“What is the use of climbing Mount Everest?”
George Leigh Mallory (1922): “…My answer must at once be, ‘It is no use.’ There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever…. If you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won’t see why we go. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life… That is what life means and what life is for.”
Facts are daunting when it comes to climbing the world’s tallest mountain. So why would anyone want to climb it? The simplest answer may be: Because it is a daunting endeavor, some people are drawn by the challenge.
Mount Everest is not a place for those whom a walk in the woods is satisfying enough. In fact, it is not a place for anyone who is uncomfortable with risks of extreme danger.
Since the first human summit of Mount Everest in 1953, approximately 4,000 others have followed. Of that number, many did not make it far up the mountain before turning around. Just over 660 climbers summitted while about 140 others never make it back down alive. The mountain, in fact, is a giant ice tombstone for many of the dead because conditions on Everest are too treacherous for rescuers to retrieve the bodies.
Science warns that Everest is no place for human beings – despite professional experience and modern inventions. The mountain is a constant threat of avalanche, crevasse falls, murderous wind and snow storms and below-freezing temperatures even at the height of summer. In such conditions, frostbite, severe sunburn, pneumonia and hypothermia are real risks.
At 29,035 feet, the mountain is 3,000-plus feet higher than the designated “death zone” on Everest when climbers must start using oxygen in order to stay alive other wise their bodies will start to break down. Altitude sickness, however, can sink in long before climbers reach the death zone. Symptoms include headaches, dizziness, coughing, vomiting and insomnia, difficulty breathing and lack of appetite. At very high altitudes, hallucinations, disorientation and loss of consciousness can occur, with coma or death as the ultimate consequence.
For those fortunate enough to make it back down safely, they carry away an exhilarating and rare experience of what it feels like to make it to the top of the world’s tallest mountain. At the same time, they will have also learned an important lesson: When scaling a very large mountain (literally or figuratively), never underestimate the power of humility, luck, patience and extremely hard work.