# What makes climbing Everest difficult? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 15, 2012, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-climbing-everest-difficult/644093 "2012-12-15T04:23:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2012, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-climbing-everest-difficult/644093/21 "2012-12-15T16:52:56Z")
Err…don’t the vast majority of people bring O2 tanks? All the posts above seem to be suggesting that all the hikers are just breathing the air at altitude. ---
**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:** [December 15, 2012, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-climbing-everest-difficult/644093/22 "2012-12-15T17:05:59Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Err…don’t the vast majority of people bring O2 tanks? All the posts above seem to be suggesting that all the hikers are just breathing the air at altitude. Everest is climbed in stages. Camp 4 is at 26,000 feet. Only 14 mountains in the world are higher than Everest’s camp 4. 13, if you exclude Everest! While there is sufficient air to live, climbers attempting the summit have been consistently oxygen deprived for some time before they summit. You can’t suck bottled air for days straight. If you’re going to use it, you save it for the peak attempt. ---
**Author:** ![Animastryfe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Animastryfe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Animastryfe)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2012, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-climbing-everest-difficult/644093/23 "2012-12-15T20:34:09Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > On which note, I’d like to plug [the story I wrote for the SCP Foundation](http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-1529) about Mt. Everest. _You’re_ the author of that? I quite enjoyed that article when I first read it a few months ago. I was not aware that any SCP authors were on this forum. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2012, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-climbing-everest-difficult/644093/24 "2012-12-15T20:42:15Z")
> [@](#): > > I’ve seen a few accounts where bodies were used as landmarks for months, until a group got the resources together to bring it down (if that ever happened). Poor old [Green Boots](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Boots) has been up there since 1996. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2012, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-climbing-everest-difficult/644093/25 "2012-12-15T20:49:25Z")
I’ve heard (but have no cite) that here is not a single Starbucks beyond a certain point. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2012, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-climbing-everest-difficult/644093/26 "2012-12-15T22:57:42Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I’ve heard (but have no cite) that here is not a single Starbucks beyond a certain point. There’d be no point, they wouldn’t be able to get the water hot enough for coffee. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2012, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-climbing-everest-difficult/644093/27 "2012-12-15T22:58:25Z")
There have been several threads on this, nothing new to add, excpet to say that, the people who pay $60,000+ to climb Mt. Everest are a special bunch. Most of them are “Type A” personalities, who have been successful in most of the things they have done in life. They have done everything, so they are looking for a new challenge…only thousands of people have done this. It is an extremely unpleasant, cold climb. I don’t know what they get out of it. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2012, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-climbing-everest-difficult/644093/28 "2012-12-16T01:34:05Z")
Gravity. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2012, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-climbing-everest-difficult/644093/29 "2012-12-16T01:48:32Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > There’d be no point, they wouldn’t be able to get the water hot enough for coffee. Maybe an iced latte? ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2012, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-climbing-everest-difficult/644093/30 "2012-12-16T02:37:41Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Poor old [Green Boots](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Boots) has been up there since 1996. mrAru and I were just discussing the bodies on Everest, and he pointed out that the common thing to say is that they claim that it would be too dangerous to hump the bodies down, so I posited that whenever someone ran across a body, they chip it out of the ice and give it a good heave downwards after sticking a tracking device on it. So, if you had a dearly departed idiot who cacked himself climbing Everest, would you get bent out of shape if he were coaxed downwards by being heaved off into space instead of gently and reverently carried down at great risk to life and limb? [Obviously you can tell what my opinion is about someone doing something stupid and dying.] ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2012, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-climbing-everest-difficult/644093/31 "2012-12-16T02:50:21Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > I posited that whenever someone ran across a body, they chip it out of the ice and give it a good heave downwards after sticking a tracking device on it. It’s my understanding that it’s fairly common to push bodies off a ledge when bringing them back down is impractical. [Francis Arsentiev’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francys_Arsentiev) body was so disposed of in 2007, nine years after she was left to die. The same expedition had planned to give Green Boots a decent “burial” as well, but was unsuccessful - it’s likely that at this point, what remains of him is essentially part of the mountain. