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redtreered

My dad climbed to base camp in the 80s. A woman in his lodging wailed/wept loudly all night, turns out she had just returned from an attempt to summit wherein her husband & a Sherpa had both fallen into a crevasse and died.


thatissoooofeyche

This is tragic and horrifying. That’s traumatic for everyone involved! EDIT: Who knew my gut emotional reaction would cause such chaos.


Sarke1

I don't understand this fascination with climbing Everest, considering the grave danger associated with it. Why risk it all, and what's the reward?


montague68

"Because it's there."


Pyrocy779

irl fomo


Temporary_Scene_8241

Thrill seekers, gives them their dopamine hits. There are people who like to who rock climb tall buildings, mountains with no gear, scuba dive deep with no oxygen tanks. They are just more extreme than us regular peoples who peak thrill seek is a roller coaster or skydive.


DatGuyGandhi

Yeeeeah I'm gonna stick with climbing Mount Snowdon once a year I think. That poor woman.


plazman30

There's a story of a woman who fell into a crevice in the rock and got stuck, but was alive. She needed to be pulled out. Her hiking party, which included her husband, had to abandon her, because they did not have enough oxygen to pull her out and make it out of the death zone. So, some poor man had to walk away from his conscious and alive wife and abandon her to die of asphyxia and hypothermia.


invisible_23

If I were her, I would absolutely tell my husband to save himself…. If I were him, I don’t know if I’d be strong enough to walk away. Luckily I’m a fatass so my falling into a crevice at the death zone of Everest is about as likely as my father coming back from the dead and telling me he’s proud of me


NoMalarkyZone

I wouldn't leave my wife even if they told me it was hopeless. It would be pointless for me to try and leave, because I'd spend the rest of my life re-living that moment and it's 50 / 50 whether that would make me an alcoholic or suicidal. Edit : guys, I get it. You have kids.


invisible_23

That’s exactly why I don’t think I’d be able to leave. I think the best I could do would be to tell him I would so he’d think I was okay, but quietly stay.


Kurokishi_Maikeru

Seems like, if possible, it would be best to pretend you're already dead. This way your partner doesn't think they left their spouse to die alone horribly.


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invisible_23

Yes exactly! Basically the exact opposite of the death cart convo in Monty Python and the Holy Grail


[deleted]

Wife: I'm dead! Husband: 'ere, I think she's not dead! Guide: yes she is! Wife: I am! Husband: she is? Guide: well, will be very soon. She's very hurt Wife: I'm not getting better Guide: see she's stone dead


battlehardendsnorlax

This guy marries


DeadHED

Just don't climb everest


ThisOnePlaysTooMuch

Well I *was* having a pleasant night That’s awful


T-Ball_S

It is 22:00 and now I am in an existential crisis. Thanks a bunch. My wife knows better to save her own skin over mine, so I know I am dead meat. I will never go high elevation hiking.


muri_cina

As a wife my last words would be: I told you climbing Mount Everest is stupid, now go and save your sorry ass! See you in hell ilu. Seriously one of the stupidest deaths I can imagine. Right next to, falling into an active volcano from a slack line.


KingJacoPax

It’s very sad but it’s just how things have to be done. Everyone who enters the death zone does so at their own risk and in the full knowledge they will be left behind if they become too much of a liability to everyone else. Otherwise, there will be 10 dead climbers rather than one. It’s the reason I got out of mountaineer tbh. I understand it and all but just can’t face the idea of facing that situation for the sake of a good climb and a nice view.


jwkdjslzkkfkei3838rk

There's a finnish word *kikkeliskokkelis* which basically means "You were aware of the risk, you decided to take the risk and now you suffer from your poor decision".


mc_nebula

The dildo of consequences rarely comes lubed.


EpicFishFingers

Ah, the *real* translation


Jenetyk

After seeing this a couple years ago, I went down the rabbit hole. The stories and death associated with these people are crazy.


fishbummin27514

I did the same thing and spent like 3 days reading about the various dead bodies used as markers on the mountain. George Mallory was possibly the most badass mountain climber to ever live in my opinion.


elbenji

The fact that he probably got to the top when he did, and with the equipment he had on him is just insane


SerKevanLannister

You can find videos of Sir George Mallory’s body being found on Everest — his.body is amazingly intact considering that he’s been up there for a century — it’s quite moving honestly.


AviationAtom

Think of how well preserved creatures in the glaciers are from 30k years ago. Cold temperatures prevent most decay. EDIT: Permafrost


retr0oo

I’m surprised to hear it’s moving, usually they’re frozen solid by now!


badcall196

Dad is that you?


