Deaths On Mt. Everest: Shocking New Study Reveals Why People Get Paid Huge Amounts of Money For Doing Nothing In Medical Research

An international research team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators has conducted the first detailed analysis of deaths during expeditions to the summit of Mt. Everest. They found that most deaths occur during descents from the summit in the so-called “death zone” above 8,000 meters and also identified factors that appear to be associated with a greater risk of death, particularly symptoms of high-altitude cerebral edema. The report, which will appear the December 20/27 issue of the British Medical Journal has been released online.

There’s some amazing news for you!  People actually die more often on their descent of Mt. Everest, than while climbing up.  People have also shown higher symptoms of high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE), once they get above 8,000 meters.

Seriously?  Is this a joke?  Obviously it’s not.  This once again proves why we should not hand out millions of dollars for fruitless studies that mean nothing-

In the alpine climbing world, both of these items have been known for YEARS.  Not just years, but decades!  Let’s move along to the second paragraph of this Press Release from Massachusetts General Hospital:

We know that climbing Everest is dangerous, but exactly how and why people have died had not been studied,” says Paul Firth, MB, ChB, of the MGH Department of Anesthesia, who led the study “It had been assumed that avalanches and falling ice – particularly in the Khumbu Icefall on the Nepal route – were the leading causes of death and that high-altitude pulmonary edema would be a common problem at such extreme altitude. But our results do not support either assumption.”

Could it be that your assumptions were developed before 1996?  I have covered Mt. Everest for the past two years, and not a single death has been the result of the Khumbu Icefall.  There has been one case in the past three years of someone dying due to ice falling, but it fell from underneath them and not on them.  The reason why people who have died have not been studied is because, generally, they have died to far up to bring back down.  Their bodies are left on the world’s highest mountain.

It is also generally known that people who develop HAPE, or high-altitude pulmonary edema, develop this condition on their way up Mt. Everest.  Usually in sufficient time to turn back around and head to lower altitude.  Once again, in the past two years of covering Mt. Everest, not a single death has resulted from HAPE.  Generally, you will know pretty quickly if you begin to have breathing problems, and generally, this can also be bypassed by using Oxygen on your ascent.

We start to begin to get a clearer picture of what these doctors were doing during the course of this shocking new study:

Thousands of climbers have attempted to reach the summit of 8,850-meter (29,000-foot) Mount Everest since the 1920s. In order to examine the circumstances surrounding all deaths on Everest expeditions, the research team – which included investigators from three British hospitals and the University of Toronto – reviewed available expedition records including the Himalayan Database, a compilation of information from all expeditions to 300 major peaks in the world’s highest range. Of a total of reported 212 deaths on Everest from 1921 to 2006, 192 occurred above Base Camp, the last encampment before technical (roped) climbing begins.

I am not going to waste much more time on this issue, but clearly these guys have done a study where they have taken information that was readily available to anyone that knows how to read, and translated it to tell us what we already knew.  Here’s an idea:

Next time a million dollar study is being conducted using information that has already been gathered..CONTACT ME!  I would love to kick back with my coffee and energy bars for an alnight reading and discussion session..and get paid a million dollars to do so.  Matter of factly, just interview me.  I could have gave you this same information in under 5 minutes and probably could have saved all of you some wasted time and money.  Kudos for Medical Research and the people who allow this crap to take place-

If you would like to read the full report that these jokesters have put together in the name of medical research, might I suggest doing something better with your time.  If you can’t think of anything better to do, then you can read it here.  I have to give the guys at the Get Outdoors blog a high-five for bringing this to my attention.

Up Next: Shocking New Report Reveals That Climbers Who Have Died Above 8,000 Meters May Have Lived If They Had Not Decided To Climb…..

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