I think most people are unaware of what Mount Everest has become, so that brag of Everest will still impress many. The press in the United States rarely covers Everest except when an American dies, or when the number of deaths becomes such in a given year that it cannot be ignored. Furthermore, a superficial look at those deaths just makes the dangers of Everest seem more alluring and the challenge more daring.
According to Wikipedia and Google, Everest has been summitted by 11,346 climbers (as of 7/22), and 310 deaths, for a ratio of about 37 to 1.
The summitter-to-death ratio for K2, the second highest mountain, is 4 to 1.
For Annapurna, the tenth highest, the ratio is about 5 to 1.
To my knowledge, there are no traffic jams near the summit of either of these peaks. Anyone looking for bragging rights or even just the personal satisfaction of overcoming extreme adversity ought to try one of those peaks instead of Everest.
I am much more impressed by people climbing Nanga Parbhat* or Annapurna or K2.
*I know it will never happen but I’d honestly like to see it stop being called Everest and be called SagarMatha or some other local name. So tired of white people claiming all our shit. Also can we please have the Kohinoor back, you thieves?
And interestingly, the man who Everest is named for pronounced his name EEV-rest, not EVV-erest.
Wholeheartedly agree with you. We did it with Denali and Uluru, no reason we can’t do the same with Everest.
He never even saw it or had much to do with it other than hiring the surveyor who determined how high it was. He objected to it being named for him.
Agreed. All good suggestions. People can (and do) climb mountains, jump out of planes, and otherwise undertake risky activities. All well and good until other people start dying. The sherpas (and their widows) deserve to be compensated. Whole families struggle when a sherpa dies. He is often the only source of income.
A woman who lives here at the Overlook has a daughter who is a mountain climber. She was supposed to summit Everest yesterday. She also attempted Denali but got altitude sickness at 18K feet and turned back. I’ve never had the least desire to do any of that sort of stuff.
When we were vacationing in the Southwest, we pulled into a turnout in Zion that turned out to be the trailhead for Angel’s Landing. I briefly considered hiking the trail until I saw the sign that said “You may die here.” I think some dozen people have fallen off that damn thing.
Although I agree with you, it would have spoiled the nickname for our high school principal who shared that name - “peaky”.
17 people are confirmed to have died since 1987, roughly 1 per year. I hiked it and loved it, but we went before dawn when no one else was on the chains. I have friends who’ve summited Everest and they say it was the hardest thing they’ve ever done; and they’re wicked accomplished climbers. It’s not traditional mountaineering, but it is still more physically demanding than anything 99.9% of people have ever done.
Yes, I have no time for those who criticize adventurers who choose to take on risky challenges putting only themselves at risk, and calling it a “waste” if they die young. We all find meaning in our own way.
But it’s an entirely different matter when people who don’t really have any special aptitude are just paying $$$$ to relatively poor people to be shepherded through unoriginal commoditized (but still very dangerous) activities, with the expectation that their guides must put their own lives at risk to save their clients when their inadequate talent and preparation lead them into trouble.
Maybe a lot of climbers who want to summit the world’s highest peaks don’t have an actual death wish. 37 to 1 is a lot better odds than 4 to 1.
If they don’t have the climbing talent or motivation/temperament to take on something remarkable, the solution is not to seek bragging rights while paying money to impose a significant risk of death on others.
Just ran across this bit about a relatively small (6500 ft) Japanese peak that has killed an extraordinarily large number of climbers.
“Over 800 people have died attempting to climb Mt. Tanigawa; the hiking trails are lined with commemorative plaques in memory of those who died on the mountain. Because of the heavy snowfall, one group of climbers that went missing in 1943 remained undiscovered for 30 years, when a separate hiking group happened upon their remains. In the 1960s, another group of climbers froze to death while scaling the mountain’s main face; still attached to their harnesses, the Japanese Self-Defenses Forces had to shoot the climbers’ ropes in order to retrieve their bodies.”
That’s a heck of a hike. You could also try the narrows and face flash flooding.
Umm… Welcome to 2023, time traveler.
Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?
Sorry, I meant over the last 5 years there has been 1 death per year. Although it looks like there were no deaths in 2022, but that may be due to restricting access via the lottery they just introduced.
Here’s a harsher take on the current Mount Everest mess: