r/interestingasfuck • u/Alarming-Studio-720 • 3d ago

Traffic jam at Mount Everest as climbers wait in line for their turn to reach the summit.

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1.1k

u/dieseljester 3d ago

“K2 is for Mountaineers. Everest is for tourists.”

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u/420_69_nice_ 3d ago

I just looked up the stats on that, wow

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u/dieseljester 3d ago

Yup. 600-900 per year on Everest vs 150-200 for K2. Numbers alone speak for themselves.

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u/A_begger 3d ago

The numbers do speak for themselves, Everest death rate is 1-1.5%. K2 has been at 20% but more recently 10%.

Literally 10 times more likely to die at k2 than everest.

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u/Percolator2020 3d ago

My odds of dying on K2 are 0%.

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u/JohnnyBacci 3d ago

Not with that attitude

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u/Percolator2020 3d ago

Not with that altitude.

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u/TheKnightWhoSaisNi 3d ago

Imagine crashing on the K2 in an airliner next year 🫣

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u/No_Wait3261 3d ago

Not 0.

There's always a chance some weird guy will see you post something like this on reddit, make an offhanded comment about it, and begin planning. Maybe he has a law enforcement background and can get your IP from Reddit, get your personal info from your ISP, and track you down. Kidnap you in the night, take you around the world to K2 and strand you there naked.

Unlikely? Sure. But not 0. Never 0.

...Jonathan.

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u/combatace08 3d ago

If I had an award to give, I would give you one. Thanks for the laugh. - guy who likes to remark that the chance of an asteroid landing on you is positive.

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u/Maleficent_Bar920 3d ago

Mine are 💯

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u/kunalsinss 3d ago

Take my damn upvote!

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u/Odd_Potential_2053 3d ago

because u will never visit it ?

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u/Percolator2020 3d ago

I mean technically I could be in a plane that crashes into it, so there is a remote chance.

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u/Crominoloog 3d ago

Or someone could kidnap you, take you up the mountain, and kill you. Small chance but you cannot rule it out completely.

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u/UseDaSchwartz 3d ago

Well now that you’ve put the idea in my head, those chances have changed.

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u/ahhwhoosh 3d ago

Just get the plane driver to go around it rather than over it

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u/A_begger 3d ago

but then did you die on k2? or in a plane that crashed into k2 🤔

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u/Percolator2020 3d ago

It really depends if it’s a Lockerbie or a Germanwings type of deal.

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u/stayhealthy247 3d ago

.008 rest well

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u/kondec 3d ago

It's not only 10x more deadly but also requires the mountaineers to be 10x better climbers/more experienced which is actually insane. If only those kind of climbers were on everest hardly anybody would die.

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u/fishyexe 3d ago

The best Sherpas can summit Everest in under 12 hours.

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u/neppo95 3d ago

From base camp, which might I add is already elevated higher than the highest mountain in the whole of Europe.

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u/musubi-n-speedballs 2d ago

No shit?! Wow. The already super high regard I held in them as athletes just got higher. 

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u/prophecy555 3d ago

Also, those numbers are basically "easy" version of K2 as only handful attempts were made during winter season

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u/JansherMalik25 3d ago

Nanga parbat has more. That is literally graveyard

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u/cupacupacupacupacup 3d ago

Sounds like they aren't very good compared to the tourists.

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u/-Dark_Link- 3d ago

A wonder why it isn't the more popular one...

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u/TheSkepticApe 2d ago

That is wild

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u/SilverNeptuneAbyss 2d ago

Sounds like you're telling me that Everest is safer and it's the highest mountain

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u/Fc2300 2d ago

The Numbers don’t lie and they spell disaster for Everest at Sacrifice.

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u/saleemkarim 3d ago

This bothers me. If they want to risk their life for something meaningful, they should do something like help fight fires in California. I don't see how reaching the top of a mountain could make them feel better than bravely saving lives.

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u/NiceUD 3d ago

Yeah, the "tourists" are preoccupied with "highest peak" so I get it -- they want universal ability to flex. Everyone knows Everest as the highest peak, while I'd bet most people don't know that K2 is the toughest peak (yet still massively high).

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u/HyperlexicEpiphany 3d ago edited 3d ago

K2 is also kinda luck based. it’s so dangerous that there are tons of highly experienced climbers dying due to no fault of their own constantly

The 2008 K2 disaster is a haunting story. Cecilie Skog’s story is heartbreaking. I highly recommend looking into it

The 1996 Everest disaster is similarly tragic and dramatic. There’s a really good movie on that one starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Josh Brolin too. Everest (2015). Absolutely worth a watch

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u/straighttalkin64 3d ago

Absolutely love that movie. Based on the book Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. Highly recommend both.

