Mount Everest Is Everything Wrong With Society

Added: 2026-06-09

[00:00:03]Buckle up, ladies and gentlemen. We are in for a long ride. Uh, got this video here from Patrick CC. This video is 39 minutes long. All right, I'm going to try my best not to pause the video too much cuz I don't want this reaction going over an hour just like that other one I did the other day. Uh, but y'all see the title here, man. Mount Everest is everything wrong with society. The original video will be in the description for you guys to check out more and even subscribe. I'm just trying to figure out why people there has been so much evidence, so much footage of of the things that can go wrong.

[00:00:46]It's like what can go wrong will, but people still go, man. So, we ain't going to waste no more time. Let's jump right into it.

[00:00:57]Climbing the world's tallest mountain used to be the most respected achievement in mountaineering, and today it's an absolute joke. The mountain is littered with trash. There are traffic jams at the top. Tik Tockers are filming themselves on the brink of death. This guy thought he was a legend for doing a backflip at 29,000 ft. And it somehow gets worse. A 60-year-old climber got mad at his partner, who was dying of oxygen deprivation for taking blurry photos of him at the top. Inexperienced climbers are actually dying while waiting in a line of 100 plus people to reach the peak. And the craziest part is all of them are paying insane amounts of money to do this. One woman took out a second mortgage on her house to be able to afford the journey. And that's because there are companies that charge up to €200,000 for a luxury Mount Everest experience off.

[00:01:52]So you you are paying to die pretty much.

[00:01:58]This is ridiculous, man.

[00:02:01]Again, if they could not document this, if they could not film it and have it posted somewhere, would they still do it? social media, man. I tell you, >> bring private chefs, heated tents, pingpong, and even massage tables. All of which would not even be possible without the native people, aka sherpas, who are the only people that can actually survive the extreme climate on the mountain. These locals have went from being expert guides to overworked and underpaid workers that are dying so someone else can get bragging rights online. Before I researched this video, I knew it was bad, but I had no idea it was this bad. There's a dark side of Mount Everest that is only getting worse every year. And once you understand what's really happening up there, it completely changes the way you look at the tallest mountain in the world.

[00:02:50]Starting with the only people worthy of praise for climbing Everest, the Sherpas. Sherpas are the people that migrated from eastern Tibet to the Solu Kumbu district of Nepal centuries ago.

[00:03:02]After generations of settlement, they had biologically adapted to a harsher climate where most Westerners can barely breathe. Located on the border of Nepal and Tibet, Mount Everest sits at an elevation of 8,948 m or 29,031 ft. For perspective, that's about 20 to 26 Empire State Buildings stacked on top of each other, depending on where you measure the top. Or for fun, it's about 5,696 Danny DeVitos tall. Most humans around the world are biologically unable to survive at that elevation. But when scientists were able to study the Sherpas, they quickly proved that they had superior genetics. Interesting differences showed up in the muscle cells of the two groups. In the muscles of the Sherpas, the study found the cells mitochondria, the energy producing parts, converted more oxygen into energy. The Sherpa's mitochondria were less leaky and therefore more efficient than Westerners mitochondria. In layman's terms, they were better at using oxygen. During the climb, Sherpas are the ones maintaining the ropes, checking anchors, and are able to use more energy to make split-second decisions to prevent mountaineers from dying, which is how the very first summit was actually possible. New Zealand mountaineer Edmund Hillary and the native Sherpa Tenzing Nor finally became the first men to summit Mount Everest in 1953. Hillary admitted that none of it would have been possible without Nor and his natural ability to physically use less oxygen in times of crisis. I was leading down the ice fall and when I was crossing a creass, a large lump of ice gave way on which I was standing and I set off down the down a creasse. Well, Tenzing who was following um had the rope tight in a very short time and pulled me up so I didn't go very far.

[00:04:43]>> When people saw the successful Hillary and Nor expedition, they couldn't wait to be the next people to reach the top.

[00:04:48]Mountaineers Ernst Schmeed and Jurig Marmmet used the same route as Hillary and Nor along the southeast ridge and their climb to the summit was successful. But what these pioneers never expected was that this route along the southeast ridge just look at that.

[00:05:03]Look at that shot, man.

[00:05:06]Like really look at that.

[00:05:10]That is insane. All to get up there to take a photo like one day become as crowded as the lines to get on amusement park rides. Everyone understands that climbing a mountain is dangerous, but I think we need to remind these tourists and tick tockers who aspire to climb Everest how this thing is a literal death trap and that multiple people actually die every year on this journey. But first, we all live busy lives and there are so many things to do and it never feels like there's enough time in the day. You should probably go get that yearly checkup to make sure you're in good health, but you don't have time to sit on hold all day today.

