AIBU to be blown away by this? TW - Deaths on Everest.

I went to a talk by Adriana Brownlee in Leeds a couple of months ago and she talked about this. There is literally no option but to leave them if they die if you are in the death zone. The severe Hypoxia makes it impossible to do anything other than support yourself and yiu woukd die if you tried. It's not a call to be made. It can't be done. The air is too thin for helicopter rescue.

Understandable. Your colleague sounds very self centred!! There must be a strong element of selfishness to climb Mount Everest in the first place.

No thought for all the poor Nepalese sherpas who have lost their lives facilitating these ego trips, as pointed out by @Ballooney ?

God it sounds shit up Everest.

Oh my god.

This is the ultimate selfishness, to risk your life doing something you love is one thing but leaving a small child and taking an unborn child with you?

He was complaining that the guide was out of sorts for the rest of the trip! Not surprising really!!

Yes, it’s the low oxygen levels which affect the brain.

Oh really? That's so interesting, is it the lack of oxygen?

Yes, they like the feeling of conquering/outwitting nature (they the man!) rather than nature itself surely

That made me laugh!! Climbers know that death happens and they must know the risks. Perhaps that made it easier for your colleague to accept!!

It’s just seems like such a selfish pursuit. Born of Western arrogance a lot of the time.

Humans aren't meant to live in thin air.

I read years ago that in the Andes, people will climb just a few hundred metres (I am well aware I typed that rather than climbing it 😀) to harvest or mine, but return every evening to avoid spending too long there. Apparently it thickens the blood.

I was reading about this man the other day too OP, he was originally visible from the main trail on the NE side I think but the Chinese moved him from view a few years ago. He’s Indian, Indian authorities are planning a mission to remove his body from the mountain before October 2026.

In the same article it mentioned the woman who also died in 1996 and became known as ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ of Everest, she was also visible from part of the trail. Quite a few other climbers (including her husband) tried to rescue her when she was still just about alive. No one could manage it though. One Scottish man who tried to rescue her at the time arranged an expedition to move her off the trail 10 years later which he did manage so she’s no longer visible.

I also find the disappearance of British climbers Mallory and Irvine in 1924, with no idea whether they summited or not fascinating.

It seems a lot of climbers push on late or in bad weather and then end up dying on the return journey. It’s not something I’d ever be keen to try myself but I can understand the mentality of wanting to climb (although not the people who pay vast sums and have to be dragged up on a short rope). I do think the Nepalese need to restrict the numbers of people getting permits to climb and perhaps charging a lot more money so they can spend some on clearing the lower camps at least of rubbish.

I had a colleague who went on a climbing holiday in the alps - him, a guide and another client. Day 2 the other client fell to his death. Colleague said it put a bit of a dampener on the rest of the expedition 😮

I’ve read that climbing Mount Everest causes long lasting or permanent brain changes.

It's too dangerous to retrieve bodies from Everest. I only found out about green boots a few months back on a Tiktok vid. They know the risks it's unfair to put other lives at risk to retrieve people who didn't survive.

One of my science teachers climbed Everest. He wanted to do it before he had children. He brought a slide show in to show us pics of his expedition on the projector. There was some amazing pictures. He fell into a sinkhole in the ice even took a picture of that.

Sadly a few years ago he started hearing voices in his head. His wife came home one day and found him in the garage after taking his own life.😥

I don’t know!! I was just thinking they might as the view at the top is breathtaking apparently.

Some people on this thread would be appalled at the Victorian practice of dressing up dead babies to appear in family photographs.

And the tradition of making sculptures and friezes from human bones. Well worth a look if you delve into various catacombs you may find (the Paris ones are a hidden gem).

I did a bit of climbing in my younger days. Nothing like Everest, much easier. One guy in the group said he couldn't think of anything worse than dying in bed of old age and he would much rather die on a mountain attempting something almost impossible. I made a mental note never to get in a situation where I was dependent on him for my safety and opted for other climbing partners where possible. I do think it probably wasn't just him, but he was prepared to express it out loud.

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Climbing everest is not ethical

It’s getting ridiculous. Someone is always being offended!!

There we are @Lobsterteapot you are now officially no better than PC Harper’s murderers. But murder has now been downgraded to mere disrespect so don’t take it too much to heart. It’s really no worse than taking a reserved seat on a train. .

Its not disrespectful or psychopathic in the least to ask what brand of boots someone was wearing!!

Or do we need a trigger warning for that now as well?

If there was any disrespect, I think it was on behalf of the person who started a thread inviting comment on how decomposed the body of a man who died on Everest 30 years ago would be. Not the poster asking about his boots.