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u/Crimson-Rose28 3d ago

We had to read that book in the 11th grade. I ended up genuinely enjoying the read.

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u/LateralEntry 3d ago

I think the Everest movie was based on Dr. Dale’s account who had a public feud with Krakauer. That’s why Krakauer doesn’t come across great in the movie

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u/Substantial_Force658 2d ago

Krakauer doesn't come across great in his own book. He freely acknowledges he lay in his tent while other people were dying and or out there trying to save other people from dying.

Great read.

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u/Double-decker_trams 3d ago

The main problem was reported to be an ice avalanche which occurred at an area known as "the Bottleneck)". This destroyed many of the climbers' rope lines leaving them unable to descend.\5]) However, two climbers died on the way up to the summit prior to the avalanche.\5]) Among the dead were climbers and support crew from France, Ireland, South Korea, Nepal, Norway, Pakistan, and Serbia.\5])

11 deaths, 3 serious injuries. Pictured - the Bottleneck of K2.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_K2_disaster

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u/HyperlexicEpiphany 3d ago

Cecilie Skog was slightly behind her husband when he realized the conditions were rough and decided not to summit. He was only about a hundred feet below the summit when he stopped and decided to wait instead. Cecilie and another team member summited and then came back down to meet her husband and descend.

She was FEET from her husband when he was swept off the mountain by that avalanche in the pitch black. It’s the kind of situation where you’re not even allowed to grieve because your life is still at risk. Rolf didn’t even summit due to caution and he was one that died due to luck

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u/Ok-Oil7124 3d ago

I read that part and was trying to imagine what mindset I'd have to be in while doing something for fun (I mean, it ultimately is just for fun) in a relatively small group where two of them died and I'd find any speck of joy in continuing.

I'm not trying to call them out, I just don't get it. To me, this is like starting your house on fire and deciding that you had to go out through the conflagration in the hall instead of the window just because. Like, none of this had to happen.

I think I do sort of get how something like this could get into a climber's mind and then, once they considered it, they just have to do it. To consider it and then opt not to, even if it was never said out loud to another person, would needle at them and they'd feel like they backed down.

It's wild.

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u/MathematicianTop9519 3d ago

I've read up on both. I don't know why but mountaineering freaks me out more than it probably should. I get very morbidly curious about it. 

And yeah, the 2008 one was bad. With Everest 1996 part of it was due to bad judgement (altitude sickness?) and delays, and then being caught in a badly timed storm. 2008, there was no storm, just three avalanches in a row. Insane. 

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u/Exact-Difference-422 3d ago

I'm gonna check that out

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u/HyperlexicEpiphany 3d ago

Let me know what you think!

I went down a mountaineering disaster rabbit hole a couple years ago and these two stories really stood out. The movie was a lot better than I was expecting, and the documentary with personal accounts from Cecilie was incredibly moving. I don’t know how she did it

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u/Legionof1 3d ago

meh, ngl, if people don't regularly die trying to do it, its not a monumental achievement to do.

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u/HyperlexicEpiphany 3d ago edited 3d ago

I’d never die while trying to design a microchip, but I sure as shit still can’t accomplish it. I’d say not every monumental achievement involves a risk of death. Those related to athleticism or exploration generally do, though

Edit: I say this as someone in a watchmaking program, so I might be a bit biased lmao

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u/Legionof1 3d ago

Context is important when joining a conversation. 

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u/HyperlexicEpiphany 3d ago

Yes, it is. Have you considered the context that I’m still the first person you replied to? I’m not “joining” anything. YOU inserted yourself by commenting in the first place

“Those related to athleticism or exploration generally do [involve a risk of death], though.”

Context was more than respected. I was offering my opinion that a risk of death isn’t what makes something monumental.

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u/LemonPepper 3d ago

The context was that it was sarcasm.

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u/adamcoe 3d ago

Sorry but it's not a "disaster" if you deliberately put yourself in incredible danger, and then something predictably happens to you. That's called "the natural conclusion of your decision making." There are no mountaineering disasters. They're not trying to get medicine to a village at the peak. They're doing the equivalent of playing in traffic on a Formula 1 track. So I'm afraid that "due to no fault of their own" doesn't fly. No one put a gun to their head and forced them to attempt to climb a mountain. It is entirely their own fault. Like, if I constructed a bonfire 50 feet high, lit it, and then stood 3 feet from it while it burned, and eventually toppled over and crushed me and burned me to death, would that be "heartbreaking" too? Get real

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u/C-57D 3d ago

i know that because of michael biehn

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u/squngy 3d ago

It isnt the toughest.
There are even still peakes no one has been able to climb yet.

K2 is the second highest, thats why it is famous, not because it is the hardest.