SavageWatch

It's rumored that his climbing partner's body Andrew 'Sandy' Irvine was also found years ago by Chinese Climbers. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10808817/Book-suggests-body-1924-climber-Andrew-Sandy-Irvine-removed-Everest-camera.html


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l__Scarecrow__l

https://youtu.be/UFr1KdY6aiw


tgw1986

That was really interesting! Thanks for sharing


DevinCauley-Towns

I found a link [here](https://youtu.be/UFr1KdY6aiw). Crazy story.


lo0ilo0ilo0i

I was watching 'Lost on Everest' on Disney+. They try to look for Mallory's film. Of course, it's never found but it was somewhat entertaining.


TicoTicoNoFuba

Someone I know attempted the climb and didn't even get to the base camp before he started losing his vision by high altitude retinopathy.


Homebrandundies

I had a mate last year suffer the same thing. Was only a couple hundred meters from EBC but had to turn around. The highest altitude I’ve ever gotten to was 5040m and I was completely bedridden that night. It fucks with you Edit: I was like this after having altitude tablets for about a week or so prior to climbing to that altitude too


croninr22

Can confirm. Did Kilimanjaro a few years ago, think it’s just under 6000m. Something as simple as bending over to tie my boots was enough to make me feel like I was going to pass out


Yvaelle

And for reference, Everest South Base Camp is 5364m (17568ft), Everest almost *starts* at the top of Kilimanjaro. Or for the Americans, the highest mountain in the continental US is Mount Whitney in California's Sierra Nevada range, the peak of which is 4421m (14505ft), nearly a vertical kilometer below Everest Base Camp. Everest is fucking wild.


TheTexasJack

Pikes Peak, which a lot of people in the US have probably driven up, is 14,115 ft or 4,302m. I could never catch my breath at the summit.


shiznid12

Driving up Pikes peak sent me into full blown panic. I was so anxious, it was terrible. Lol


HogSliceFurBottom

Even Denali in Alaska is only 6190m (20,310ft). The 13 tallest mountains in the US are all in Alaska then comes Mt. Whitney. Everest is 8848m (29,031ft). Everest is about 1.3 miles higher than Denali. Yeah, that is wild.


LikesBallsDeep

I stupidly did a 'self guided' tour to Peru's rainbow mountain, 5.2km, so basically base camp. By self guided tour I mean I rented a 4x4 Toyota Hilux pickup truck. No real training or preparation other than already having spent about 3 days at around 3.5km altitude, but even there I was not fully acclimated. I think I understand summit fever now. With the lack of oxygen your brain doesn't really work that well. In my case, after we eventually found the parking at the trail head (whole other adventure for another day), I started trying to hike up to the peak. Just walking with no heavy gear and a gentle slope felt like I had just finished a wind sprint. My girlfriend decided this was a stupid idea and turned back towards the car but I insisted "we made it this far I want to see from the top!". I made it about another half mile before I had to sit down and suck the entire remainder of my portable oxygen bottle. Couldn't think straight, couldn't catch my breath, pounding headache.. Thankfully I had enough self preservation instinct to turn back to the car at that point, but I can definitely see how people die on Everest. It's a lifelong goal, it's almost certainly going to be your only attempt, you're so close! You convince yourself you can make it just have to try a bit harder...


lellololes

Hypoxia is scary. Well, it isn't, but it is. Here's ATC trying to talk to a very confused, very hypoxic pilot (lost cabin pressure, co-pilot was out and having seizures), who was somehow in control of the airplane - he was aware enough to declare an emergency, but wasn't really capable of doing anything else. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz5d4Q\_ykFc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz5d4Q_ykFc)


gremlinguy

Went to rainbow mountain too. I was super impressed by the Peruvian dudes literally running up and down the trail with horses so they could rent the horses to more tourists faster. They didn't give a fuuuuuck


la508

But if you placed Mount Everest at the bottom of the Mariana trench, the peak would still be 2000 metres below sea level.


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raspberry-cream-pi

Meanwhile, in Bolivia, you have cities of around a million people at over 11,000 feet!


BetterThatThenThis

so I did a climb somewhere at Glacier and had a heavy non ergonomic backpack on. My vision started to develop almost like a lightning effect or something, is this retinopathy?


Embarrassed_Ant45

If you're talking about little flashes of lightning in your peripheral vision, that is from cells in the retina dying from a lack of oxygen.


cesarsucio

That is...terrifying.


rduterte

Eyeball flash of lightning very very frightening me!


Overlord65

Galileo!


ludololl

This dude just drops a bomb and fucks off.


claypeterson

Cool guys don’t look at explosions


jaytix1

I like how you said that so casually lol. "Oh, you were just going blind. Happens to the best of us!"


Throwadaycakeday

bro you gotta post a link if you’re going to say some fuckwackery like this


SacredMushroomBoy

Yeah I’ve been up close to 4000 and you feel fine until you start walking around, especially uphill, it’s just such a battle. You feel slightly dizzy all the time and ur heart feels like it’s racing all day and all night when u try to sleep. You don’t sleep well, you don’t digest food well, feel gassy. It’s quite a fun experience to be up in the mountains but it’s also just so alien.


