I’ve heard what feels like most Everest/K2/Nanga Parbat/Annapurna/etc death stories. I have a morbid fascination with these
Little known facts I’ve learned from them:
- some Sherpas carry a shot of what is likely amphetamine/adrenaline that they will give to anyone they see who is sitting down in the death zone unable to move or respond. If the shot doesn’t help you get down, you are 100% dead. And it usually doesn’t. But it’s cool that some try this as a last ditch effort
- Snow Blindness up there isn’t the reflection of the sun on the snow, and it’s not snow so thick you can’t see, that’s called a white out. Snow blindness is where the tissue of your eyeballs freeze, and it’s permanent. Once it happens, you have to somehow still try to continue on down blind but most die at this point
- People get dehydrated incredibly quickly when organs aren’t getting enough oxygen. And there’s all that tempting snow around to drink. That’s also a death warrant, because drinking snow will vastly increase your rate of hypothermia. If you can’t heat it, you shouldn’t drink it
- when dying of hypothermia, it feels like your body is burning up. This is why people are often found in various state of being disrobed
- climbers frequently face a moral dilemma when seeing a dying climber. They have to decide to risk their own very limited energy and oxygen to help them down or step over them and leave them there to die. They used to be chastised by other climbers when they don’t help. There was a famous case of a climber sitting there dying that was passed by dozens of other climbers who left him there to die
This dude from Co is a baller. But I think you have to be borderline suicidal/crazy to attempt these feats. I love challenging hikes but being a desert rat I don’t do well in the cold or at altitude so….pass
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