[00:05:49]>> I literally went to the doctor yesterday to get my physical and stuff and I I got to hit more cardio. I'll just say that.

[00:05:57]Get your money, Patrick.

[00:06:02]>> Doc is free to use. Taking care of your health just got easier. Head to zdoc.com/patrickcc to get started and check that appointment off your to-do list.

[00:06:14]It all starts in Lucla, Nepal, a mountain town with an airport smaller than a football field that tourists from around the world fly into to start their trek. The hike from Lucla to the Everest base camp will take more experienced mountaineers around 4 to 7 days. But for the slower and less experienced, it can take as many as 7 to 14 days. Luckily, along the way, there are beautiful mountain towns and villages with friendly locals. This isn't even the beginning of the true Everest climb. And yet, most people will experience the brutal side effects of minimal oxygen at higher altitudes. One previous treker wrote, "Over 5,000 m, you're out of breath, even going up a couple of flights of stairs. It feels like hiking with the worst hangover you've ever had.

[00:06:57]Headaches, nausea, dizziness, and blurred vision." YouTuber Madison Clydesdale talked about getting sick halfway through the hike to base camp.

[00:07:04]>> It's day four. Last night I got really sick from I think altitude sickness, but it also could have been the pasta that I ate. So I have to take some some Diamox, which is the altitude sickness pill. And once you start taking that, you have to continue >> the entire time until you've gotten back down to a lower elevation. The reason it takes so long to reach base camp is not necessarily because of the distance, but rather the required exercises called acclimization rotations, which are basically just trekers staying multiple nights in these mountain towns so their bodies can adjust to the altitude. Once a climber reaches base camp, they will be breathing in about 50% of the oxygen they would be at sea level. And this is where the extreme danger begins. First, they must consider that at any point there can be an avalanche, falling rock, or horrible weather that can kill them.

[00:07:55]Next to camp is the Kumbu Glacier, which shifts around by several hundred meters every year, which means the trail to the summit is never exactly the same. So, they go in with a plan, but they must be ready to adapt. After base camp, the climbers are immediately confronted with the most dangerous physical obstacle on the mountain called the Kumbu Icefall.

[00:08:14]It's where you'll find the highest concentration of these extremely deep creasses that require temporary bridges made out of ladders to cross.

[00:08:22]>> Nope.

[00:08:23]Oh no.

[00:08:27]>> Could you imagine if that was like >> these creasses shift on average a few feet per day. But luckily, the Sherpas have once again made the dreams possible for thousands of mountaineers. Sherpas are not just guides. They're the ones who quite literally build the path to the top. They're on the mountain daily fixing ropes along the most dangerous sections, setting ladders, and mapping out the safest possible route through the constantly shifting ice. They carry the majority of the gear, set up camps at extreme altitudes, and are constantly saving lives of those who are in way over their head. These days, Everest isn't conquered. It's more of an endurance feat engineered by the Sherpas. Despite this, human error is real, and fatal accidents still happen all the time. There are also the massive seraks that must be considered. These ice towers are highly concentrated around the Kumbu icefall. And if one collapses nearby and causes an avalanche, the odds of survival are often next to zero. If mountaineers make it through the Kumbu icefall alive, the next stretch of the journey is between camp 1 and camp 2. It's often referred to as the western CWM or the silent valley. The air is thinner, which forces mountaineers to move slower, and the deep creasses become a lot harder to spot. Fallen snow can cover the top of the creasses, forming what's called a snow bridge. It almost acts like a trap, and if climbers fail to spot it in time, there's a good chance they'll step on what looks like firm ground, only to fall in and be buried alive. But this is far from the only chance a journeyman on Everest has to be buried. Between camps 2 and three, they have to get through an obstacle known as Lost Face. According to one climber, climbing the Lost Face can be dangerous because of the high chance of avalanche and constantly falling rocks. As a matter of fact, one of our sherpas on our expedition once had his head cracked open by a falling rock. Apparently, he was running around screaming wanting a rescue. Avalanches and falls remain the primary cause of death along the southeast ridge.

[00:10:21]However, the greatest obstacle that people tend to forget running around screaming wanting a rescue. Avalanches and falls remain the >> most common boy.

[00:10:35]people crazy man.

[00:10:37]>> Primary cause of death along the southeast ridge. However, the greatest obstacle that people tend to forget about Everest is timing the reliable weather. The hike has to occur in a brief window between midappril to late May. If anyone attempts to scale Everest in the winter, the temperatures are lethal, reaching below freezing, even at base camp, and the storms are frequent and extreme. The wind speeds between December and February alone could carry you off the face of the mountain like a leaf. The summer is monsoon season, which can cause heavy rainfall, high humidity, and the risk of avalanches and landslides. Fog and cloud cover also obstruct visibility, making navigation very difficult. Camp 4 is the final resting place where mountaineers can set up a tent and sleep. After this, they must reach the summit and come back down in one go, which usually takes about 12 to 18 hours round trip. No matter how prepared they are, what kind of gear they have, or how many sherpas are with them, nothing stops your body from working against you. Which is why they call it the death zone.