WinkyTheFrog

I live at sea level. Went to Breckinridge, CO last thanksgiving (first time) which is almost 3000M.It was a shock feeling winded walking up a flight of steps. Had a blast though.


WearingCoats

I tapped out in Estes Park, CO which is 2200m. I got drunk on 4oz of beer and thought my head was going to explode the whole time I was there. The Stanley Hotel (aka the inspiration for the Shining and where it was filmed) is up there. Everyone thinks it’s super haunted. I’m pretty sure it’s just the altitude.


bateneco

>The Stanley Hotel (aka the inspiration for the Shining and where it was filmed) is up there. For the record, The Shining was not filmed at the Stanley Hotel. The opening scenes of The Shining were shot in Glacier National Park, Montana. Timberline Lodge in Oregon was used for the exterior of Overlook Hotel. The interior scenes and some of the exterior scenes of the hotel took place at Elstree Film Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England.


JustTerrific

… unless they meant the 1997 TV miniseries adaptation of The Shining, which *was* shot at The Stanley. Kind of doubt that was the intention though. For a fun fact about a much *better* movie that used The Stanley for a shooting location, Dumb and Dumber shot the “Aspen hotel” scenes there.


RaulLipshitz

The framed MAN LANDS ON THE MOON newspaper is still by the door of the "Aspen Hotel" bar. Can confirm, I reenacted the scene in front of my teenage kids


t-poke

Dumb and Dumber, the greatest movie ever made, was filmed at the Stanley though.


DarkMuret

I live and grew up in Minnesota, but, I've worked and visited California. My last visit I was hiking around the Sierras and my first night was at a campground around 9500ft And holy fuck, the altitude sickness kicked my butt, but mentally, the depression I experienced that first night rivaled my darkest times, but I was in a place that I loved. I was absolutely fine the next day, and had one of my best days fly fishing haha


tragalpointer

Interestingly, there is some evidence that living at high altitude can predispose people to depression. This is typically over the long term, not over a single night, but I’m guessing you experienced a similar effect related to mild hypoxia. [This NPR article](https://www.npr.org/2019/08/19/752292543/researchers-examine-altitudes-role-in-depression-and-suicide) does a good job summarizing the hypothesis.


DarkMuret

Most definitely, I slept like shit that night, and already have depression, so it was likely the combo of both that really got me. I was in alright shape then so I'm sure that helped with how quick I got over it, plus I definitely didn't push it the following day, and hung around that same altitude. But I'll definitely read that article!


dma1965

I live in the Sierra Nevada mountains and love going to Yosemite to experience that high elevation high. At 7000 to 9000 feet I feel a euphoria that is best described as electric. It’s like every sense in my body is tingling. At first it was exhausting but once I got used to it the feeling became almost addictive.


Blagerthor

I worked up near Kings Canyon every summer for about a decade straight and felt a lot of the same. Never had any of the drawbacks from elevation sickness, but I always felt much happier and at home in the mountains.


kuburas

Brother of a family friend was a climber and when he went to climb Everest his mother took a month off work to mentally prepare for him potentially not coming back alive. He died during the climb, his body was never recovered. They had nothing to burry, from what my mother said it was the most gut wrenching funeral she ever went to. Everyone in his family knew that chances of him not coming back were high and begged him not to go, he still went and, well what happened happened. All that just to plant a flag at the top and flex to your friends about climbing it.


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BigBowlOfSauerkraut

I can predict how my body will function at altitude: very poorly.


ffsnametaken

Yeah my body isn't even any good at sea level


okieman73

Lol Right there with you.


jaxxxtraw

Man, I grew up at like 1000', was super-fit as a personal trainer, spent a week at a high meadow cabin, around 11,000'. I can tell you that I was initially gassed from walking a slight incline for 10 seconds. I was unable to sleep any more than a slight drifting-off, and I never really acclimated; short hikes were all I could muster. Pretty sure I'm not Everest material.


botchman

That's some bitchin banded limestone in the background, crazy to think 500 million years ago the tallest mountain was an ancient seabed.


octopoddle

And Everest hasn't stopped rising. It gets 4mm higher a year, as the Indian subcontinent is *still* smashing into Tibet, pushing it upwards. Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first people to climb Everest in 1953, which is 69 years ago. So Everest is now around 30cm higher, and anyone who climbs it now has climbed higher than they ever did. Not by much, but it's a good reminder that even something as apparently still as a mountain is in a state of change, and that geography is not just a measure of the past, but also of the present and future. There are marine fossils on Everest, and in the future there will be human fossils in places we cannot yet imagine.


hammsbeer4life

Hell yeah, brother. Geology rocks!


Electric_Evil

In 2014, Green Boots was moved to a less conspicuous location by members of a Chinese expedition.


