Comments on: What to do on Mt. Everest when you're dead

By: ImmortalYawn

ImmortalYawn — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 23:44:00 +0000

People seem to be able to take out a camera and stand around for a few minutes to take video and photos of the bodies…strange they cant take the bodies back down? Also a lot of bodies are between camps…I think the whole deal here is people CAN take the bodies down, but they have paid a LOT of money to do otherwise (not waste their time)

By: ocker3

ocker3 — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 05:48:00 +0000

Someone above mentioned that Everest isn’t just one peak, it’s a series, not that many obvious paths down apparently.

By: social_maladroit

social_maladroit — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 05:40:00 +0000

IIRC, you’re right (that was a good, and very sad, book). IIRC it also mentioned discarded junk (like oxygen canisters) piling up.

By: social_maladroit

social_maladroit — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 05:15:00 +0000

It’s terrible. So many have gotten kilt…

By: timquinn

timquinn — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 01:56:00 +0000

I have said this before, but those guys should be stacked like cord wood at the summit. This way make a real and lasting contribution to the field by making the climb that much more epic. OK, you’re here now climb to the top of the stack of bodies to really get high. I mean, how dedicated are these clowns?

By: eldritch

eldritch — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 01:52:00 +0000

Nuke it from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

By: Ipo

Ipo — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 00:37:00 +0000

Freeze dried broken off chunks.
I think in that situation one thirsts more for a hot cup of tea and a breath of air.

By: Sparg

Sparg — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 23:33:00 +0000

Hello Polly! I’ve got a nice cuttlefish for you when you wake up, Polly Parrot!

By: Greg Webster

Greg Webster — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 23:30:00 +0000

This appears to be an engineering problem. How about packing a body into an inflated ball and letting it roll to a safer place down the hill? Make the ball out of individually-inflated slices to cut down on the inevitable pops.

Of course, only bring down those whose families wish them brought down (and they can pay the costs incurred).

By: kenmce

kenmce — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 23:03:00 +0000

They don’t work that high.

By: robotnik

robotnik — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 22:00:00 +0000

Would that have been John B. West?

By: teknocholer

teknocholer — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 21:15:00 +0000

Ideally a Norwegian Blue.

By: Donald Petersen

Donald Petersen — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 21:10:00 +0000

Bagpipes are another story.

By: timquinn

timquinn — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 20:11:00 +0000

So far as I am aware, no one has ever died from learning to play the piano.

By: Jeffrey Eric Fisher

Jeffrey Eric Fisher — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 20:00:00 +0000

That’s what my physiology professor said while lecturing about high altitude physiology years ago.

However I think it is a somewhat “duh” statistic on further consideration. People will tend to stop going up if they are in trouble and start going down. People who are in trouble are more likely to die.

I personally have always found it easier to fall, and particularly to fall seriously when going down. So that could be a factor.

By: Jeffrey Eric Fisher

Jeffrey Eric Fisher — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 19:57:00 +0000

I believe it was mentioned in “into thin air” that one could see some dead climbers from a previous season from one point on the trail. Could be from something else, however.

By: peregrinus

peregrinus — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 19:50:00 +0000

maple syrup and jam! love it

The alphas would assault first by throwing away your oxygen bottles with grisly cries of thems’r fr wimps!” Then chase you up the mountain. They’d keep some intelligence, like the lovely nazombies in Dead Snow (DodSchno … DodSchneuoh?) which I loved, and perhaps in the final scene where our gorgeous heroine and hero are spindizzy and coughing, would attack eachother to be the first to the peak.

Then that heli would arrive and safely carry them away (it’s a movie, ok?!)

By: peregrinus

peregrinus — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 19:49:00 +0000

Certainly the falling deaths.

By: peacock

peacock — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 19:45:00 +0000

A hiker friend claims most of the deaths occur on the way down the mountain. It is rare to die on the ascent.

Can anyone confirm this is true.

By: planettom

planettom — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 19:30:00 +0000

I’m still hoping they find Irvine’s body (died 1924 with George Mallory), since there’s some speculation that the film in their cameras might be recoverable. Possibly providing evidence they were first to summit.

By: niktemadur

niktemadur — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 18:44:00 +0000

The Nepal side of Everest is where hordes of the bored rich, dahrling, go to die expensively.
But K2, aka Godwin-Austen, sends shivers up and down my spine. It’s like the Chinese side of Everest, from every angle. It’s where superior athletes go to die.

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 18:38:00 +0000

I was thinking of an ethical dilemma more along the lines of what the survivors of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 faced.

By: Daneel

Daneel — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 18:29:00 +0000

Chill out, kick some ice or give everyone the cold shoulder?

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 18:20:00 +0000

Yeah, I’m probably going to hell for this.

By: starfish and coffee

starfish and coffee — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 18:04:00 +0000

Brilliant! You’re on course to win today’s internets sir!
The twist would have to be that the zombies retain some of their alpha-male, “me first” attitude.
Don’t like the idea of them attacking Nepalese villagers though. Perhaps the zombies should be attacking some of those “climb Everest for charity” muppets.

By: Sam Ley

Sam Ley — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 17:23:00 +0000

He landed there, but he would not have been able to evacuate someone – the craft was operating at it’s absolute max limits already. The rescue that pilot participated in was at a much lower elevation.

By: peterskater

peterskater — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 17:14:00 +0000

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Everest#2005:_Helicopter_landing

By: sqyntz

sqyntz — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 17:14:00 +0000

…then the next expedition misses the green boots?

By: Sam Ley

Sam Ley — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 16:59:00 +0000

The mountain isn’t just one giant cone you could just slide down – it is covered in splines and ridges and cliffs, a sled ride from the top would be fun for about 20 seconds before you got launched into some inaccessible area, off a rocky cliff, down into a hidden crevasse, etc.

Though there is a technique used in parts of mountain descents that are suited for it called the Glissade, where you basically sit on your butt and slide down the mountain. You use an ice-axe in the self-arrest position (held across your chest diagonally, point out) to stop yourself when the rocks are getting too close for comfort.

By: Sam Ley

Sam Ley — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 16:48:00 +0000

Helicopters actually can’t fly up at that elevation – that is why rescues are so difficult. The videos of a Nepalese hot shot chopper pilot evacuating someone from high basecamp is chilling – the damn thing can barely take off in the thin air, even with all excess equipment dumped from the chopper.