[00:11:37]>> This is what people call the death zone in the world. There are very few human habitations above 16,000 ft because you're you just can't keep up. Now all of a sudden, you're at 26,000 ft. You're 10,000 ft above that level. And so things are breaking down. If you cut yourself, you don't heal very well. If you get sick, you do not get better. So, you're definitely in the zone where your body can't keep up. And on summit day, from the South Call to the Summit, people are driving themselves really hard. They're typically haven't been eating and drinking very well. They haven't been sleeping well. They're affected by the hypoxia. They may be hypothermic. And so, this is the most dangerous place. One, just environmentally, the atmosphere. There's less oxygen. And then two, they're tired from this whole process. But the most frightening part of reaching this stage is how the climate messes with your judgment and self-awareness. Most climbers refer to this as summit fever, where you stop focusing on the frostbite on your body, measuring the amount of oxygen you have left in your bottles, assessing your remaining strength, and ignore the lethal cold temperatures all because you're so excited to reach the top. The last thing hopefully that will bring you back to reality is the hundreds of dead bodies that remain frozen solid as a reminder of what might happen if you lose your mind and fail.

[00:12:51]On the north side, there's a summit fever victim that acts as a landmark known as Green Boots, who is an unidentified dead body that many believe died in 1996. And Green Boots isn't alone. The oldest body to be found on Everest is George Maloy, who attempted to be the first climber to reach the peak in 1924. His body was found in 1999 and no one knows whether or not he made it to the top. He passed over 100 years ago and his body is still there. But most of the deaths on Everest don't happen on the way up to the top. It's actually the descent from the summit that tends to be the most dangerous. The euphoria after reaching the top combined with the fatigue causes people to make bad decisions like missteps on a steep slope or forgetting to fasten themselves to a secure line on the way down. Like in the infamous 1996 disaster when 30 climbers thought they could beat the bad weather, closing in at the top of the mountain, only for the storm to claim eight lives and leave many severely injured. One of the survivors named Beck Weathers fully expected to die until his expedition leader, Michael Groom, managed to save him just in time.

[00:13:56]>> I'm not surprised when you saw me the second time that I looked like I'd already gone. The severe frostbite led to Weathers losing a large portion of his hands, forearms, and even a number of toes. But to people like Michael Groom, climbing high summits was like another religion. He truly felt that the >> Where did I hear about this at? Was it Mr. Ballin?

[00:14:19]I know about that part.

[00:14:22]Sheesh, man. This is brutal. And people are still going to go. It was a worthwhile risk to stand at the top of the world.

[00:14:32]>> This black mark here represents the frostbite that I received um in the last few days.

[00:14:37]>> Good heavens, Michael. I mean, is it really worth it?

[00:14:42]>> Well, you'd have to think looking at it that it's it's not, but um we all realize the risks involved and you accept those risks.

[00:14:51]>> No.

[00:14:52]>> Or you don't play the game.

[00:14:53]>> Tik Tocker Bianca Adler attempted the climb before turning 18. Luckily, she was smart enough to realize she would not survive the death zone and turned back, but it still nearly killed her.

[00:15:04]>> I just come back.

[00:15:16]>> She literally sounds like walking dead. like right before they get ready to fall asleep and wake up as a zombie.

[00:15:29]Like she barely can breathe, barely can talk. And this this right here is an example of someone turning around.

[00:15:39]You know, it's like how much did she watch before going and then you make that decision like, you know what, I think I'll be all right. I think I can do this. No, no.

[00:16:05]Her video racked up tens of millions of views on Tik Tok, but people weren't exactly sympathetic. It's hard to feel bad for people who climb Mount Everest.

[00:16:14]Mind you, she paid for this. Rich people problems. Being poor has saved me yet again, but Bianca is definitely not looking for sympathy. As I speak right now, she is attempting to summit the mountain once again. Now, very rarely, there are people who complete a successful summit without serious injury that are not entirely delusional. The famous survivalist Bear Grills climbed Everest at just 23 years old. He's put himself in more dangerous experiences than most people, but he always seems shaken whenever he talks about how he barely escaped the mountain with his life.

[00:16:46]>> Two Russians and a a Brit New Zealander from other teams, but they're Larry on the mountain at the same time and and never came back. And I remember with their teammates, you know, afterwards just them them in tears and sitting with them and it does it definitely made me question a lot at the time is is any mountain really worth a life of which your clear answer is no. But at the time you're sometimes your ambition is you know who's like we're going to go for it and and that's why I think now kind of with a bit of time and experience would I would I do it now? Would I take a one in six chance of not coming home now?

