Mt. Everest

Andrew Irvine

Andrew was an English mountaineer who was in the 1924 British Expedition, which was the third climb to the world's highest mountain. He and his climbing partner were heading over the mountain's northeast ridge when they vanished. They were sighted at the time only a few hundred meters from the summit. No one knows if they made it to the summit before they died, and Andrew's body was never found. Only his partner George Mallory was found.

(Everest News, 1)

George Mallory

George was one of the most respectable mountaineer and his body wasn't discovered until a massive 75 years later in 1999. May never been known if George made it to the top either. He carried a photograph of his wife when climbing and wanted to leave it at the summit, but was never found. Oxygen bottles were found used and some assume that he was descended and did after all make it to the top. George loved to climb and many think he had the ambition to make it to the top that day. (Mallory, 1)

Blair Griffiths

The Khumbu Icefall is a huge danger. There are huge blocks of ice that are usually umbalanced and ready to tumble over at any time. One unlucky climber, Canadian Blair Griffiths, was a cameraman documenting the Everest Expedition of 1982. Griffiths was helping to secure a ladder for climbers to cross over a crevasse when a six-story block of glacial ice crushed him between two giant blocks of ice. After several attempts, his climbing partners retrieved his body which was soon cremated on the mountain. (Wedinger, 1)

Marco Siffredi

Marco was a snowboarder and was inspired by dangerous feats. He lived for the rush. He started some smaller feats and worked his way up the ladder. His plan was to summit Mount Everest and decent via the Norton Couloir. He did it by snowboard and amazed everyone. Now he wanted to snowboard down it again. When he arrived he noticed it was much more busy than two years ago. He climbed and was extremely out of breath. He turned to go down the Hornbein Couloir once again at 3:15 p.m., and his Sherpa friends watched Marco start to descend. They never see him again after that moment. (Cook, 1)

Summit Fever

A more psychological aspect that causes climbers to become so disoriented that they get into this mental state telling themselves that they need to achieve it. They need to climb. It's what pushes most climbers a little too far, and eventually to their death. (Fader, 1)

Altitude Sickness

Probably the biggest killer, since the mountain is so high. Only at Base Camp, and there is already half as much oxygen in the air than at normal sea level. Near the summit, about 1/3 as much. Your heart pounds due to low oxygen. Your blood vessels around your lungs begin to leak and you start drowning in your own body.

(Pesce, 1)

Frostbite

Usually occurs in hands or feet, but sometimes can take a whole leg or half of a body. You lose any feeling, and must be thawed by warm water. If the water is too hot, it can cause your cells to burst. This is very common when climbing Mt. Everest, especially with the high winds that come. (Everest.net, 1)

Hypothermia

The condition where your body is so cold that it shuts down less important parts including blood circulation to arms and legs. Your body is uncontrollably shivering. You can die within 30 minutes and there are ristricted ways to fix this as additional clothes wont help anymore. The high winds and cold temperature make this a big danger. (Everest.net, 1)

The Mountain

Let's not forget all the dangers of the physical mountain itself. Like the common avalanche, falling rock, hurricane, ice, cliffs, deep snow, and the 29,029′ foot height. The mountain holds a death percentage of 5%. (Everest.net, 1)

The Numbers

Crowding is a problem. Just one part of the mountain - The Hillary Step - looks like an escalator filled with rather than a mountain climb. So many climbers shuffle along fixed rope at a very slow pace to summit, which causes many climbing issues (O'Reilly, 1)