# Mt. Everest Claims 5 New Victims **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 21, 2012, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mt-everest-claims-5-new-victims/622611 "2012-05-21T15:39:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![KellyCriterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b3f665/32.png) [@KellyCriterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KellyCriterion)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mt-everest-claims-5-new-victims/622611/61 "2012-05-23T02:27:38Z")
> [@DiosaBellissima](#): > > Should I. . . even ask? I haven’t heard this story. The husband’s reputation, though not his life, comes out of the story unscathed. The story of [David Sharp](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sharp_(mountaineer)) is interesting.. up to 40 climbers passed him before he died, including a TV crew that filmed him, clearly in a bad way, sitting in the “Green Boots” cave. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mt-everest-claims-5-new-victims/622611/62 "2012-05-23T03:19:28Z")
Should have choosen ‘cake’. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mt-everest-claims-5-new-victims/622611/63 "2012-05-23T03:39:55Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > Basically, if you’re not willing to put yourself in a situation where you are essentially slowly dying as you try to summit, where both brain and body are shutting down, and where perhaps no one around you will be able and/or willing to assist you, don’t go up there. Yeah. You know, you’ve reached the summit and you want to go back down?! :dubious: Reaching the summit should be enough. 😃 What _more_ could you want? ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mt-everest-claims-5-new-victims/622611/64 "2012-05-23T11:33:20Z")
> [@Kozmik](#): > > Yeah. You know, you’ve reached the summit and you want to go back down?! :dubious: Reaching the summit should be enough. 😃 What _more_ could you want? So you’re saying it really **is** all downhill from there? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mt-everest-claims-5-new-victims/622611/65 "2012-05-23T12:08:05Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > So you’re saying it really **is** all downhill from there? 😃 Yes, it appears that the latest fatalities were from traffic jams of people headed down! (All the previous snafus were of traffic jams of people going up-most notoriously, at the Chinese-installed aluminum ladder). Too bad they couldn’t install a fixed rope, that you cold clip yourself to-and then head down without fear of falling. In any event, the current season looks like a record one for on-mountain fatalities.:eek: ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mt-everest-claims-5-new-victims/622611/66 "2012-05-23T12:46:38Z")
> [@Eonwe](#): > > Should have choosen ‘cake’. Well, we’re all outta cake. We only had 3 bits and we didn’t expect such a run on it. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mt-everest-claims-5-new-victims/622611/67 "2012-05-23T12:47:27Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > 1. Because it would be prohibitively expensive; the only way to effectively do this would be to build a pressurized stairway/Habitrail tube to the summit for the use of the rescue service. I know you probably posted this in jest, but the technical details of it are kind of intriguing, in a hypothetical engineering kind of way. Of course you’d need airlocks at the top and bottom, but you’d need them along the way, too; otherwise you’d have the same loss of pressure with altitude even inside a sealed tube. Or you could pressurize the bottom to more than 1 atmosphere (at whatever altitude the bottom of the tube is at) to get greater-than-ambient pressure at the top. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mt-everest-claims-5-new-victims/622611/68 "2012-05-23T13:08:04Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Too bad they couldn’t install a fixed rope, that you cold clip yourself to-and then head down without fear of falling. There are fixed ropes. They are reset every year, at a cost of approximately $20,000, and, [according to some](http://www.mounteverest.net/expguide/ropes.htm), most climbers never contribute to the cost. By contrast each climber is required to pay $300 towards the cost of setting the ropes, ice screws, and ladders for the Khumbu Icefall. There’s a psychology to Everest, described in both “Into Thin Air” and Boukreev’s book, “The Climb.” The last 200 ft is the hardest part. People who under normal conditions would turn around for their own safety, are hypnotised by the sight of the peak because it is _so damn close_ and continue (oxygen deprivation doesn’t help their judgement either). ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mt-everest-claims-5-new-victims/622611/69 "2012-05-23T13:19:37Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I know you probably posted this in jest, but the technical details of it are kind of intriguing, in a hypothetical engineering kind of way. . Somebody had suggested something similar in that other recent thread about Everest. A tunnel in the mountain to the top, which would avoid all the problems of wind, snow, avalanches, low pressure, and of course falling. A big project but probably not absurdly big. If they could manage 10 feet a day they would be done in about 3 to 4 years. ---