[00:17:23]No. because you have more to live for.

[00:17:25]>> From lost limbs to frozen corpses along the trail to deep creasses and avalanches that bury you within seconds, you'd think this would scare mountaineers away from ever trying to reach this summit again. But the stories and drama surrounding Everest have only encouraged more climbers to attempt it every year. The journey of climbing Mount Everest has been so romanticized in the past few decades that an entire tourism industry is being built for inexperienced climbers that are totally ignoring the deadly ramifications of their dream to take a selfie on the tallest mountain in the world. By the early 2000s, the focus surrounding Everest had shifted from small commercial expeditions with select groups into dozens of companies attempting to sell the full luxury experience. Many of them like Seven Summit Treks, 8K Expeditions, Ferinbach Adventures, and Asian Trekking started offering packages that cater strictly to the ultra wealthy. Here are some of the service descriptions from these expedition companies. A certain level of comfort and luxury like western chefs, heated lounge tents, roomy member tents with real beds, a zerocarbon footprint, or our own team doctor are an obviousness for us. Serving you champagne is easy. If you look at Ferinbach Adventures base camp setups, it looks more like glamping than the world's most dangerous climb. They even have hot water showers. Their most premium experience package will cost you €200,000, which is nearly a4 million. But the company Climbing the Seven Summits takes it a step further. Our spa is fully stocked with a massage table, heater, electric blanket, relaxing music, and of course, our very talented massage therapist to help cure the aches and pains from upper mountain climbing exclusively for our CTSs team. Tents are 20 ft x 14 ft and come fully equipped with a queen-sized bed with electric blanket, heating, satellite TV, insuite bathroom, an entryway to store your duffles, lighting, charging, couch, table, a CTSs onesie for lounging, and our famous morning drink service by our on staff barista. Little reminder that that's not a description for a beachside resort. This is the tallest mountain in the world.

[00:19:41]They should literally make it illegal to climb there and take all that stuff that they're doing to have all this luxury and put that money somewhere else. Give it to the damn sherpas cuz that that is just crazy, man. Hey, have some luxury before you die.

[00:20:03]And their ads do a hilarious job of justifying these ridiculous amenities to their rich clientele. The heart of camp is our famous big house, a huge geodessic dome designed to feel like a giant living room. Sure, having a professional barista pump out limitless cappuccinos while you play the world's highest game of ping pong or chill out overlooking the ice, it may seem a bit over the top. Like, is this an Everest expedition? It's not really meant to be luxurious. But hear us out. Because while you may think we're being soft, all of this is actually highly strategic. And yet, the marketing is working. Everest has become a multi-million dollar cash cow. But the luxury offerings have misled people into thinking they're capable of doing the impossible. According to three university professors studying Everest relationship with the tourism industry, sleeping in heated tents, not preparing their own food, or helping to move equipment does not test mental and physical fitness in such challenging environments. Pushing to the summit may put their own lives and the lives of other climbers and rescue teams at risk.

[00:21:06]Without all of the extra work people traditionally did at base camp, testing their strength before the ascent, many unprepared climbers started marching to their deaths. Like 34year-old English hiker David Sharp, who made his ascent up Everest from the northeast ridge, receiving initial assistance with Asian trekking, Sharp felt like he could make the rest of the ascent up Everest on his own in what's called an unguided climb.

[00:21:29]He refused to seek the assistance of Sherpas and only took two bottles of oxygen for the ascent. But by the time he reached the death zone, Sharp was reportedly crawling on the verge of total exhaustion. Over 40 climbers passed him as he settled into Green Boots Cave, slowly dying from the lack of oxygen until he eventually perished.

[00:21:48]It was one of the first widely publicized critiques of the larger commercial expeditions. Even Edmund Hillary was reportedly outraged about the mismanagement and neglect of a fellow mountaineer. But Sharp wasn't the only tragedy. Out of the 200 summits on both major sides of the mountain, 12 were found dead. But the details surrounding Sharp's death are slightly disputed. Many have pointed out that some Sherpas actually made their way to Sharp's location to supply him with oxygen, but he allegedly refused to move and only wanted to sleep. There's only so much someone else can do to help someone in the death zone. It's not like you can literally drag them down the mountain, and you definitely can't rescue them with a helicopter. Sharp's death serves as a warning about unguided climbs without Sherpas. Then again, Sherpas are not invincible either, and guiding inexperienced climbers has only increased their risk of death. Sherpas are starting to be seen more by paying customers as service workers rather than expedition partners. In 1992, for example, when the first commercial mountaineering expeditions on Everest began.

