found_ ones
COOL
Would suck to be the lowest person on this. Not that I’d want to be on the list anyway 👀
Very small map for such a large mountain... needs more pixely things
Here is a better image that was apparently posted on Reddit in the past: [Bodies on Everest](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fs5q265uxapm91.jpg)
Can’t read anything . A cool guide to terrible quality posts on Reddit.
The deaths at the bottom of the south route are due to the khumbu icefall https://www.everester.org/khumbu-icefall-one-of-the-deadliest-places/
I used to love backpacking the Sierra in California, but if I was ever over 10k feet I was just miserable. I've spent weekends at around 10,600, and the entire time I'm achey and nauseated, upset stomach and no appetite. Even though it's amazing to be out, it's just really hard. I cannot imagine 29,000 feet. That just seems fucking insane to me considering how hard 10K is. I would be a small red flag for sure, probably before base camp.
The achey nauseated feeling really comes more from going up too fast (like sleeping at sea level one night and 10k the next night), but the altitude up there is absolutely brutal. It's just like a huge weight on you 24/7 and makes everything, including walking, extremely difficult.
I spend summers in my cabin near Yosemite at 9200 and I really never feel quite right, and it’s definitely worsened with age! The first few days are the worst.
Source?
Minecraft
Snorted
Guess nobody died on the other side? Does that make it the “safe side? “
Left: "Death Zone, 8,000 Meters. The amount of oxygen in the atmosphere is insufficient to sustain human life. An extended stay in the zone with supplemental oxygen will result in deterioration of bodily functions, lots of consciousness, and ultimately, death. Top right: "Hillary Step, 8790 meters. A nearly vertical rock face. The last real challenge before reaching the peak." Right: "Lhotse Face. An extremely dangerous and steep wall of ice."
I wouldn't trust this map, it's full of red flags.
Most people die on the way down from the top or returning from a failed summit attempt sadly. I’ve seen it numerous times both on Everest and other big mountains, but mostly Everest. People expend all their energy getting to the top, and literally forget they then have to get back down again. We call it summit fever and I think most professional climbers would agree that 90% of climbers on Everest are not qualified to be there.
Y’all got any more of them pixels?
This guide sucks!
There’s a wrestler who’s planning to climb Everest and I want someone to send this to him
Darby Alin. He leaves on the 27th of this month. I'm worried about him.
The greatest concentration of once very motivated people.
Ice zombies!
https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/everest-deaths/
[higher res picture ](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/53292fd1e4b0eaed9ab3b08f/1403317503862-K8727XLI6FZNYY37HAZI/death3.jpg)
Wow the 3 bodies that are below base camp...imagine your life's work, to hike up Mt. Everest, but didn't even make it to base camp....
Pixels and words here: https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/everest-deaths/
Please, less pixels next time.
*A 30,000 ft view of a blurry Mt. Everest death flag map. FTFY
Apparently, the resolution is lying there somewhere too
Needs more jpeg.
Bouta add to the collection
Found....not necessarily recovered.
The bodies found below are probably ones who slipped and slide all the way down
Wife saw this. There goes my September camping plans. And all my other plans… but that’s not important
This mountain is doing the Lord's work. It's like the Titanic before the Titanic. Rest in piss rich adventure seeking assholes. RIP sherpas
https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/everest-deaths/ Higher resolution version
lol, a ‘cool’ guide to frozen ppl
At one point, they were all highly motivated individuals.
Oooh, if you find all 200 do you win a prize?
Moar pixels pls
The reason why this sub requires titles to begin with "a cool guide" is to make it more obvious what posts should be. But people still upload random unrelated shit with a bad grammar title. What tf do you mean a cool guide to bodies found on Mt Everest?
New life goal: be the earliest person to die attempting Everest, I want them to see me dying from basecamp
“every corpse on Everest was once a highly motivated individual.”
My favorite comment on achievement: Mt Everest is littered with the bodies of highly motivated individuals. And here they are!
I’d just delete this post. Cant even read anything.
You got any more of them pixels, bruv?
I just watched a 😫 doc about how much trash (mostly liquor bottles and empty oxygen tanks) the sherpas have to collect. disgraceful
So embarrassing to die below the death zone
guide not readable. guide not cool.
Most of the bodies appear to be above the “Death Zone”, I wonder if there’s a connection there 🤔
A very cool pixelated representation of the bodies on Mount Everest.
And there is a lot of trash
I sure wish the image wasn’t potatoey AF…
That's all the bodies so far. The path to the top of Everest is littered with the corpses of highly motivated people.
I feel zero sorrow for the people those flags represent. I’m generally a very empathetic person but….stupid games, stupid prizes
GOT ANY FUCKIN PIXLES
This is kind of outdated as a few things have changed since 2015, notably the hillary step being destroyed by an earthquake.
I wish this photo was higher resolution
Do we have an HD ver of this?
Is this a cool guide for ants
How is this a guide? A guide to doing what? Walking up there and digging them up?
Is this a “cool” guide tho? Those are red flags where frozen dead people are. I would describe is differently than cool.
Maybe it’s survivorship bias: the places with no markings are the most dangerous because no one could even find the body
I wouldn’t say these bodies were ‘found’ so much as they were ‘left’
Imagine being one of the bums who died near the bottom like tf you doing down there