**Author:** ![bahia\_hombre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@bahia\_hombre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bahia_hombre)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mt-everest-claims-5-new-victims/622611/70 "2012-05-23T15:14:24Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > I’m rooting for the mountain. _Go, Mt. Everest!!!_ I’ve never rooted against climbers but I do root for the bulls in Pamplona. ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mt-everest-claims-5-new-victims/622611/71 "2012-05-23T15:31:29Z")
> [@Turek](#): > > Well, we’re all outta cake. We only had 3 bits and we didn’t expect such a run on it. Did they have a flag at least? [nitpick] (It’s “rush” btw, not “run on it.”) [/nitpick] ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/59ef9b/32.png) [@FlyingRat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRat)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mt-everest-claims-5-new-victims/622611/72 "2012-05-23T15:45:53Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > [SCP-1529,](http://scp-wiki.net/scp-1529) written by yours truly. …Holy crap, I think I love you. That’s one of the creepiest SCPs I’ve read. ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mt-everest-claims-5-new-victims/622611/73 "2012-05-24T00:58:17Z")
> [@Eonwe](#): > > Should have choosen ‘cake’. Well, we’re out of cake! We only had three bits and we didn’t expect such a rush. Edit: bugger, beaten to it. 😃 How about some toast? Two toast or four? > [@Telemark](#): > > A friend of mine has done the 7 Summits, and according to her this is not true. While the mountaineering skills for Everest aren’t that demanding, the ability to deal with altitude and to suffer like you’ve never suffered before is the dividing line. Agreed. Everest in unfashionable and sneered at by many in the climbing community. That is an anti-reaction to its public popularity as well as the fact it isn’t a proper alpine climb. K2 is the real thing. Still, what the experts willfully ignore is the sheer height of Mount Everest. The extra 1000ft and time required in the death zone puts this mountain beyond even very capable climbers. > [@Telemark](#): > > Since you’ve been posting these same (IMO) silly questions in every Everest thread for several years now… > > It’s been explained to you a dozen times that rescue is practically impossible up there… I concur. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mt-everest-claims-5-new-victims/622611/74 "2012-05-24T01:39:51Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Yes, it appears that the latest fatalities were from traffic jams of people headed down! (All the previous snafus were of traffic jams of people going up-most notoriously, at the Chinese-installed aluminum ladder). Too bad they couldn’t install a fixed rope, that you cold clip yourself to-and then head down without fear of falling. > In any event, the current season looks like a record one for on-mountain fatalities.:eek: Now I remember how Homer Simpson got down from the Murderhorn. I’ve watched \*The Simpsons \*way too much. 😃 I hope the writers and producers come up with an episode about Apu or Lisa climing Mt. Everest. ---
**Author:** ![cerberus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cerberus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cerberus)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mt-everest-claims-5-new-victims/622611/75 "2012-05-24T01:48:21Z")
The hazard isn’t a bug requiring solution, the hazard is a feature. The obligation isn’t on the part of climbers to rescue their peers, the obligation is on the part of climbers to accept the obvious and well-documented risks of climbing. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mt-everest-claims-5-new-victims/622611/76 "2012-05-24T02:20:27Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > [SCP-1529,](http://scp-wiki.net/scp-1529) written by yours truly. Gee, _thanks_ - I have just wasted half a day on that site, it’s as bad as TVTropes. In fact, the whole freakin’ website should be assigned an SCP number and classified as “keter” for the way it sucks you in and won’t let go! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mt-everest-claims-5-new-victims/622611/77 "2012-05-24T02:32:31Z")
> [@DiosaBellissima](#): > > Should I. . . even ask? I haven’t heard this story. > **[Francys Arsentiev](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francys_Arsentiev)** > > Francys Arsentiev (January 18, 1958 – May 24, 1998) became the first woman from the United States to reach the summit of Mount Everest without using bottled oxygen, on May 22, 1998. She died during the descent. > In 1992, Francys married Sergei Arsentiev. Together, they climbed many Russian peaks, including the first ascent of Peak 5800m, which they named Peak Goodwill, as well as Denali via the West Buttress. Arsentiev became the first U.S. woman to ski down Elbrus, and she summitted its east and... ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mt-everest-claims-5-new-victims/622611/78 "2012-05-24T02:32:54Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Too bad they couldn’t install a fixed rope, that you cold clip yourself to-and then head down without fear of falling. Fixed ropes are installed, and they don’t do what you think they do. They help to prevent some types of danger, but they aren’t a failsafe. It’s pretty easy to die on a fixed rope. ---
**Author:** ![straight\_man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/straight_man/32/3027_2.png) [@straight\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straight_man)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mt-everest-claims-5-new-victims/622611/79 "2012-05-24T04:47:10Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Gee, _thanks_ - I have just wasted half a day on that site, it’s as bad as TVTropes. In fact, the whole freakin’ website should be assigned an SCP number and classified as “keter” for the way it sucks you in and won’t let go! > > 😛 Wow, that’s _exactly_ my reaction, too — except that the site’s threat level actually should only be “Euclid”. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mt-everest-claims-5-new-victims/622611/80 "2012-05-24T11:28:55Z")
I just had a great idea-replace “Space Mont” at Disneyworld with a new , virtual reality “Climb Mt. Everest”-complete with frozen corpses, abandoned junk, etc. Ought to be a big attraction. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mt-everest-claims-5-new-victims/622611.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mt-everest-claims-5-new-victims/622611.md?page=5)