[00:22:49]>> See, I wouldn't even be doing that. You know, it's like you feel bad for the Sherpas, but at the same time, it's like, yo, I would not be doing these guided tour things. No way. I would Uh-uh. You I don't care how much money they trying to give me. You want to go up there, go ahead. Count me out. Oh, no.

[00:23:15]>> 22 Sherpas and 65 paying mountaineers summited. One Sherpa for three clients.

[00:23:20]Nowadays, two or even three Sherpas for each member of a commercial expedition is common. One YouTuber even explained how his guide was doing all the work for him so they could move faster. And he was going fast. I don't I don't know why we were going so fast down. We had made great time. We were feeling good. We had plenty of oxygen, but my guy was going so fast. I mean, he was he was unclipping and clipping for me. I didn't even get the chance to clip my own carabiner. But hey, you know what? I'm I'm not going to complain. Of course, this has a lot to do with the fact that today's Sherpa will basically do anything requested when working for larger companies. On top of guiding you up the mountain, the Sherpas are the ones setting up the two plus bedroom tents with showers and chefs at base camp. They set up the spa treatment facilities, the medical stations, and they even climb up and down the mountain collecting the growing mounds of trash people leave in the higher altitude camps when hikers don't want to expend too much energy bringing it back down.

[00:24:16]Most of these Nepalese sherpas don't even want to do this anymore. But due to their isolation and poverty, most of them feel like they have no other choice.

[00:24:24]>> Over the past 5 years, 32 Sherpas have been killed as part of guided climbs on Everest. 32 among just a few hundred who work there. That makes the job of the Sherpa per capita the most deadly on Earth.

[00:24:40]>> Why would anyone do such dangerous work?

[00:24:42]>> The thing is that there's no option.

[00:24:44]There's no choice. There's no other work.

[00:24:46]>> No other work.

[00:24:47]>> What percentage would you say would rather not be here? Risking their >> 80 to 90% easy.

[00:24:52]>> Nine out of every 10 sherpers would rather not be here.

[00:24:55]>> Yeah, it's sad.

[00:24:56]>> And as a result, every spring season leads to more and more Sherpas carrying unnecessary luxury supplies to different camps along Everest, risking the possibility of death. In 2014, dozens of Sherpas were transporting supplies from base camp, only for 16 of them to be buried after a fatal avalanche.

[00:25:15]According to the Himalayan database, the ledger keeper of the human death toll in mountaineering, 132 climbing sherpas have perished on Everest slopes, 28 in the past decade alone. Additionally, while the foreign climbers pay over $50,000 per climb, a climbing Sherpo will usually make between $2,000 to $5,000 per season, leading multiple clims. But the Nepalese government sees tourism as a valuable revenue stream for the country. The industry grows bigger every year with little consideration for the Sherpas. Even Tenzing Nor's own son, Norbou, has called it out for the troubling business it actually is.

[00:25:53]>> You know, I call Everest Ink.

[00:25:55]>> Everest Inc. Everest, Inc., you know, it's a cash cow.

[00:25:58]>> What do you think your father would make of it? Everest in 2018.

[00:26:03]>> You know, if he were alive today, I don't think he would uh recognize the mountain. And, you know, if anything, he might feel sorry that he actually climbed it. But the worst part of the luxury marketing and sherpa exploitation is that it's attracted more and more of the wrong types of people interested in climbing Mount Everest. Which is why you see numb skulls like this doing back flips at the peak of the mountain.

[00:26:25]>> Good morning from the top Mount Everest.

[00:26:32]>> You see them pulling on that rope.

[00:26:35]Sherpa saying to themselves, "If you had so much extra energy, why am I carrying your Everest continued popularity has led to some of the most disturbing and honestly embarrassing stories the mountain has ever seen?" In 2012, a Canadian woman named Shria was desperate to make her way up to the Mount Everest summit in the middle of a poor climbing season. Ironically, she was born in Nepal near Everest, but spent most of her life in India and finally Canada.

[00:27:01]However, when her father flew her up in a helicopter as a child to see the top of Everest, she became convinced it was her destiny to reach the summit on her own two feet. But regardless of her Nepalese heritage, and patriotic ambitions, Shria was not a professional climber. Her training leading up to Everest was rock climbing at her local gym, martial arts, and carrying a 44lb backpack for 11 mile runs in cold weather. These were impressive fitness regimens, but using it as training for Everest is like saying daily walks in your neighborhood qualifies you for an Iron Man challenge. Wearing rented gear and posing in front of a green screen for a fake Everest photo, Shria created a website to ask for donations to fund her journey. This is my dream and that's what I would do. Just give me a green screen and I say, "Look y'all, I'm here.

[00:27:51]I made it."

[00:27:53]how people wouldn't know the damn difference, man.

