Corpses on Mountains

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Largo

Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
Topic Author's Original Post - May 13, 2012 - 06:58pm PT
I was reading a chilling account of a team that got caught in a savage storm high on an 8,000 meter peak and had to take refuge in a 30 year old tent in which two corpses were slumbering, perfectly preserved and fully clothed. I wasn't aware of the hideous amount of bodies strewn across these mountains in plain sight (over 200 on Everest). Apparently the tent/corpse episode is not even that unusual.

Glad I was a rock climber.

martygarrison

Trad climber
Washington DC
May 13, 2012 - 07:16pm PT
gruesome
mouse from merced

Trad climber
merced, california
May 13, 2012 - 07:20pm PT
Gag.

Or is it?
Captain...or Skully

climber
May 13, 2012 - 07:30pm PT
Ya gotta die somewhere. Maybe that'll inspire the living that pass by to persevere.....
I dunno.
Johnny K.

climber
May 13, 2012 - 07:44pm PT
There are photos of corpses laying in plain sight on Everest. Not that those peoples situations arent sad or less grime. The real haunting situations are the corpses frozen stuck in middle of the technical routes on steep peaks(frozen on small ledges, or frozen hanging on rappel) I recall reading a few alpine journal reports on the situations.


"**Annapurna (8,091 m)
In total, only 130 climbers have summited Annapurna, while 53 have died. The overall fatality rate is thus 41%.
Nanga Parbat (8,125m)
216 climbers have summited Nanga Parbat and 61 have died. The overall fatality rate thus 28.24%.
K2 (8,611 m)
Fewer than 200 climbers have summited the world's second highest peak – 198 total. 53 have died. K2's overall fatality rate is 26.77%. **


Kangchenjunga (8,586 m)
To date, only 185 climbers have summited Kangchenjunga and 40 have died. The overall fatality rate is thus about 22%.
Manaslu (8,163 m)
To date, 240 climbers have summited Manaslu and 52 have died. The overall fatality rate is thus 21.67%.
Dhaulagiri (8,167 m)
To date, 313 climbers have summited Dhaulagiri and 56 have died. The overall fatality rate is thus 18%.
Makalu (8,485 m)
To date, 206 climbers have summited Makalu and 22 have died. The overall fatality rate is thus about 11%.
Gasherbrum I (8,080m)
Since 1958, only 195 climbers have summited Gasherbrum I and 21 have died. The overall fatality rate is thus 10.77%.
Shisha Pangma (8,027m)
To date, 201 climbers have summited Shisha Pangma and 19 have died. The overall fatality rate is thus about 9.5%.
Everest (8,848m)
Today, Everest has hosted close to 2,000 successful summits. 179 people have perished giving a fatality rate of 9.3%.
Broad Peak (8,051 m)
A mere 255 climbers have summited Broad Peak and 18 have died. The overall fatality rate is thus 7%.
Lhotse (8,516 m)
To date, 243 climbers have summited Lhotse and 11 have died. The overall fatality rate is thus about 4%.
Gasherbrum II (8,034 m)
As for GII, a total of 650 climbers have summited the peak and 17 have died. The overall fatality rate is thus 2.62%.
Cho Oyu (8,188 m)
To date, about 1,400 climbers have summited Cho Oyu and 35 have died. The overall fatality rate is thus 2.5%,

Other statistics:

Smoking:
Each year, 440,000 people die of diseases causes by smoking or another form of tobacco use, that’s about 20% of all deaths in the United States.

Junk food & doing nothing:
Each year, 300,000 people die of poor diet and physical inactivity, that's about 14% of all deaths in the United States, second only to tobacco use. Nearly 59 million adults are obese in US, and the percentage of young people who are overweight has more than doubled in the last 20 years. Fifteen percent of Americans aged 6–19 years are overweight.

Traffic accidents:
Each year nearly 5,000 Americans die in truck crashes. In 1995, 98% of the people killed in two-vehicle crashes involving passenger cars and big trucks were occupants of the passenger vehicles.

Conclusion:
Although these stats are not an exact science and surrounded by a lot of if's and but's, they do offer hints. Surviving on KFC and not working out kills 20% of Americans. Summiting Everest kills 9.3% of climbers."

http://www.mounteverest.net/story/stories/EvrstvsBigMa-killrstatistisMar22004.shtml
mouse from merced

Trad climber
merced, california
May 13, 2012 - 07:51pm PT
Statewide in California, four people and a horse and the elephant at the Riverside Zoo died in the time it took to read the last post.

Boring...

No, serious as my last heart problem, that's quite a lot of dead guys.