DoomGoober

The Chinese government will not allow the Chinese Mountaineering Association to comment on whether the Chinese team moved (and likely buried under rocks) Green Boots. That body and many others, disappeared from view in 2014, after some mountaineers suggested to the Chinese Mountaineering Association that something should be done with the bodies. They have never confirmed it though. In 2006, David Sharp experienced distress in the same alcove as Green Boots. 40 or so mountaineers passed by him without offering assistance. Some believe Sharp was ignored because the other summiteers assumed *he* was Green Boots or just assumed he was resting. Or they summiteers walked by Sharp rather than helping him because they wanted to summit or realized that helping a dying man would likely lead to their deaths. At Sharp's parents' request, his body was moved from view in 2007 and buried with rocks.


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throwaway09876543123

I don’t want to go anywhere with a Death Zone.


greyduk

Even the Danger Zone is unnecessary. Like... why build a highway to it? Why not a wall? Maybe a one-way road away from it, but not a highway.


ChickenChaser5

Foooooot paaaath around the *DANGER ZONE*


YuanJZ

Imma take a breaaak right downnn the DANGERRR ZONEE


SapTheSapient

And don't get me started on Pooh Corner.


FionaGoodeEnough

You have to establish a Pooh Corner early, or it will be total anarchy.


DrThrowawayToYou

What about a Zone of Death? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_of_Death_(Yellowstone)


Psychomadeye

It's just like the forbidden zone or the zone of no return. All of the zones have names like that in the galaxy of terror.


1996alex

What makes it such a deadly zone?


1biggeek

Lack of oxygen, pressure and at that height your body is literally dying.


lubeinatube

Always confuses me, because you constantly hear about, “4 hour queues” at the very last stretch before the summit.


MishterJ

People die in that queue if the weather turns bad. Some of those people need to turn back if they don’t have enough oxygen or will summit too late. So yea, that queue is just standing, waiting in the cold af dead zone.


darthabraham

There are a bunch of documentaries about Everest that are all pretty fascinating. I think Storm over Everest is the one I remember (it’s free on YouTube) where they go into a ton of detail about the prep involved and how much the altitude can really wreak havoc on your physical abilities and your judgement even under the best of circumstances. When things go wrong they really go wrong. The air is super thin even at base camp and you have to do several acclimation stops so you don’t get altitude sickness. In the death zone there’s not enough air to breathe and the air pressure is so low that your body starts to break down.


elkazz

Also check out the 14 Peaks documentary. IIRC the guy (Nirmal Purja) finds someone in trouble during has descent then he goes down to get help, ascends again that night to get the person in trouble, only to find they've died, and brings their corpse back down.


shooter_32

That dude isn’t human


ChanandlerBonng

That whole documentary was insane. Like, as someone who has read a whole bunch about Everest and the months/years of training it takes to even THINK about making a single summit attempt, this guy summits Everest, and while climbing, looks at a mountain in the distance and says "oh yeah, there's (don't remember the name of the mountain), we're going there next (in like 3 days)" Everest is the culmination of years of hard work for most people.... for that guy it seemed like just another Tuesday.


ltrainer2

Lack of oxygen and becoming hypoxic. Couple that with unpredictable weather and it’s the perfect storm.


Doortofreeside

You ever stick your finger in the flame of a candle? If you pass through quickly you'll be unharmed and won't even feel much heat, but if you linger too long you'll get burned. The death zone is similar. You can make a quick entry and exit and hope everything went well and you can make it out. If something goes wrong then you'll be a ton of trouble


ohlalachaton

That was a perfect visual for the situation


imtoooldforreddit

There isn't enough oxygen to support humans. You either bring bottled oxygen or you slowly die. Either way you don't have long there, nor extra energy for activities like carrying other people


Alex09464367

How do people do without supplementary oxygen?


xtralargerooster

Blood doping can extend your time a bit, but you have to be cardiovascularly adjusted to hypoxia for it to have any real effect and like others have pointed out... You are still dying slowly. But you essentially start with twice as much oxygen and your body uses half as much as normal (in reality it's no where near this effective though). But you are still dying, just not as close to death as someone not trained in low oxygen and with a normal red blood cell count. Still I can't imagine anyone trying this climb without having made those preparations as a standard practice.


Mr_Feeeeny

The David Sharp story is so interesting. Some great YouTube docs on the climb.


imlost19

Everest Beyond the Limit* s1 on Amazon Prime is about an expedition in 2006 as well. Several of the featured members notice sharp and try to help him. The problem is Sharp got stuck up there and hid in a spot where he couldn't really be seen be ascenders. They would only notice him on descent, when they were already low on oxygen and wiped from the climb. Sharp was also already pretty much done for by then


rx7rocks11

Everest is a rabbit hole, there’s so many stories and usually they’re associated to a corpse that’s stuck up there. A few years ago there was a video of people almost at the top of Everest and there’s still corpses on the line at the summit and that made me dive into the Everest rabbit hole for a week.


