Abandoned on Everest

[Silock]

Originally Posted by Over-Head

I'll take the helicopoter ride up for my $10,000

Not sure if you'rer being serious, but the air is too thin for helicopters to fly up there. Otherwise, you'd have helicopter rescues of climbers.

[jAZ]

Originally Posted by Silock

Not sure if you'rer being serious, but the air is too thin for helicopters to fly up there. Otherwise, you'd have helicopter rescues of climbers.

Didn't know that. Makes sense though.

[Miles]

Originally Posted by Silock

Not sure if you'rer being serious, but the air is too thin for helicopters to fly up there. Otherwise, you'd have helicopter rescues of climbers.

I heard something about one landing/hovering there a while back and checked it out on google and it looks legit enough from 5 years ago. The highest rescue apparently is around 23k on another Himalayan mountain which is hardly close to the summit.

[Silock]

Originally Posted by Miles

I heard something about one landing/hovering there a while back and checked it out on google and it looks legit enough from 5 years ago. The highest rescue apparently is around 23k on another Himalayan mountain which is hardly close to the summit.

Yeah, that's still quite a gap to the summit of Everest.

I suppose once more copters have the same power, we'll see less people dying up there.

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by Silock

Yeah, that's still quite a gap to the summit of Everest.

I suppose once more copters have the same power, we'll see less people dying up there.

Or maybe when morons stop going up there, we'll see less people dying up there.

[Silock]

Originally Posted by Bugeater

Or maybe when morons stop going up there, we'll see less people dying up there.

I think the chance of Xenu coming to take us all away tomorrow is higher.

[Groves]

Originally Posted by Bugeater

Or maybe when morons stop going up there, we'll see less people dying leaving humans to die while they climb the summit to stroke their own ego up there.

Fixed.

[Silock]

Originally Posted by Groves

Fixed.

Can you explain exactly how you'd get someone down?

[Groves]

Originally Posted by Silock

Can you explain exactly how you'd get someone down?

I understand that the margins for life in that environment are slim even when all goes well.

I understand that to undertake a rescue put people in jeopardy and most definitely eliminates your ability to reach the summit.

I understand that people have spent many years of training and millions of dollars to position themselves to do what many people aspire to do. Sponsorships. Equipment. Training. Permits, etc.

I understand.

It's a living person, folks. Have you no soul?

The avalanche of justifications always begins with questions like, "Can you explain exactly how you'd get someone down?"

Everyone who shoots for the summit is aiming to accomplish what is all but impossible. Everyone accepts death as a potential outcome, do they not?

So, if they've already accepted a death-sized risk, now all they're saying by passing up the living is that reaching the top of some mountain is more important than saving a living person. It's not even worth trying, they're essentially saying.

It's not like the cure to cancer is at the top. It's not like the solution to world peace is attainable if only you get to the top of everest.

People want the ego boost that reaching the summit gives them, without all that nastiness of kindness getting in the way.

I hope they go through life haunted by the horrible trade-off they made.

I'm generalizing, surely. I'm no expert, double surely.

All the justifications get chucked right quick if it's your wife or child up there (guys with bad wives insert joke here, of course). They get chucked cause they were made of tissue paper, and if enough climbers talk about it like it's justifiable, then we get a trail littered with bodies, which it is.

Maybe I'm just ticked because Burger King pulled their Jack-in-the-Box-esque tacos from the menu after only a 6month trial run. That could very well be. I think it sulleys the whole accomplishment.

[DeezNutz]

Originally Posted by Silock

Can you explain exactly how you'd get someone down?

Chevy Chase sledding style, Christmas Vacation.