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For a frozen open air cemetery, I direct your attention to Mount Everest. Your odds of dying while climbing it are better than while attempting suicide. And mo
by btilly 2y ago
For a frozen open air cemetery, I direct your attention to Mount Everest.
Your odds of dying while climbing it are better than while attempting suicide. And most of the bodies just...stay.
- tim333 2y agoNitpick from a former partial Everest climber. The ratio of deaths to summit successes used to be about 5% but the majority of climbers, including me, turn around before getting there. I think the death ratio is down now there are pretty much fixed ropes the whole way to the summit on the south side. The 'Into Thin Air' deaths were because they lost their way in a storm but now you just clip onto the guide rope and walk up/down. The attempt to death ratio is probably more like 0.5% or 0.2% though there aren't really proper figures on number of attempts.
- bunderbunder 2y agoAccording to Wikipedia the rate of deaths to summit attempts is more like 1%. They cite the Himalayan Database as their source for that figure; I'm not sure how accurate that is. I'm assuming by "summit attempt" they mean something like ascending above the high camp, so that wouldn't include people who abandon the climb lower down the mountain? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deaths_on_eight-thousanders https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deaths_on_eight-thousa...
- tim333 2y agoI think the 1% is successful summits to deaths. The number comes down over time. From 1924 (Mallory's death) and 1952 (Hillary's summit) it was infinite deaths per summit as summits were zero.
- chrisco255 2y agoDividing by zero is undefined not infinity.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- bunderbunder 2y agoAh, beans, you're right. I misread. Thanks for the correction!
- btilly 2y agoThank you for the update to my understanding. It does make sense that this figure would evolve over time.
- moneywoes 2y agowhat is your everest story
- arrowsmith 2y agoHere's an article about this with photos: https://www.ultimatekilimanjaro.com/mount-everest-bodies-left-dead-frozen-at-the-top/ https://www.ultimatekilimanjaro.com/mount-everest-bodies-lef... (Note: that link contains photos of frozen human corpses, so maybe don't click it if you're squeamish.) My understanding is that many of these bodies are clearly visible from the trail as you climb the mountain. Imagine seeing the well-preserved corpse of someone who previously attempted the dangerous feat you're now attempting... I don't want to find out what that feels like.
- ricardobeat 2y agoThe irony of a website telling the story of commercialization of climbing the Everest, and the risks involved, while bombarding you with full page ads to buy a climbing package every couple minutes… I also wonder, with so much money going into these expeditions for many decades, how hard would it be to build some kind of safe house not too far from the summit, with oxygen / heating supplies delivered by drone?
- rtkwe 2y agoVery very hard. Purpose built high performance helicopters can barely make it to the Everest summit on ideal days. The air gets so thin they struggle with lift while hovering which to need to land.
- BurningFrog 2y agoI'm guessing personal jet packs aren't a replacement yet?
- gambiting 2y agoOn the other hand DJI has flown their regular consumer Mavic 3 Pro(although I bet it has been modified in some way) all the way to the top, so I have no doubt that with enough of them you could construct almost anything. Not that it would be allowed or even desirable by anyone there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pIyIMqwu0E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pIyIMqwu0E
- vunderba 2y agoI read somewhere that the fact that it's become kind of a "tourist attraction" with far more first time climbers has actually made it more dangerous: https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/climbing/everest-summit-traffic-jam https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/climbing/eve... Really takes the mystery and wonder out of it, but maybe the Nepal government will sell a FastPass.
- tim333 2y agoI'm don't think it's more dangerous. The number of people make it a bit more like a footpath with a guide rail rather than the open mountain of old.
- Cthulhu_ 2y agoGiven the sheer amount of people going there, I would've thought they had set up multiple routes with different difficulty levels and amenities like carved out paths / stairs, bridges, and tourist shops. But I was questioning my own assumption there and as it turns out there's "only" a few hundred people a year that try to make it to the summit, with a total of about 12.000 people that did since the 50's. That said, the surrounding national park gets 100.000 visitors per year, and 500 people a day go up to Everest Base Camp, which is already over five kilometers high up (although people can start from a town with an airport at 2804 meters high).
- rtxgucci 2y agoYeah, I remember reading about this and the reality is, Everest is still a very extreme environment even by today’s standards. It’s very expensive and risky to fly helicopters in the thin atmosphere and weather conditions so it’s very hard to get material up and down.
- nytesky 2y agoWhat about a helicoptered with rocket assist?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- karamanolev 2y agoAre the odds really better though? A quick search reveals an Everest death rate of between 1% - 1.6% depending on the period. Suicide success rate seems at least an order of magnitude higher (maybe more).
- btilly 2y agoNo, suicide success is around 1%. That success rate varies widely with method. But if, for example, you just down a bunch of pills and then tell someone, you're extremely likely to live.