This report says there actually aren’t four new bodies after all. 
The movie based on it, which was stupidly called “Everest” instead of the much better book’s title, did the same to me. I was cold just watching it.
It was bad enough when Everest was only killing people. Now it is making them never have existed!
Poor Pete.
Why? Because they’re not there.
Mother Goddess of the Earth is devouring people, real or imagined.
I had free HBO for a while last year and must have watched all or parts of it a dozen times. It fascinated me. I couldn’t wrap my mind around why people wanted to do that to themselves. I can’t imagine how awful it was for the guide who got stuck and knew there was no hope that he could be rescued. It’s one thing to be die up there when you are no longer thinking straight and are in no pain but to be well aware that you are going to die and there is nothing you can do is just brutal.
So I read a book by Oliver Burkeman called The Antidote: Happiness For People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking, and he actually devoted an entire chapter to the Everest phenomenon. It’s a very real psychological reality: when people have made a decision to do something, and they have suffered to achieve the goal, they are more committed to the goal just by nature of having suffered for it. In these most extreme cases, their attachment to the goal becomes a reflection of their identity - they have to be the guy who successfully climbed Everest. This identity struggle eventually becomes more powerful than their survival instinct. They prepared for months or perhaps years, fantasized about achieving this thing, envisioned what it would mean for their lives and who they are as people, and when they are faced with the prospect of failure, they reject it even at the expense of their own lives.
There was one study done on the psychology of Everest climbers. I’m not an Everest expert so my details may be sketchy, but essentially the group was instructed to keep a diary of the climb. At a certain point, the group had to make a decision between taking a little-used, more treacherous route that would be faster, thus increasing their likelihood of making it to the summit on time, or a safer, more traveled path with a lower likelihood of success. The group was divided on what decision to make, so they decided to split up. The diary entries revealed that people wanting to take the more treacherous path immediately began to doubt the decision they had made, worrying about the inclement weather, etc., but that they were more vocally and stridently committed to sticking with their decision anyway. Essentially they talked themselves into it via their diaries.
Burkeman also looks at a pretty high-profile disaster (the specifics of which I can’t recall) in which one team, encountering a bottleneck that slowed them down, made the decision to go for the summit well past the window of time that is considered safe. Being so close to their goal, they couldn’t give it up, even at the expense of their lives. They made it to the summit, but a storm arrived and they never made it down.
Burkeman’s ultimate target is the ‘‘you can do anything’’ mentality so prevalent at corporate retreats and Tony Robbins seminars, which results in ordinary people thinking they are capable of amazing, life-altering feats and sort of fetishizing high achievement in the form of risky expeditions like Everest. I can’t say American/European individualism is one hundred percent to blame, but there is likely some element of truth that we do encourage people in our culture to do pointless, risky things just to prove that we can, without asking so much whether we should.
It seems there may be a certain kind of person who has mountain climbing in their bones, who has to do it because it is their love and their passion, who is aware of the risks and also how to mitigate danger, and then there are a slew of other people who are just trying to prove something to cover over some perceived inadequacy. I’d bet the latter get killed more often.
The movie “Everest” may have covered the same events as Into Thin Air, and Beck Weathers book Left for Dead: My Journey Home from Everest, but it was a completely new treatment of the material, partially based on Weather’s book.
In particular, the production team listened to the Adventure Consultants audio tapes from 1996, which had not ever been replayed in the intervening period, with those Adventure Consultants staff from 1996 present, and also Rob Hall’s daughter.
Spice Weasel, great post, fascinating points. I am no Everest expert, either. What I’ve learned is from a few books. I was drawn in by Krakauer’s Into Thin Air and the events surrounding that May 1996 tragedy. I eventually sought out and read (what I think are) all the books written by folks on the mountain at that time. Especially Anatoli Boukreev’s, but also all the others’. And over the years I’ve read Into Thin Air about six ot seven times.