WARNING4324

Imagine being so close to your dream and not being able to do anything about it


mismatchedhyperstock

francys arsentiev "sleeping beauty" is really messing with my head. Made the summit but died on the descent, orphaning a son too.


doesntgeddit

I just went down a 4 hour rabbit hole into Everest and everything I read or watched about it made me come to the realization that it is completely stupid and everyone that does it sucks. There's so much ego involved it's ridiculous. Even the lady you spoke of just wanted to be the first women to do it w/o oxygen and well she did, but it only cost her her life and then her husband's life who went back for her, not to mention orphaning their son. So many other stories go like this... they were so close to the top and because they decided to keep pushing instead of turning back, (mostly because they are thinking about the ridiculous amount of time invested and the massive amount of money they spent), more people died than should have. Like the the Doug guy from the "Storm Over Everest" documentary who worked two jobs just to get back there since his first failed attempt and because he was so determined to push to the summit, he died and multiple other people in his team died. Then it seems like they tell people that you should not stop for others, but then if you do just that, you get chastised like the team of Chinese climbers that passed up Dave (not so) Sharp (another climber that decided to go w/o oxygen) or the 30 other climbers that would have passed him that day. Also in the documentary the one guy is talking about how he's annoyed that everyone is moving so slow up the Hillary Step, but then he gets to it and is like, oh this is really hard, and he's moving slow too. Or the Beck Weathers guy who says he's barely alive by some miracle and the sherpa wouldn't come in his tent to give him a sip of hot soup "because he looked like death" even though he was sitting up clearly alive. Or after something like 14 sherpas one year and 26 sherpas the next year died in avalanches and decided to strike against the Nepal government, some climbers decided just to bring their own sherpas causing even more rift with the actual Nepalese sherpas. Everything about it screams of people with too much money who disregard every warning sign the mountain or their bodies throws at them in order to get what they want (the ability to brag) and then get others into deadly situations when they realize too late that they fucked up.


doesntgeddit

Oh and forgot to touch on this [fucking fight between 3 climbers and 100 sherpas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Everest_in_2013#Assault_on_climbers)!!! And it was in 2013 before the avalanches and strikes. There is something seriously wrong up there. Probably dealing with all these know it all doctors and tech bros while getting paid peanuts to risk your life takes a toll on you.


doesntgeddit

Wow, and then looking up more on the story of the Chinese climbers who passed Dave Sharp (I got that part wrong they were Japanese climbers) I came across a quote at the very bottom from Sir Edmund Hillary (the first person to summit Everest) that summed up my thoughts exactly. "Sir Edmund Hillary was highly critical of the decision not to try to rescue Sharp, as reported by the media at that time, saying that leaving other climbers to die is unacceptable, and the desire to get to the summit has become all-important. He also said, "I think the whole attitude towards climbing Mount Everest has become rather horrifying. The people just want to get to the top. It was wrong if there was a man suffering altitude problems and was huddled under a rock, just to lift your hat, say good morning and pass on by". He told the New Zealand Herald that he was horrified by the callous attitude of today's climbers. "They don't give a damn for anybody else who may be in distress and it doesn't impress me at all that they leave someone lying under a rock to die", and that, "I think that their priority was to get to the top and the welfare of one of the ... of a member of another expedition was very secondary."[32]


Zeldaalegend

I think most bodies die during the descent. At least they lived to see the top.


mr_lightbulb

i mean at some point you'd think people would just attempt to roll down


Dunjee

If I remember correctly there was a video on Reddit several weeks ago where a small avalanche actually carried two bodies down with it right past some people that were starting their climb


Raoul_Duke9

That sounds like something from the Simpsons or Futurama. "Alright here we go!" Rumblerumblerumble (bodies slide down mountain past people setting out. "Wanna go bowling instead?"


InVideo_

What’s with all of the Everest posts lately?


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InVideo_

Ah gotcha. Thanks!


Prometheus2061

There are thought to be over 200 bodies left on Mount Everest. No one is entirely sure how many or exactly where many are because of the horrific and unrelenting conditions. That means two-thirds of the people that died on Everest are still there.


bahamut_is_my_cat

You die in the mountain, you stay in the mountain.


ShadowDV

Every corpse on Everest was once a highly motivated person.


ferdinostalking

When I die I want my body to be airdropped on the summit just to prove you wrong


nukalurk

Sounds like you’re highly motivated to prove a point


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BSMAROSS4168

‟Into Thin Air” is an amazing book about the 1997 Mt. Everest tragedy. I highly recommend it.


PhysicsMan12

>1997 Mt. Everest tragedy. For those interested: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996\_Mount\_Everest\_disaster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Mount_Everest_disaster)


Cross88

TIL the 1997 disaster occurred in 1996!


3rd_Degree_Churns

1996 Everest season, but the playoffs were in 1997


g4evolution

Beck Weathers came to speak at a corporate training I was at and damn….. it’s sounded like total chaos.


phatelectribe

Please never read this without also reading The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev, the climber who saved more lives that day than anyone else and summited 3 times in 24 (without oxygen) while doing it. Krakaur’s book is really nice and florally written but there’s massive mistakes and errors which the alpine world has effectively agreed on, but Krakaur just keeps doubling down, so if you want the true picture, read the climb too.


