Apparently to climb MT Everest costs a minimum of $50k!

[Henda]

Paying thousands of pounds to do something with a high chance of killing you is the height of stupidity

[kh300]

Paying thousands of pounds to do something with a high chance of killing you is the height of stupidity

You pick up one of your dads weights. You start going to your school gym. You join powerhouse and start posting on getbig. You buy a thong and oil up for stage to win a trophy.

You go for a hike at the local park. You go climb the nearest mountain. You drive cross country to hike a bigger mountain. You find yourself taking on Everest.

Its not stupid,sometimes people get caught up in progression. Its human nature.

[pellius]

PELLIUS, Going up or going down casualties!

Interesting question!

But it appears at first glance that casualties going down is the winner.

This is based on the supposedly fact that too damn many climbers reach the top at the same time on the same day which causes a delay while heading back down within the immediate vicinity of Hillery's Step in which each 'descender' must traverse individually.

I believe that was one of the major factors involved in that 1996 catastrophy .... as those at the top could not get down fast enough to avoid the oncoming storm which caused  a white-out and the eventual death of many. (8 ... I believe it was?)

I believe that it was this catastrophy that caused a number of 'rules' which limited the number of climbers who could 'visit ' the summit at any one time.

And ... An avalanche caused the death of a number of Sherpers but I don't know if they were going up or going down.

I'm sure that here must be some accurate statistics of  Everest interest someplace on this here internet.

I assume that you all realize that there is only a two week window during the month of May in which a successful summit is recommended.

So it's possible to get pretty damn crowded up there!

I would guess there would be more casualties going down than climbing up. Seems like there is more of a chance to slip and fall going down. I mean, stairs is a similar example. You never hear of anybody falling upstairs and if you do you'd probably just drop to your knee. When you fall downstairs you go tumbling down. I figure it's similar to climbing a hill.

[tommywishbone]

You get into trouble on the descent because you use all of your reserves to make the summit. As the summit gets closer you tap into everything you have to make the objective. If you push past your absolute reserves, you have nothing left for the descent and you're still at 29,000 feet and it's 20 below zero.

That's what I've heard more than one high altitude climber say. 

The higher you climb the farther you can see.

[Taffin]

Can I pay the Sherpas to carry me to the top?  I would rather just climb the last couple hundred feet.  Same goes for the descent.   

Reminds me of when Homer hit the gym and got into shape eating PowerSauce^[TM] Bars, then climbed The Murderhorn - half way up he wakes up to find the Sherpa's dragging him up the mountain.... 

[TRIX]

Fly to top with helicopter