In my first week of reading Into Thing Air I read to chapter 9 (pg 124) and as I read chapter eight I learned about three deaths, one at 21,000 feet that left Krakauer terrified, he then stumbled upon another a thousand feet above camp two. Later in the chapter we here of a Sherpa, Ngawang Topche who dies of HAPE, High Altitude Pulmonary Edema. "Over weeks that followed he languished in the hospital, arms curled grotesquely at his sides, muscles atrophying, his weight dropped 80 pounds. By mid June Ngwang would be dead." These three incidents made me wonder about the deaths on Mt. Everest. I did some research and this is what I found.
According to http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081209221709.htm, researches conducted a survey on deaths up to Mt. Everest. In total they found that 212 people have died going up to Mt. Everest from 1921 to 2006. The death tole for climbers is 1.6 percent and the Sherpas that take them have a 1.1 percent. The first thing they stumbled upon is that there is a specific spot where most deaths occur, known as the death zone which is 8,000 meters high. The reason that so many deaths appear at this altitude is because this is when the altitude sickness known as high-altitude cerebral edema, which is when a climber ascends to quickly so his/her lungs fill up with fluid, kills. As explained climbers must descend immediately if they want to survive. "We also were surprised at how few people died due to avalanches and ice
falls in recent years – those usually happen at lower altitudes, and
overwhelmingly people died during summit bids above 8,000 feet – and
that during descents, the mortality rate for climbers was six time that
of Sherpas." says Firth. It's confusing that more people die coming down the mountain then up because I thought that high-altitude cerebral edema killed the most people on Mt. Everest but as I read on this website all sorts of things on the mountain can cause death, exhaustion from the hike up to the summit, injuries, disappearances and sickness are major factors to people dying on Mt. Everest and as the article showed me a lot of these incidents happen on the way down.
Hey Jonah! I was really interested in this topic too. I was especially intrigued by the fact that people could actually prepare for the altitude, and avoid the last resort; death. When Rob Hall's team was going up and down past the ice fall and back to base camp multiple times, I wondered if that had to do with avoiding altitude sickness. I did some further research on how climbers become acclimated with climate so as they would survive, and here's what I found.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Sonomaadventures.com, there are three types of altitude sickness; Acute Mountain Sickness, High Altitude Pulmonary Edema, and High Altitude Cerebral Edema. To prevent altitude sickness, the website advises to climb slowly (though competitive Everest adventurers are sure to want to be quick), stay hydrated and train extensively at home as well. Also, a piece of advice that I both noticed in the book and the website was to "climb high and sleep low." When Hall's expedition was at base camp, they would climb to camp one or two and then come back down to sleep at a lower altitude. This was not just some crazy way to prove themselves by going over and over the same route. It was actually a way to acclimate their body to the altitudes to come, and to make sure they were fully prepared.
It's fascinating to learn about the cause of deaths on Everest, as well as prevention methods.
As I was reading the first third of this book, I too was curious about the death statistics on Everest. It's incredible how few people actually make it to the very top of the mountain, even though it's not always because of death that they don''t reach the top. Anyways, after doing some research on this topic I learned some pretty cool facts.
ReplyDeleteAccording to http://www.alanarnette.com/blog the rate of deaths on Mt. Everest has been decreasing since 1996. However, between the years 2000-2012 the total number of deaths was 69, compared to the total number of deaths between 1990-1999 which was only 59. Even though these numbers don't show it, climbing Everest is much safer than it used to be, mostly because of the experienced leaders/trail guides.Many of the modern day deaths come from falling, altitude, and exhaustion. Whereas in the 1990's, the main causes of death were exposure and falling.
I found more statistics on another website, http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles. It is recorded that the total number of deaths that have taken place on Everest equals 200. It doesn't seem like that many compared to the number of people that climb the mountain, which is 4,000, but 200 is still a big number and it continues to increase.
Besides the fact that this is a fairly depressing topic to be researching, I find it very interesting. Climbing Everest would be extremely terrifying and you never know what dangers you could run into.
Hammer J nice post! I was also really interested on the death on Mt. Everest as Krakauer routinely mentioned the effects of the thin air on the human body; altitude sickness. According to thetech.org, after around 8,000 feet (2400 meters), people can begin to feel the effects of altitude sickness. Altitude sickness can be very dangerous, and even deadly. While the air at the top of Mount Everest has the same ratio of oxygen, there is only 1/3 of the amount of air. As stated by Holly above, there are three types of altitude sickness: Acute mountain sickness, high altitude cerebral edema, and high altitude pulmonary edema. Acute mountain sickness is the preliminary illness that happens when a climber ascends too high, too quickly. Acute mountain sickness is characterized by: headache, dizziness, fatigue, dry cough, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, disturbed sleep and malaise. A climber who is suffering with acute mountain sickness may think that they can keep climbing....bad move. If a climber keeps climbing while suffering from acute mountain sickness, they can also suffer from the much more severe high altitude cerebral edema and high altitude pulmonary edema. Both illnesses are just as bad as the other and highly fatal. High altitude cerebral edema is a very lethal illness where the lack of oxygen flowing to the brain causes it to be filled with fluids. Symptoms include: unsteady gait, inability to perform minor daily tasks, confusion, loss of memory, hallucinations, psychotic behavior, coma, and death. High altitude pulmonary edema is when the lungs fill with fluids which block the transfer of oxygen from air to blood. Climbers can go unconscious while suffering from high altitude pulmonary edema. If they do, they must be descended or given oxygen or they will die. A way to prevent altitude sickness is to acclimatize, like the climbers do in the book. By ascending slowly, the body has a chance to get used to the lack of oxygen in the air. While climbing into the thin air can be done, some people simply can not acclimatize and have to descend or face the consequences.
ReplyDeleteJensen Yamane