[00:27:59]>> And I want to do something for my country. Nothing is impossible in this world. Even the word impossible says I'm possible. You'll find this is extremely common for people who want to climb Mount Everest. This is their big dream.

[00:28:11]This is their magnum opus. And they expect people to care. And to no surprise to all of us, nobody donated to Sharia to help her achieve her dream.

[00:28:20]So, she convinced her husband to pull out a second mortgage on their home to sign with Utmost Adventures for $40,000.

[00:28:27]She went to base camp and hoped to learn enough mountaineering skills during a climatization. Except she had trouble putting on her krampons, which were the modernized version of hobnail boots that helped climbers grip the ice and snow.

[00:28:40]These are like day one elementary basic level skills that a mountaineer should have. Her inexperience was so evident that her tour leader actually attempted to scare her away by saying that her attempts to summit would lead to certain death. Plus, her delusion would also put her climbing partners' lives in jeopardy. But it only got worse when Shria didn't account for something that had been growing over the last decade on Everest. As more people were attempting to reach the summit, in addition to poor weather conditions, traffic jams at the top began to form. It was a new phenomenon where too many people would try to reach the summit when the weather had briefly cleared up. An estimated 150 climbers tried to reach the top Friday and Saturday as they rushed to use a brief window of good weather in an otherwise troubled climbing season. Many had been waiting at a staging camp for several days for their chance to head to the summit.

[00:29:28]>> Most people die on Everest because of the cues to the summit >> really >> cuz it's so oversold despite it being like £100,000 to you're paying all this money. You have to live on the mountain for 3 months to acclimatize and then there's a chance that you may not do it.

[00:29:41]When Shria was reaching the summit, she was showing levels of hypoxia that caused a number of Sherpas to advise her descent. Sherpa Takuri says he begged the Toronto woman to turn around, telling her that she'd already been up in the death zone too long and warning that the weather was turning. Sharia shook him off. She was saying, "I don't want to go back. There's no way. I'm going to the top." The climbers are technically supposed to formally agree to listen to their guides, but people's own egos can lead to their demise. The problem is that if she doesn't listen, there is no way we can carry her down.

[00:30:14]Turi says matterofactly, "She wasn't the only one to ignore his advice." A 16-year-old Nepali girl and a Swiss man also opted to continue. Sadly, the Sherpas would be proven right when Shria lost her bearings during the descent and slowly started to die. She decided to rest in the death zone. And I think we know what happens when you rest in the death zone. Her retrieval was determined to be too dangerous to attempt and she died wrapped in the Canadian flag. A PhD in counselor education and supervision, Dr. Todd Grande, outlined overlooked problems of inexperienced and quite frankly unwealthy people.

[00:30:49]>> I don't know. I I don't remember if they said if she had any kids or anything, but she done left your husband. You done took out this this money. So now he's probably in some type of debt and you gone. you are gone never to return because you your ego and you're too stubborn. You got these experts telling you this is not good for you and you just had to do it. Man, it's wild.

[00:31:20]>> Bull attempting to climb.

[00:31:22]>> The decision to borrow money put her under a tremendous amount of pressure to succeed. Perhaps she thought that if she failed, she would never get another opportunity to climb the mountain. She was going to need years just to pay off the debt from the first trip, especially considering how the interest would accumulate.

[00:31:39]>> What did I just say?

[00:31:40]>> By the time she reached Nepal, she had already made up her mind that she was going to stand on the summit of Mount Everest or die trying. Nothing else mattered to Sharia. Her life did not matter. Other people were expendable as well. Making it back down the mountain was not her area of focus. She was only interested in reaching the top.

[00:32:00]Delusional people arguing with the expert Sherpas knowing that they're going to die has become more common. A sherpa named Norbu said that he had to waste his energy fighting a man in the death zone just to get him to stop climbing. We had a big argument and I had to tell him he was risking the life of two Sherpas as well as his own before he would come down. He couldn't even walk properly. We had to slide him down with the ropes. So, by the time we reached base camp, he was really grateful. Gordon Jano with Alpine Ascents has talked about how companies are lying to customers because telling them they will likely die isn't good for business. And then inexperienced climbers are lying to themselves because of their desire to become a legend without considering the very real people who would have to deal with the consequences of their actions.

