Re:Why Climbers Die On Mount Everest
by Goladus on Monday December 15, 2008 @12:10PM
(#398498)
While that all makes sense, it also seems possible that deaths happen on the descent simply because it takes that long above 8,000 feet for cerebral edema to kill you. It seems like, if those were the main issues, the descent below 8,000 feet would not have shown significantly fewer deaths than above.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Your point about the time it takes for HAPE to set in is valid. But I'm pretty sure that times in the death zone vary greatly. Most parties camp at least one night above 8000m and weather / SNAFU's often hold them there for multiple days So the total time above 8000 varies by much more than the half day it takes to walk down.
No doubt though, the death zone could kill people playing ping pong. Yet the down-climbing problem is global to mountains of any size. The extreme altitude on Everest amplifies it. More accidents occur on the way down on mountains less than half the size of Everest. The mountaineering bible, "Freedom of the Hills" discusses the phenomenon extensively:
http://www.amazon.com/Mountaineering-Freedom-Hills-Mountaine...