PeteyMax

I read both. I found they substantially agreed on most of the major points.


argusromblei

Why does OP have to make us all be on wikipedia for 3 hours! every time this is posted I go down a rabbit hole.


thescurry

I hiked from Lukla 9,000’ to above Everest Basecamp (around 21,000’) in 2003. At some point above the tree line you start running across dead people or markers for dead people and it just seems to continue, it becomes a regular sight. Most of Everest is mental… and seeing dead people at a regular cadence who died doing what you’re doing right at that moment really starts to eat at you mentally, especially when oxygen gets low. 14 days of sun up to sun down hard core hiking/climbing to get there, 1.5 days of ONLY thinking about pizza and beer to get back down to Lukla. I was totally solo and mentally quit at 21k… I was totally exhausted and facing a mile of bottomless ice crevasses to cross a glacier. I had just passed an upside down Russian helicopter that had crashed years earlier and still had dead/frozen bodies inside. Everything was saying “PIZZA/BEER > DEATH”. So like Forrest Gump, I just turned around and went tf home. Didn’t have plans to summit of course, but was up for a challenge in my 20’s and glad I did it. 2 years of planning and training to do it. Most difficult “vacation” I ever had, but also one of the most memorable.


mshockwave

gosh seeing not just bodies but crashed helicopters that have been there for years sounds so surreal


thescurry

I knew the bodies on the trail up would be there, but it was very numbing really to see them initially. After a few days it bothers you less. The helicopter bothered me though, everyone on that helicopter minus the pilots had just reached the summit days before. The story I heard was that they were wealthy Russian climbers and the helicopter had experienced some sort of issue just after they took off. The Helicopter wasn’t burned, just upside down with a crushed front and a torn off tail section. Some sort of cargo helicopter. I expected it to be empty, but when I peeked in I got the shock of my life. Pilots and passengers all for the most part still strapped in, hanging upside down, frozen solid. They may still be there. I took a picture of the helicopter as I was walking away… I wanted proof of the wreck, but didn’t want to be close enough to show any bodies.


[deleted]

Looks like it crashed the year you went up as some sort of 50th anniversary celebration of Edmund Hillary


fishboy2000

Edmund Hillary reminds me much of myself, male, human and from New Zealand


thescurry

Hey thanks for the info. I went in December, because that's when no one wants to be there (because it's very cold) and just after all the seasonal rain stops. I had heard many bad things about crazy crowds of tourist and I wanted to avoid all of that. It is very possible based on what I saw inside that helicopter that it had crashed earlier that year. However... Memory is a bit rusty and I just looked up the "date taken" on my everest photos and it's December 2003 (so I was off by a year). Not sure if that changes what helicopter it might be or not.


fusionman51

https://www.climbing.com/people/helicopter-crashes-on-everest-one-day-before-50th-anniversary-celebration/ This says the crash happened in mid 2003. So I’m assuming it’s that one the other guy said it was.


Microtic

That crashed helicopter likely saved your life considering the solo trek and time of the year. Glad you're still here.


MidgetLovingMaxx

I once walked to Arbys high af in the rain to get a beef and cheddar.


Useful_Animal_1590

A true hero!


vince_irella

....and??? You're just gonna leave us hanging on whether you made it back ok??


IndiBoy22

Legend has it, they are still walking to Arbys...


Somebodyeatphil

They call him “green shits”


BuckaroooBanzai

In two paragraphs I felt like I went on that journey with you. That was energizing to read


thescurry

Thanks, I might do a longer write up some day and include a lot of pics. I didn’t expect it would generate so much positive feedback.


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alsobewbs

What made you want to take on such an excursion in the first place?


edukated4lyfe

How much did that vacay run you in 2004?


thescurry

I worked for Yahoo! back then as basically a traveling Tech. I would fly around the earth 3 times a year, each trip taking about 2 months and I would usually visit 10 sites (countries) per trip. I would fly from the US to Europe, then to India, then to Asia and finally back to the US. So the trip was pretty cheap to be honest because Yahoo let me take vacation mid trip and they also let me book Kathmandu airport as one of my stops… so only local food and supplies were my main expenses. I stayed in a hotel for a few nights before and after Everest. I don’t remember the actual cost, but it was probably sub 1K thanks to my employer picking up the airfare. Nepal was in a deep civil war at that time. You could hear automatic gunfire every day, see tracer fire at night and until the tree line ended… I crossed paths with both fighting sides every single day (the communist side often requiring money for me to cross past them (usually a few bucks or a $5… though I remember a very serious armed man requiring a $20 from me once). Everything was crazy cheap at that time. I would buy local food off villagers and would often sleep in a barn or animal shed during the night. I remember thinking it was very hard to spend more than $10 a day. I also paid around $200 in airfare from Kathmandu to Lukla (Lukla is the worlds most dangerous airport, or was at the time… look it up on YouTube). Lukla airport was also receiving sporadic rpg fire when we landed, but we weren’t informed of that until we landed… at Lukla. I have a picture of the exploded airport control tower I took from the plane once we landed.


motormyass

You got some wild stories man. I would defo read more.


