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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. Damn by aaron+alderman · · Score: 5, Insightful
    That would suck balls. You manage to get all the way to the top only to die on the way down.

    Still, on the list of ways to kick the bucket, beats slipping in the shower any day.

    1. Re:Damn by dexmachina · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Helicopters and mountains tend to not mix. The air is so thin that they can fail without warning and crash. The helicopter which supposedly landed on the summit that the sibling mentioned is supposed to have a ceiling of about 18 000 ft (Everest's summit is about 29 000 ft). I believe that landing's in dispute. Either way, Everest is well above the cruising altitude of your standard helicopter, and that's to say nothing of how dangerous landing (or even hovering) would be with the wind speeds up there.

    2. Re:Damn by HUADPE · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The problem is that the air is too thin. The area on the blades of a helicopter is much smaller than an airplane, and they depend much more on high velocity moving large volumes of air over those blades. There is very little air at those altitudes, and it is extremely difficult to control a helicopter. Correction for imbalanced weight is particularly difficult, and that's what you have when you try to pick up a body with a rope.

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  2. That's true on MOST climbs of any height by gelfling · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Climbers die on the way down. It's more dangerous, you're more fatigued and your guard is down. You also tend to ignore clear signs of physical harm.

  3. Unsurprising it occurs during descent by syousef · · Score: 5, Insightful

    People exhaust themselves climbing up, but most when they do realize they are in trouble will turn back...or perhaps they realize they have enough and push on to get up there, but don't leave enough in reserve to come back down. Also there's a false sense of achievement - "I made it to the summit!" - but while making it back down alive is actually more improtant it may be anticlimactic and not as big a motivator when you're spent after the effort of reaching the top.

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  4. Re:You get bends going UP by lysergic.acid · · Score: 5, Insightful

    well, most Everest deaths do occur in the "death zone" (above 8,000 meters), so even though it happens on the descent, the pathology that would ultimately kill them (cerebral edema) could have began during their ascent to the summit, and there could simply be a delay between the onset of the disease and the actual time of death.

    but the article doesn't really say what induces the leakage of blood vessels which causes cerebral edema. so it could be the altitude, or it could be the extreme cold, or it could be a combination of the two.

  5. Re:surprise? by kobaz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not for anyone who watched "Into thin air".

    Or Vertical Limit.

    Vertical limit had as much fact about mountaineering as the movie "Hackers" had about computers.

    --

    The goal of computer science is to build something that will last at least until we've finished building it.
  6. Re:surprise? by grolaw · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I climb. The highest peak I've climbed is 18,700 ft (Pico de Orizaba) and it was only -32 f at the summit (I've had 2 ascents) at the coldest.

    High altitude Pulmonary or Cerebral edema has been a major killer of excellent climbers - and you can climb to the same altitude a dozen times and show no signs - and die on the 13th.

    Nanda Devi Unsoeld - Willie's only daughter and Crag's sister died on the mountain she was named for in 1976. I'd met her in the Tetons in the early 1970s. She had climbed many peaks higher than her namesake - but passed away from High Altitude Pulmonary Edema while stuck at altitude due to a storm.

    Everest is 29,205 ft - Denali is the highest peak in the western hemisphere at 20,320 ft - but more people die from football injuries every year than climbing.

    As for Krakauer - he revels in writing about death - I despise his writing. He made his name writing about the death of Christopher McCandless - a man who thought he could overwinter Alaska in a converted school-bus. That's a tragedy - not "news." and the book, Into the Wild is as corrupt a bit of "if it bleeds, it leads" journalism as exists.

    I find Krakauer cheesy and a glorifier of death - a sick puppy where I come from.