[00:32:44]>> Even with these things going on, we're getting calls like, "I heard about the disasters, but hey, what does it take to climb Everest?" You know, we'll give them a three or four year routine. But also unfortunately people are doing uh one or two smaller climbs. They felt like they've done well. They're contacting a an outfitter saying can I give it a try with this kind of experience and they're saying yes. So a combination I think of people misreading what it takes to climb Everest and perhaps some of the guide services misreading um what should be expected from clients before taking them on this mountain. But what's even more insane is the story of a man who did make it back alive but felt like he didn't get his money's worth because of his demands that the Sherpas wouldn't comply to. In 2017, a retired Pakistani colonel named Abdul Bati arrived at base camp ready to reach the summit. And while he claimed to have summited other mountains easily, most of the senior sherpas refused to go up the mountain with him. He was 60 years old, incredibly slow, and most of the expedition team felt like assisting him would result in certain death. Now any normal business would probably take the advice from veteran sherpas and refused the service. But Abdul insisted after spending the money and they forced a young Sherpa named San to take him to the summit. The combination of San's lack of experience and Abdul's lack of speed turned out to be a disaster. By the time they reached the south summit before reaching the top of Everest, Abdul was already running out of oxygen.

[00:34:09]On top of the fact that they were waiting behind other climbers, but Abdul recalling his experience sounds like a bad Yelp review. The oxygen I was already carrying finished at the South Summit. The second bottle should have brought us back to the South Summit, but it finished at the Everest Summit. He also went on to blame Sanange or a team member for messing up his bottles, saying he may have opened the oxygen valve too much while fitting it on me.

[00:34:31]Or maybe the cylinder was half full and he didn't check. Who knows? And if it wasn't for the summit fever, the two might have started their descent. But the summit was so close that San and Abdul decided to go up anyway. Sanange was visibly suffering, but Abdul didn't seem to care. All he cared about was his self-image on top of the mountain. You can tell that the Sherpa was possibly suffering from hypoxia just by the way he handled the camera. He didn't take a single good photo. He couldn't even hold the camera straight. Cut this part or that part of my body out of the frame.

[00:35:00]There's only one photo where he managed to get my face properly. But by the time they started the descent, it was too late. San was losing consciousness and Abdul could only complain others didn't stop to help. I believe there would have been some oxygen cylinders at one of the dumps. So many people crossed us. I requested them to help, but no one looks at you. No one helps you. One guy asked me if I was from one of the seven summits team. I said yes. He took a photo of me and just left. Before the two nearly froze to death, a Sherpa rescue team retrieved them, but San didn't make it out in one piece, losing most of his fingers and later traveling to America for prosthetics. Literally everyone from mountaineer experts to sherpas agree that Everest is overcrowded and as a result will only lead to more people dying and the Nepalese government is fully aware of this but they just make too much money to care about it.

[00:35:50]>> How many of the climbers that you permit to climb? Uh do you think are wellqualified?

[00:35:56]>> Maybe around 50 55%.

[00:36:00]>> 50%.

[00:36:01]>> Half.

[00:36:02]>> Yeah. In 2019, Everest experienced their best financial season yet. Instead of focusing on moderation and safety, Nepal issued a record-breaking 381 permits for the upcoming climbing season. But when people started piling up at base camp, it turned out that the weather was some of the worst they had seen in several years. It was now getting into late May, and the opportunities to find a perfect summit window were becoming scarce. On average, there are only 7 to 12 days for summit opportunities where people can take their selfies and descend safely.

[00:36:32]The perfect day in 2019 was on May 22nd, which led to a complete disaster. Lines leading to the summit resembled more of a line to a theme park ride rather than a hike to the world's highest peak. The New York Times followed the story of an Arizona doctor named Ed Doring. He had worked his entire life to reach the summit only to enter the death zone and see people literally fighting each other for the perfect photo. The Times wrote, "Climbers were pushing and shoving to take selfies. The flat part of the summit, which he estimated at about the size of two ping-pong tables, was packed with 15 or 20 people. To get up there, he had to wait hours in a line chest to chest, one puffy jacket after the next, on an icy, rocky ridge with a several thousand ft drop." Doring recalled, "It was scary. It was like a zoo." According to Sherpas and climbers, some of the deaths this year were caused by people getting held up in the long lines on the last 1,000 ft or so of the climb, unable to get up and down.

[00:37:27]>> I was surprised at how many people were, you know, above uh 26,000 ft and had really were obviously were either not fit or not experienced and probably shouldn't have been there. During witnessed firsthand the deadly combination, >> and I certainly wasn't prepared to pass dead bodies that were attached to the safety line.