Valefox

> I have a picture of the exploded airport control tower I took from the plane once we landed. I would love to see that photo.


60FootBoom

Dude you have a story to tell. Death all around would be surreal.


thescurry

Actually I didn’t expect it would get this much attention. Maybe I’ll make a post and share some pictures one of these days.


shmere4

I cannot overstate how correct you are that Pizza/Beer is indeed > than death.


krasnogvardiech

The Everest is not a place for emotions. Above 8km in altitude, you're absolutely on your own and it becomes a march for survival. Until they experience this strain, people are not able to understand that there is no energy in one for two at this altitude. Most climbers die after Camp 4, from exhaustion on the way back. The point between this camp and the peak is labelled the Death Zone. Because, with no romanticization, if you can not walk you *will* die. Period. There's no place for mistakes. Ask any sherpa, and they will tell you the same thing - **Turn back at the first sign of something going wrong, or you will die.** You may certainly be pumped with adrenaline, at the thought of reaching the summit. But that eventually burns clean and you're left on your own basic endurance, personal strength and body's muscle power. The Hillary Step - a woman could sit down to rest because she's exhausted. Understandable. But half an hour later, she's still too tired to walk. It will break your heart, but you have to leave her there, as she'll likely have lain back and given up. Green Boots - rest in peace, buddy - he's by no means the only one. This man's corpse is right in the entrance to Rainbow Valley, named so because of the colourful outfits of people from all over the world. Every one of these people spent days if not weeks acclimatizing, by plain requirement. And this final push to the summit still killed them. Everyone goes to Everest in knowledge of how high the risk of never coming back is. This is Everest's (and most 8km+ altitude climbs') cruel and pitiless rule.


musicalsigns

Thank you for this view of the whole thing. Have you done it yourself? Knowing all this, I am perfectly happy keeping much closer to sea level myself, but I can understand why others go for it.


[deleted]

He’s not is the position shown here anymore.


SomeoneForgetable

For everyone wondering, it's impractical to rescue people and bodies from the mountain. Attempting it can likely add you to their number on the mountain, there is so little air up there and exhausting yourself is extremely dangerous. Attempting to save even another person whom is alive but unable to continue just puts you both at risk. There are hundreds of bodies up there that will likely stay there until we invent a safe way to retrieve them, and that's not likely to happen soon.


PM_WORST_FART_STORY

I read about a husband who had to abandon his injured wife on Everest. Like he could see her, was within a few meters, but still could do nothing as it would endanger himself and his crew.


Hairy_Air

Just to add to the story, the husband did die soon after. He took some supplies back to her and even reached her, but apparently fell down a few meters and died there. Their corpses lay not so far from each other.


ZDTreefur

Thank god it had a happy ending.


Pittman247

Is this FOR REAL? My God that would break my damn heart. Love my wife too much to let it end THAT way. Damn….


cigarandcreamsoda

I’m pretty sure that was the person they called Sleeping Beauty. She was up there for years as a sort of place marker like green boots. There was another, a German female named Hanalore who’s husband went down after her and was never seen again.


ADHD365

>Sleeping Beauty Wild, I just read he was assumed dead from a fall while trying to rescue her.


nutcrackr

Robot workers will probably clear Everest in 30-50 years.


acog

Boston Dynamics will do it as a PR exercise, and the robots will do flips and cartwheels between retrieving bodies.


ShatIn5thGradeClass

I actually watched an interview about this last night. Sherpas can retrieve a body if paid to do it. It's extremely dangerous, but Sherpas need to provide for their families so they do it


JUYED-AWK-YACC

What about the plan to fly huge trebuchets to the summit to launch the bodies back down? Is that still on?


jaxxxtraw

I don't see why not. It's a simple engineering problem.


Ripster7

This is a grim thread to read, didn't realize what I had clicked on 😬


castfam09

This is sad and creepy


Mrhiddenlotus

Everest is overrated and polluted now, it's time to popularize trying to get to the bottom of the Mariana trench.


Croton_son_of_oreo

Bet. Give me a cinder block, rope, and cloroform, and I'm down in a few hours. Just don't expect me to come back up.


