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This morning I had a meeting suddenly get cancelled and I had an hour to waste and I read that several people had died on Mount Everest recently and decided to google it and after following several links I found out that over 275 people have died attempting to climb Mount Everest with about 4000 making it to the top. Before 1996, 1 in 4 people died that attempted it. That isn't people that gave up or turned around, 25% of the people that tried died. That is crazy. Apparently with all the tech advances in climbing it's now down to around 4.4%. Also, apparently many of the people that died they just leave their corpse on the side of the mountain. There was one dude who they weren't even sure who he was, they just called him "green boots" because he wore green boots. Each year, hundreds of people just walked by his frozen dead corpse and took pictures or whatever. The first US woman who reached the summit died on her way down and her corpse sat next to the main route for nine years before somebody went over and pushed it down an embankment. There was another dude who was dying next to "green boots" and apparently people thought he was "green boots" and then other people didn't want to give up their climb so they just let the dude die next to "green boots". Because most of the clothes they wear are bright colors, the area where a bunch of dead bodies in their shiny clothes has been nicknamed "Rainbow Valley".

It looks like nowadays it's just a massive cash grab (costs $65,000 (without tips) for basic climb and can go much much higher) and they have ropes set up for you in many places, so all sorts of people that have no business being up there are doing it (a 13 yr old US kid was youngest to make it to the top).

Does anybody have something crazy like this on their bucket list? Something I've always wanted to do is go visit the pyramids in Eygpt and then Petra in Jordan. Worried about getting my pasty white USA ass killed though...

Below are some photos of "green boots" and somebody else. Weird that people just walk by and snap a photo...

You should read Into Thin Air by John Krakauer.



You can follow that up with Left for Dead by Beck Weathers and The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev. There not as good, but they are differing perspectives on the same Everest disaster.

It's not Everest, but there is a great documentary about climbing called Touching the Void.

I concur with pedro. After reading Into Thin Air in the late 90's I became an Everest addict. I read and watch everything I can on the subject. Since you mentioned the trail of bodies in the "death zone" (above 8000m)...there's a great documentary on the supposed first summit of Everest by George Mallory and Andrew Irvine. They actually found Mallory's body in 1999. Here's a clip...warning: not for the faint.

https://youtu.be/UFr1KdY6aiw

I have seen some documentaries. Particularly focusing on the morbid ones a out the deaths. The only thing I'm fascinated by are people that actually want to do this. I was surprised at how many parents (sometimes both mother and father) have attempted to do this climb. At first, I thought a rule should be made that anyone with children under 15 or so should not be allowed to climb it. Then I thought about it more, and that's silly. As anyone with parents dumb and selfish enough to do such a thing is probably better off being raised by someone else.

I read Michael Chricton's autobiographical Travels, in which he writes about climbing Everest, among other things. I don't recall the details, but I remember it being a grueling trek. I'm happy to hike/scramble, but usually tend to stop at the point where ropes would be necessary.

Oops. Not sure how I managed to do that.

NotBaker wrote:I read Michael Chricton's autobiographical Travels, in which he writes about climbing Everest, among other things. I don't recall the details, but I remember it being a grueling trek. I'm happy to hike/scramble, but usually tend to stop at the point where ropes would be necessary.

I read Travels, he climbed up Kilimanjaro. That one you walk up, it's still a challenge but it can done if you are in shape. No one freezes to death but it's a serious hike. His description of it is great, especially that he wears the wrong shoes and suffers for it.

The Everest stuff is fascinating. It's really doing something your body is absolutely not designed to do.

More people die during the descent, interestingly enough. The horror in this is that you simply can't help someone who has fallen. You have to make the choice to either die with them or let them go. The dead bodies on the mountain are essentially there forever....no one can carry them down and they stay preserved. The bodies, especially "green boots", have become landmarks along the route for climbers.

Here are a whole bunch more photos with stories for the morbidly curious:

http://imgur.com/a/kOIXN

I love the XhardcoreX ones that go the extra mile and try to do it without the aid of bottled oxygen. Because it's not ludicrously dangerous enough with oxygen. I think this stuff is interesting in a morbid way. But I think only a borderline suicidal dumbass would actually attempt this. If someone told me they climbed this god damn thing, I would be far from impressed. In fact, I'd seriously question their judgement and any future dealings with them. They should change the name to Mt. Dipshit.

drew wrote:

NotBaker wrote:I read Michael Chricton's autobiographical Travels, in which he writes about climbing Everest, among other things. I don't recall the details, but I remember it being a grueling trek. I'm happy to hike/scramble, but usually tend to stop at the point where ropes would be necessary.

I read Travels, he climbed up Kilimanjaro. That one you walk up, it's still a challenge but it can done if you are in shape. No one freezes to death but it's a serious hike. His description of it is great, especially that he wears the wrong shoes and suffers for it.

Ah - my mistake; it 's probably been 25 years since I read it -- but I do remember the shoes and him being generally under-prepared.

So, 11 deaths this year, including a 39 guy with a pregnant wife. WTF dude.

Its getting a fair bit of coverage here in Ireland. Two unconnected Irish lads in the past week I believe.

"on the supposed first summit of Everest by George Mallory and Andrew Irvine"

Yeah, but who was the first?

Stupid irresponsible people who want to be in a dangerous place they don't belong deserve to die.
They are asking for it. Sometimes even without knowing.