Everest isn’t a climbing problem, it’s a logistics problem. Recognizing that fact was how Hillary conquered it.
At least two 80-year-old men have summitted Everest. And at least one 70-year-old woman. If there were no snow and it was at sea level, any reasonably fit 18-year-old man could make the climb in board shorts and flip-flops.
Everest is unclimbable 50 weeks of the year due to constant gale and hurricane force winds. But every year, for about two weeks in May, just at the start of the monsoon season, there is a truce between the air mass trying to come down from China and the weather coming north from the Bay of India and the winds subside (at least part of the time). And that’s the window the climbing world waits for.
But it’s still colder than a demoncrat’s heart, and the air is too thin for a human to survive there indefinitely. That’s why it’s called “the death zone.”
You have to get there weeks early to spend time living at altitude so you’ll have more red blood cells if you get your shot at the summit. When you’re sitting at Base Camp, if your O2 sats are 60% or higher, you’re one of the lucky ones. With that little oxygen in your system, your body barely can burn the food you eat. You’re slowly starving, not because you have no food, but because there’s too little oxygen for your body to burn it.
And there you sit and wait for the weather to clear, praying that you’ll be one of the ones who gets a shot when it does. And that some tourist who couldn’t climb the Eiffel tower doesn’t get in your way and scupper your attempt.
If you want to climb a REAL mountain, one that takes serious climbing skill, go to K2. Or Nanga Parbat. They’ve killed more people than the plague.
Causes of mortality on Everest
avalanches - 77 people (25.2%)
falls and falls - 71 persons (23,2%)
mountain sickness - 36 people (11,7%)
exhaustion - 26 people (8,5%)
frostbite and freezing - 26 people (8,5%)
illnesses (cold, flu, pneumonia) - 25 persons (8,2%)
collapses on Khumbu Ice Falls - 15 persons (4,9%)
falls in cracks - 11 people (3,6%)
lost without a trace - 9 people (2,9%)
other reasons - 7 (2.3%)
stone falls - 3 people (1%)
Update: Toll now at 11 deaths.
Not even sane. If it was A/V node issues like branch block or angina or whatever it was that prompted the pacemaker, no doctors, no treatment, and no way to save your azz. Try Pike's Peak or the Matterhorn, but leave the Big One to the pros like Kami Rita. RIP.