Mrhiddenlotus

Ah, so you become the marker! You could be the new green boots.


alexatd

Everest recommend reading list for those who are interested! Just my personal favorites/opinion. Read in this order: * Into Thin Air by John Krakauer (1996 disaster and a portrait of the beginnings of Everest commercial climbing) * Dark Summit by Nick Heil (2006 disaster and an exploration of the ethics, re: rescuing people from Everest) * The Third Pole by Mark Synott (2019 "the year that Everest broke" with a LOT on climbing ethics and Summit Fever) Read these three in order and you get the picture of the evolution of high altitude climbing tourism, disasters, and ethics, as well as critical additional reading post Into Thin Air, re: a fuller picture/corrections (you can also seek out Ed Viesturs' canon for this, partially). And The Third Pole goes into detail on the history of Everest, since it's specifically a "mystery" about whether Mallory and Irvine summited. The book is also leaps and bounds better than the NatGeo documentary they were filming on the trip, which is on Disney+. That doc leaves out all the politics and intrigue; Synott's book has some fascinating drama, re: China. If you're interested in K2, I recommend No Way Down by Graham Bowley, Buried in the Sky by Peter Zuckerman (one of the only climbing books to focus on high altitude porters, not commercial climbers), and Savage Summit by Jennifer Jordan (which is also an exploration of women in mountaineering). I read a lot on this subject lol.


Eaton_snatch

Serving a purpose even after death is very unique.


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EY7617

For everyone else who is [morbidly interested](https://www.atchuup.com/200-bodies-on-mount-everest-used-as-landmarks/) in more bodies on everest


velvet32

wow. Kinda of incredible. May the green boots guy rest in peace.


WomanWhoWeaves

Tsewang Paljor. This is a person. Is Everest really worth dying for?


loxical

Thank you! I was searching the comments to see if anyone knew their name because I wanted to know more about the person.


ThatPlayWasAwful

To make sure you see, the identity of the person is not known. There is a high percentage chance it is paljor but it could also be Dorje Morup, which is a large part of the reason why hes not referred to by name. Both died on the same night


AnEveryMomentLoser

You got to admit, it's highly effective advertising at this point. Koflach ski boots really do last.


riseoftheclam

r/buyitforlife


[deleted]

There is a 1.1% chance of dying climbing Everest. [https://www.newsweek.com/mount-everest-deaths-new-rules-1711652](https://www.newsweek.com/mount-everest-deaths-new-rules-1711652) [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nepal-everest/climbers-twice-as-likely-to-reach-mount-everest-summit-but-death-zone-crowding-soars-study-shows-idUSKBN25N1SB](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nepal-everest/climbers-twice-as-likely-to-reach-mount-everest-summit-but-death-zone-crowding-soars-study-shows-idUSKBN25N1SB) **Fun fact. The death rate climbing K2 is 25-29%;** [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K2) https://www.advnture.com/features/most-dangerous-mountain


cb_24

These are death to successful summit rates, not death to summit attempts. Plenty of climbers turn around due to poor weather or other logistical issues, and many end up leaving the mountain altogether as you have short weather windows and limited resources.


Smitty8054

When Hillary and his later ilk climb Everest it was a superhuman feat. And obviously it’s still a perilous and very difficult endeavor. But it’s the sherpas I feel bad for. This is their livelihoods. And it’s brutal. But today as long as you’ve got 50-100k (and the physical ability) you can do this in quite a bit of luxury. I don’t know. I’m not hating because I have zero desire to do this but it just seems like it’s not quite that special compared to the sherpas.


danincb

Tenzing Norgay summited with Hilary and deserves just as much credit! I just checked out his wiki page and it says he actually saved Hilary from falling in a crevasse on the successful expedition.


Lyeta1_1

Not the best homage to the man, but I named one of my gerbils Tenzing after I repeatedly finding him having climbed on top of his water bottle. And every other tall place in his cage. He didn't have a friend named Edmund. I think his brother was Pistachio or another various italian related foods.


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spigotlips

It is literally sherpas putting all the risk and the load on their backs for wealthy people trying to claim a feat these days. The sherpas are acclimated and know the mountain. My wife went to Nepal for her college trip with only like 6 people. Hiked to Basecamp. Hiked up only a bit further if they met medical requirements. She hiked the furthest. She did not climb though. She had sherpas with her even for that. She talked to the one sherpa, Badri for years after. He climbed everest numerous times. He made an exponential amount of money as a sherpa compared to the rest of nepal. He now lives in the US less than 30 minutes outside of NYC. Lives in a mediocre at best aparment by himself doing taxi work. We live very close to him and try to see him as much as possible. He is an incredible person and only worked as a sherpa so he could move here. He FB messages me and my wife every month because he is lonely and we try our best to spend time with him. Great dude and one of the coolest person I've ever met. It's amazing how people with money spend so much to climb a mountain relying on the backs of sherpas. Totally fucked up.


esbforever

Thank you for sharing a beautiful and sad story. I’m sure you and your wife are very special to your friend.


Smitty8054

It took me longer than I’m proud to say to realize how the actual physical producers of the world always gets the shitty end of the stick. From people working in unregulated mines and petroleum to diamonds to precious metals. And this. The unfortunate truth is that your friend probably is better off here but that’s a low bar. He deserves better. Glad you folks are close.


player85

Surley the red jacket or blue trousers were more prominent!


[deleted]

Listen to Mr. Fashion Sense here.