[00:37:50]>> Everest veteran Alan Arnett said, "You have to qualify to do the Iron Man, but you don't have to qualify to climb the highest mountain in the world. What's wrong with this picture?" But probably one of the worst parts about the 2019 traffic jam was how people started to turn on each other in the darkest ways when lives were on the line. A lot of people were panicking, worrying about themselves, and nobody thinks about those who are collapsing. It's a question of ethics. We are all on oxygen. You figure out that if you help, you are going to die. A much less experienced climber named Rizza Ali recalled, "I saw some people like they had no emotions. I asked people for water and no one gave me any. People are really obsessed with the summit. They are ready to die for the summit." The 2019 traffic jam and other acts of negligence contributed to another record death toll of 11 people that season. The director general of Nepal's Department of Tourism said in response, "If you really want to limit the number of climbers, let's just end all expeditions on our holy mountain." But of course, they didn't do that. They did the exact opposite. By 2023, Everest had another record-breaking season of climbing related deaths. The Nepalese government recorded 479 Everestississ issued permits and 656 summits. Of these, 393 were Nepalese climbers, mostly porters and guides who needed no permit. Three Sherpas died under a collapsed Sarak while making the route easier for inexperienced hikers to climb the summit, while other climbers died when their health failed due to lack of experience and blind ambition. Across all 13,737 recorded summits through December of 2025, the overall death rate stands at 1.06 deaths per 100 summits. And while 1% doesn't sound like a wild number, it's important to remember that most of these successful summits are made by returned climbers, experts, and sherpas who practically live on the mountain. As Bear Grill stated, the actual chance in the average climber dying on Everest is about 1 in six. But for a growing number of people, the dangers don't seem to matter. They could be elderly, have heart conditions, bad lungs, or whatever else. And the statistics show that the danger only makes them more interested in putting themselves and others in harm's way to complete an almost impossible challenge. It seems evident that these climbers are clearly searching for something deeper, a purpose or an accomplishment that they can attach to their identity. They make these deeply emotional documentaries about growth by pushing through near-death moments. Even though they put themselves in these situations willingly and put the emotional burden on their friends and family who care about them, there's a clear difference between that and traditional mountaineers who are experienced climbers that treat Everest as a challenge to be respected, studied, and executed with precision. Even though they too are relying on the decades of experienced Sherpas who engineered the whole climb for them, which is why true mountaineers sometimes regret climbing the world's tallest mountain. Well, the issue is that it's the same thing as the mountain that I was on. I'm just walking up these mountains because they're guided. You really don't need to know a lot of technicals. It's pretty not easy.

[00:40:57]It's very hard and it sucks. Like a lot of them just suck to do. But the so much of the work, like the technical work, making the food, setting up the tents, rope work is all done by the guides.

[00:41:07]Like you don't even have to dip your toes into the realm of real mountaineering and albinism to do the some of these things when they're guided. And of course, you can see where I'm going with this. It's the same thing for Everest. There it's guided. There's fixed lines. You have people making the food, boiling the water, setting up the camps, and you kind of do just have to walk up it. But the other obvious reason why people are so desperate to do this climb is how the tourism industry as well as the abundance of social media coverage has reduced Everest to look like ah tough hill to climb up in the cold. Sherpas are constantly resetting and checking the ropes, adjusting the ladders, and moving dead bodies out of the way to ensure rich clients will make it to their 50ft heated tent with a pingpong table and barista in it. Not to mention that everybody seems to be ignoring the 40 to 50 metric tons of trash from the highest camps that these people leave behind, showing they have absolutely no respect or regard for the mountain or environment. The very top of the mountain is absolutely covered in trash and flags from people leaving behind their marking. At this rate, one day you probably won't even be able to see the snow up there. And the job of cleaning all of this up is once again left for the Sherpas, which is why many of them are trying to quit working for tourists and convince their children to live better lives, even if it leads to less pay. Now, it should be mentioned that Nepal has started experimenting with drones to deliver vital supplies like oxygen bottles into the death zone for safety. If technology and funding are applied to the right places, this would likely lead to fewer deaths. But it also would ruin the very little esteem it still has. Because the easier it becomes to climb Mount Everest, the less it actually means to reach the top.

[00:42:49]What was once the ultimate test of human endurance is becoming something you can just buy, which turns it into nothing more than another overpriced experience sold to you by a giant corporation. It all kind of reminds me of Las Vegas, a place that used to have charm, but now is everything wrong with modern-day society. But check out this video to hear how that happened.

[00:43:12]I I feel like it needs to be shut down is mainly because they're putting other people's lives in danger. They don't want to listen.

[00:43:24]I'd be like, "Fine. All right, cool. You want to keep going? Go ahead."

[00:43:30]Um, just going to read a few comments here. I feel terrible for all the sherbas that lost their lives trying to save a-holes on an eagle trip.

[00:43:44]Yeah, them sherpas are heroes. I've heard stories of them carrying people on their back down the mountain. Yeah, I I I just I could not be a sherpa. I could I could not do this because of the the disrespect, man. I could not do it. I know it's tough because they don't have many options to do other work, but I ain't doing no work that's putting my life in jeopardy, plain and simple.

[00:44:17]Um, paying over 200k to be part of natural selection is a wild choice.

[00:44:30]Hey man, appreciate you guys coming over. Um, please like, share, comment below.

[00:44:40]This was wild, man. All right, peace out.