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2012, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-climbing-everest-difficult/644093/32 "2012-12-16T03:02:32Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > mrAru and I were just discussing the bodies on Everest, and he pointed out that the common thing to say is that they claim that it would be too dangerous to hump the bodies down, so I posited that whenever someone ran across a body, they chip it out of the ice and give it a good heave downwards after sticking a tracking device on it. The routes up and down are probably mainly along ridges or other relatively easier slopes. If you just pushed a body downwards, it most likely would go over some precipitous cliff where it would be even more inaccessible. ETA: Maybe you mean they wouldn’t ever be retrieved but simply heaved out of view, but then why put a tracking device on it? ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2012, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-climbing-everest-difficult/644093/33 "2012-12-16T03:13:05Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > …You can’t suck bottled air for days straight. If you’re going to use it, you save it for the peak attempt. Implication is weight in carrying O2 stores? Or physiology of breathing? ---
**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:** [December 16, 2012, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-climbing-everest-difficult/644093/34 "2012-12-16T13:58:40Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Implication is weight in carrying O2 stores? Or physiology of breathing? O2 bottles are heavy considering how long they will supply oxygen. You have to ration them so you only use them when needed or you will run out before the most difficult sections. One of the many factors that contribute to all the deaths is using up all your O2 on the way up leaving none for the descent. Each climber can only have so many. But, bottled oxygen isn’t the same as being at sea level. It’s not as efficient and you can’t stay on bottled O2 forever at altitude. ---
**Author:** ![ExcitedIdiot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ea5d25/32.png) [@ExcitedIdiot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExcitedIdiot)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2012, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-climbing-everest-difficult/644093/35 "2012-12-16T14:22:56Z")
One more risk I didn’t see mentioned is the people. People have had life-saving gear like oxygen bottles and tents stolen from them while on ascent. There is a serious problem of an “everyone for themselves” attitude up there. If you have a problem up there, people will leave you to die so they don’t miss their chance to summit. Also some people can’t even trust their own guides. [Nils Antezana](http://www.mounteverest.net/story/stories/TragedyonEverestNilsAntezanasstoryNov302004.shtml) was left to die by his group. His guide later used pics from Nils’s camera and claimed them as proof of his own summit. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2012, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-climbing-everest-difficult/644093/36 "2012-12-16T15:40:28Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > -You have to summit AND get down alive; plenty of people die on the way DOWN. There’s a particularly nasty chute on Mount McKinley called the Orient Express, so-named because of the number of Asian climbers who met their ends there. Falls in that 40 degree chute typically measure 1,000-2,000 feet. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2012, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-climbing-everest-difficult/644093/37 "2012-12-16T17:23:16Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I’ve heard (but have no cite) that here is not a single Starbucks beyond a certain point. Thank God. ---
**Author:** ![Lazlo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lazlo/32/9678_2.png) [@Lazlo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lazlo)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2012, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-climbing-everest-difficult/644093/38 "2012-12-16T17:31:41Z")
> [@ExcitedIdiot](#): > > One more risk I didn’t see mentioned is the people. People have had life-saving gear like oxygen bottles and tents stolen from them while on ascent. There is a serious problem of an “everyone for themselves” attitude up there. If you have a problem up there, people will leave you to die so they don’t miss their chance to summit. > > Also some people can’t even trust their own guides. [Nils Antezana](http://www.mounteverest.net/story/stories/TragedyonEverestNilsAntezanasstoryNov302004.shtml) was left to die by his group. His guide later used pics from Nils’s camera and claimed them as proof of his own summit. I picked up the [Kindle version of High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed](http://www.amazon.com/High-Crimes-Everest-Greed-ebook/dp/B00134XEQO) because of this thread ($1.99!). It’s pretty sickening. ---
**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:** [December 16, 2012, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-climbing-everest-difficult/644093/39 "2012-12-16T17:57:46Z")
I have a few friends who have climbed on Everest, one who summited, and they all say that travel above 24,000 feet is not the same activity as travel below. Many things are familiar, but the mindset is completely different. It’s easy to compare to other mountaineering but the challenges, risks, mindsets, and rewards are much different. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2012, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-climbing-everest-difficult/644093/40 "2012-12-16T20:30:34Z")
I recommend that you read Sir John Hunt’s, or Edmund Hillary’s accounts of the 1954 ascent. These people were real heroes-they would never abandon a dying climber. Something very ugly has crept into mountaineering…and its not something I would want to be around!:mad: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-climbing-everest-difficult/644093.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-climbing-everest-difficult/644093.md?page=3)