You ought to check out Off the Walls, if you haven't.

lol from Merced, center of the State, or close enough



edit: Thanks for "bringing up" yet more (finish yer own metaphor here), Largo...
Toker Villain

Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
May 13, 2012 - 08:04pm PT
Eventually the corpses will become biohazards.

This could put the mountains off limits.


By then, however, everything will have been done.
Clint Cummins

Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
May 13, 2012 - 08:20pm PT
> In total, only 130 climbers have summited Annapurna, while 53 have died. The overall fatality rate is thus 41%.

I would call this a "fatality to summit ratio", not a "fatality rate".
Fatality rate should be like "mortality rate", where the denominator is the number of people at risk - the number of people who attempted the mountain.
Instead of the number who summited.
And if you had really good data, mortality rate by age or skill level for each peak.

I think they are trying to get at the relationship between difficulty of summiting the peak and mortality rate,
but I'm not sure this will work, because you also want to control for skill of the climbers.
rottingjohnny

Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
May 13, 2012 - 08:28pm PT
I used a dirty diaper to wipe my MTB chain off today...Maybe not the same as sharing a tent with peoplesicles...RJ
Dick_Lugar

Trad climber
Casper the Friendly Ghost Town!
May 13, 2012 - 08:40pm PT
Looks like somebody grabbed them a pair of presumably nice mountaineering boots from the first poor soul...
Largo

Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
Topic Author's Reply - May 13, 2012 - 08:57pm PT
Sandy Hill, who has done the Seven Summits gig, and who lives right down the street from me, said that striping off your clothes is typical for people suffering from cerebral edema. Apparently some of these people look pretty much like they always did, just bone white from the elements, like ivory statues. Pity they can't be taken down off the hill but there's no money or glory in body recoveries so there so lie, forever. It's a lonely thought, but maybe not.

JL
Lightenin'

climber
Muleshoeville
May 13, 2012 - 09:00pm PT
Kinda brings you up short, don't it - at least for me it does.

I'm not sure how I would react to a needed (and thankfully found) shelter in a life-threatening storm with two dead bodies lying there. I think I would find that hard, but I am saying that at sea level. Up there, under extreme duress, it would be different.

Is being a rock climber really all that different? Granted, you have much more experience than me and we don't see bodies strewn across the crags, but there are many deaths that occur. I am thinking about the young woman who died last weekend at the Gunks. Everyone says that is an accident that never should have happened, but it did. Climbing - rock, alpine, Himalayan - whatever the form, is pretty dangerous. Heck, there have been two deaths in New Hampshire already this year in Tuckerman's Ravine that "never should have happened," but did.

I wonder (this is a question, not a statement) how much our cavalier attitude towards climbing contributes to this? We think it just fine to drink heavily and smoke all kinds of weed and then go climbing - it's a tradition, after all. I am not against drinking or weed, per se, but I do wonder how much this belittles the sport and makes it seem ... so, lackadaisical and so accessible. I mean, after all, look at the youtube video where Jason Kruk was so hung over from a drinking bout that he shits his pants! And then they rename the climb (Boogie 'til you Poop)! How serious is climbing if that is what the best in the sport do? Is it any wonder then that everyone thinks they can do it and there are so many deaths in this sport?

Toker Villain

Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
May 13, 2012 - 09:13pm PT
They should make all those people trying to buy the summit of Everest take a good look at lots of photos like that.
Chaz

Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
May 13, 2012 - 09:23pm PT
We have our share of frozen corpses here in the low mountains.

This guy had only been here a week.


He picked an especially bad week to hike Old Hwy 38. The fatality-to-summit ratio that week was 50%.

mouse from merced

Trad climber
merced, california
May 13, 2012 - 09:31pm PT
Ron A--Timex takes a licking and keeps ticking even after your ticker quits ticking.

and to the Pitonron (sounds like a cool video game)--

If the mountains were put off limits then what would the poor Sherpa do? I'm sure he could bear the loss, some way. But that rice bowl's bone dry if there is a "freeze" on climbing.
Stewart Johnson

climber
lake forest
May 13, 2012 - 09:40pm PT
long after the corpses are gone or buried the ghosts remain.
rottingjohnny

Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
May 13, 2012 - 09:53pm PT
Ron...state your source...? RJ
climbski2

Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
May 13, 2012 - 10:26pm PT
heh heh heh..

Pissed off a few sherpa's


paul roehl

Boulder climber
california
May 13, 2012 - 10:39pm PT
Those dead bodies become the well placed vanitas' and momento mori's that only serve to enhance the experience and adventure the human mind seeks. The greatest willingness to risk results is the finest experience... maybe? The nearness of death demonstrates the sweetness of life... probably?
Matt

Trad climber
it's all turtles, all the way dooowwwwwnn!!!!!
May 13, 2012 - 10:45pm PT
"Glad I was a rockclimber"

Seriously.
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