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Why Climbers Die On Mount Everest

Posted by timothy on from the failure-to-be-born-sherpas dept.

Science Daily reports that researchers have conducted the first detailed analysis of deaths during expeditions to the summit of Mt. Everest. They found that most deaths occur during descents from the summit in the so-called "death zone" above 8,000 meters, and also identified factors that appear to be associated with a greater risk of death, particularly symptoms of high-altitude cerebral edema. The big surprise that the data indicate those deaths aren't primarily from avalanches or falling ice, as had long been believed.

8 of 417 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Diving? by The+MAZZTer · · Score: 5, Informative

    Nope... bends is caused by nitrogen bubbles forming in your bloodstream, due to diving or rising too quickly.

  2. Re:Diving? by snl2587 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Not exactly. The bends come from fast decompression leading to gas bubbles within the body while the cerebral edema is an excess accumulation of water in the brain which comes from a leakage of fluid from capillaries (among other causes).

  3. Hypoxia by Renraku · · Score: 5, Informative

    The higher you climb, the harder your lungs have to work to extract enough oxygen from the air in order to keep you alive. If you don't get enough oxygen, you don't die immediately. Your brain starts becoming less and less efficient, since it cannot produce energy anaerobically, like the rest of your body can.

    Of course, this process is invisible to most people. Its comparable to how your brain isn't fully awake if you get woken up suddenly and feeling confused at the simplest tasks. Hypoxia also affects divers.

    The leakage of fluid from the vessels in the brain is caused by the same hypoxia, since the blood vessels need energy as well.

    The only solution is for climbers to take their own oxygen, or for someone to invent a mobile and low powered oxygen concentrator.

    --
    Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
  4. You get bends going UP by EmbeddedJanitor · · Score: 4, Informative
    You get the bends when reducing pressure causes bubbling due to your tissue having more disolved gases than it can hold. Just like a soft drink fizzes when you reduce pressure, the dissolved gases come out of the liquid.

    Thus, you can only get the bends going up.

    --
    Engineering is the art of compromise.
    1. Re:You get bends going UP by mabhatter654 · · Score: 5, Informative

      it's the "opposite" effect going on. At high pressures extra gas adds to your fluids, just like bubbles added to really cold pop under pressure. Warm it up and take off the pressure and you get fizz... only inside your brain which is generally not good.
      In this case, the air pressure is so low the membranes that hold liquid don't work properly to hold it in... It's probably like a mild version of vacuum degassing used in manufacturing... in addition to the lack of oxygen.

  5. Avalanche? Ice? First I've heard of that... by MikeV · · Score: 5, Informative

    I have never seen anyone claim that the primary cause of death on Everest is avalanche or falling ice - I'm not sure where that fiction came from. It is common knowledge that the primary cause of death up there is directly related with complications from being in the dead zone, combined with the complications of frequent blizzards that hamper the attempts to get out of the dead zone. Climbers run out of oxygen and also get lost. Some have to be left behind by others because all are under distress and unable to help the straggler. It's a very deadly place to go and is foolish in that one in ten end up dying up there.

  6. Re:Because people are assholes by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 4, Informative

    Climbers die while descending Mount Everest because even though hundreds of people capable of rescuing them pass, all of those people have paid upwards of $25,000 to have a chance to summit the peak, and none of those assholes are willing to risk their precious experience to save someone's life.

    Well, Anonymous Coward, that's not entirely true. While I'm not a climber, I've read numerous books on climbing Everest, as well as watched several documentaries and talked to some climbers about it. As I understand it, once you're in the death zone, *every step* is an ordeal. You literally think about it, lift your foot, move it, and put it down, then think about the next one. Apparently it's like trying to walk with a 200 pound backpack on. In many cases, if you're climbing Everest and you come upon someone in need of assistance, even if you want to, there's nothing you can do. You can't carry someone in the death zone, there's no sled to put them on, no ski patrol with a helicopter. Basically, all you can do is give them your oxygen bottle, make them comfortable, and then get back to trudging. Tragic, but true.

  7. Re:Damn by jelle · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well, I'm not an aviator, nor did I stay in a hotel last night, but the 'ceiling' you're quoting looks to be for the as350-b3 loaded with over 900lb on top of the standard 'empty weight', and the youtube video (that shows it sitting on the summit) shows only one person in it. The flight to return back down was very short, so they probably didn't have much fuel sitting in it at the moment that it was at the top either...

    Of course I could be wrong, but I'm convinced that they did it, with the machine they said they used...

    links:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurocopter_Ecureuil

    http://www.robertsaircraft.com/as350b3.htm

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhYG-IgsRJ0&feature=related

    --
    --- Hindsight is 20/20, but walking backwards is not the answer.