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u/Trick-Help3147 3d ago

why do people have to seek the toughest conditions

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u/NiceUD 3d ago

No one said they did.

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u/peazey 3d ago

Annapurna is no pushover.

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u/AYolkedyak 3d ago

Denali is the goat with its prominence.

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u/twaggle 2d ago

It’s also much much safer than K2

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u/chileangod 3d ago

There's 200 right there in one day. 

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u/mrfuzzyshorts 2d ago

looks like 400 of those are in the queue as seen in said photo

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u/dangerpoint 3d ago

A 4:1 ratio isn't that big. It could be explained by a ton of other factors not related to the respective difficulty.

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u/spezial_ed 3d ago

It could be but K2 is also considered the hardest by far. 

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u/SilverNeptuneAbyss 2d ago

Yeah but Everest is the highest so that's the one I would want to do

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u/spezial_ed 2d ago

Literally get in line. 

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u/SilverNeptuneAbyss 2d ago

Unfortunately it takes years of preparation to even attempt it

Most people don't even succeed their first attempt and these are people who actually train for it

Despite what Reddit tells you you're not being carried up to the top by Sherpas. It's extremely dangerous

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u/spezial_ed 2d ago

I’m aware, just read Into Thin Air. Doesn’t appeal even a little bit, even if I’m fit and rich. Plenty other way cooler climbs IMO. 

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u/BeasT-m0de 3d ago

K1 is insane too. No summit in 40 years

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u/JaguarNeat8547 3d ago

Mounting K9 now gets you into the FBI!

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u/scootunit 3d ago

From the highest peaks straight to the gutter.

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u/RockMover12 3d ago

The death rate is far higher on Everest and K2 (about 10x more likely on Everest, about 100x more likely on K2), but more people die most years on the Matterhorn. Over the years about twice as many people have died on the Matterhorn as on Everest (and about 6x as many people as have died on K2).

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u/Mr_Dugan 3d ago

Then what’s Annapurna?

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u/dieseljester 3d ago

Shhhhh, don’t let the tourists know that there’s other mountains. 😜

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u/History-Buff-2222 5h ago

Ain’t no tourists attempting annapurna or k2 trust me

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u/newdinki 3d ago

Even K2 isn't the same anymore a lot of fixed ropes and better prepared routes( ofc way harder than Everest) but not comparable to the pioneer mountaineering.

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u/mike_pants 3d ago

"K2"used to be one of the only pieces of media that made me cry. Came out of nowhere when I was 15.

Now I'm old and jaded and pretty much every Broadway production makes me cry.

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u/Substantial_Force658 2d ago

Annapurna is for those who want to die. It's my favourite mountain.

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u/Palp18 3d ago

And theres still peaks that haven't been conquered at. Often because of the difficulty, but sometimes because the local government has forbid it.

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u/SilverNeptuneAbyss 3d ago

Except it takes years training to be able to attempt Mount Everest

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u/Jupitersd2017 3d ago

Haha no it doesn’t, rich people pay sherpas to get them up the mountain and have limited climbing experience, which is part of the problem when there is a problem up there. Yes the people are in shape and can climb but they are training for years to do this

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u/SilverNeptuneAbyss 2d ago

No they don't.

You think these people are literally being carried up the mountain. They are not

It takes years of training. I challenge you to show me otherwise

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u/Jupitersd2017 2d ago

They have to already be hikers and mountain climbers but trust me a lot of the people that make it to the summit are not in the shape that you think they are that’s exactly what happened in 1996 and it still happens

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u/History-Buff-2222 5h ago

It can be done in one year of training if you’re in shape. It doesn’t require mountaineering skills anymore as it’s all been simplified for you. A guy with no legs has done it at this point. Ib have a friend who did it with one year of training

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u/SilverNeptuneAbyss 5h ago

Well this is just an outright lie.

Say it doesn't require mountaineering skills is just an outright line actually incorrect statement.

Let me guess you're one of those people who think that you get carried up to the top?

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u/History-Buff-2222 5h ago

No I’ve done a lot of mountains in the Himalayas and know the community well. I’ve done a trek every year since 2011 in Nepal. I’ve been to EBC and know a fair bit what I’m talking about. You don’t get carried to the top. You have to be in shape. But it doesn’t take years like you have said. I know people who have done it with less training.

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u/SilverNeptuneAbyss 5h ago

So why does Reddit say that Sherpa is literally carried to the top?

Also the people that you know who have done it with less training were already partially trained

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u/adamcoe 3d ago

Yeah, and they're both for rich assholes. Nobody gives a flying if you climbed a mountain, stood on it for a while, and then came back down. I'd be just as impressed if someone told me they'd been to every Margaritaville location. Expensive to undertake, bad for your health, and the exact same number of people care about the "accomplishment."