Day 5

Web Quest: Mt. Everest

Problem: So many people are dying trying to climb Mt. Everest and most of their bodies just stay up there, frozen.

Evidence:

• As of 2004- 185 climbers have died.
• Every year 185 people seek to attain the 29,035 ft summit.
• 41 dead bodies lay on the North Side as of 2002.
• Some of the dead bodies are never found

Contirbuting Factors:

• Some people run out of gas or just freeze to death
• Some die from diseases such as Pulmonary and can't get to a hospital fast enough.
• The summit, where many deaths occur, could be avoided.
• "Getting to the summit is voluntary. Getting down is mandatory." - Ed Viesturs (First man to climb all 14 Himilayan peaks.)
• It took 12 people 8 hours to move one dead man down a portion of the mountian and that wasn't all the way from the summit.

Solution:

• Climbers need to train more thoroughly and make mental notes of what to do when certain life and death situations arise. Especially up at such a high altitude when your mind can't think as clearly. Technology will also need to improve in order to find a systematic way of returning the bodies, of those who have died climbing, to their families in order to recieve a proper burial.