Krakauer does a good job explaining the pull of the mountains. Many in this thread have expressed the sentiment of - what those climbers are doing is absurd; those people are crazy; and why do they do it? Krakauer calls it “summit fever” and explains the pull of what most normal people consider to be a ludicrous endeavor. Spice Weasel’s post touches on that well.
I do recommend Into Thin Air, if you haven’t read it. Also, Broughton Coburn’s Everest: Mountain Without Mercy is good because the expedition it represents was at base camp when Rob Hall’s and Scott Fischer’s teams were attempting their summit pushes. That was the IMAX filming expedition led by David Brashears and with Ed Viesteurs as a climbing consultant. Both Brashears and especially Viesteurs knew Hall and Fischer well, and they are the ones who called Jan Arnold, Hall’s wife, and patched her through to the un-savable Hall dying high on Everest. Brashears and Viesteurs were in a unique position at base camp to communicate with both teams, Hall and Fischer. Other than direct voice communication across the teams by any team members who encountered each other high on Everest, those teams did have much ability to communicate directly. Especially once they left Camp IV.
Brashears and Viesteurs ended up coordinating the rescue attempts and communicating with other expeditions on the mountain, and they assisted the helicopter rescue of Gau and Weathers initiated by Peach Weathers from Texas. Everest: Mountain Without Mercy is a large format book with great pictures, which is to be expected from the IMAX team.
Spice Weasel, when I read where you describe the group that splits into two and one part takes the treacherous short cut, I couldn’t help but think of the Donner Party. They took a short cut that ended up delaying their crossing of the Sierras, resulting in their winter of 1846-1847 disaster. I can imagine much of their conversations were similar, convincing themselves as they went that they made the right decision. Until it was too late.
About the 2015 movie, Everest, which I enjoyed, what I especially liked about it is that it showed us what the key places along the South Col route look like: the icefall, the South Col, the south summit, and the Hillary Step.
Looks like some people just didn’t do it!
I also didn’t climb Everest, but it never occurred to me to take a picture!
Two foreign climbers dead so far in 2018. This site also lists the name of a Sherpa climber who died May 15.
So now we are at 41 straight years with at least one death on Mt Everest.
Interesting bump. We just watched Everest last night. It didn’t even occur to us that it was just a bit past the anniversary of the actual event.
We also just finished a documentary on the 24 hour race at Le Mans. I wondered if racing Le Mans was just as irresponsible to your family as climbing Everest. Sudden death for no really good reason. My wife knows my fascination with all things Everest, and asked if I could do one, which one would it be. Without hesitation I picked Le Mans. Much more my speed, so to speak.
I’m an Everest and true adventure junkie and read/watch everything about it I can get my greedy paws on. I did a lot of risky outdoor adventures when I was younger and I guess my (very amateur) track driving is my middle-age adventure (knees and back are no longer happy about vigorous physical activity).
So I understand the lust for adventure and plowing through physical hardship in order to reach a goal; I’ve been on hardcore wilderness survival trips that were hellish but exhilirating.
What I do wonder is how “pure” the Everest experience is if climbers are using fixed lines and Sherpas are hauling the heavy stuff (including people - I’m thinking about the socialite Krakaeur wrote about being physically hauled up and down the mountain by Sherpas).
Obviously, even with haulers and fixed lines, it’s an arduous climb – no denying it, but would fewer people try it if they were totally on their own, without Sherpa or pre-fixed equipment? Would there be fewer deaths because non-elite climbers realize their limitations before reaching the Death Zone?
I just watched a Le Mans doc on Amazon(?) It was a six or so episode thing – is this what you watched?
There has been one fatality during the 24 Hours in the last 20 years.
That’s the one! Pretty good.The beginning voice over reminded me of the Canadian Tow Truck series “Highway through Hell”, and I don’t mean that as a compliment. 
Modern documentaries just have to do that I guess.
I did not realize it was that few.
The night driving was pretty terrifying! For some reason it never occurred to me that a 24 hour race = driving at night. Duh!
I rode the subway for 20 years. That was enough adventure for me.