Beyond the Limit

Last night a great Discovery Channel show, Everest: Beyond the Limit ended. The story showed the epic struggle of climbing this mountain and how horrible things turn once you hit the Death Zone above 8,000 meters.

The last show went over the tragic death of climber David Sharp. The Discovery crew filmed some of his last harrowing moments as they tried to help him out, but to no avail. There has been a big controversy over how expeditions are run lately...and that summiting has become more important than rescuing those along the way.

Mt. Everest is no joke. The top of the mountain is riddled with the corpses of well over fifty people easily visible from some of the standard climbing routes. Many other bodies are buried or lie off the trail. At these altitudes, it's impossible to bring people down do to the terrain and the fact that every second you spend up there above 8,000 meters your body is literally dying. Most people end up with really bad cases of frostbite and end up losing quite a few fingers and toes. Only a couple people escaped frostbite on the Discovery series' expedition.

I find mountain climbing to be very fun at much lower altitudes. It does bring a sense of accomplishment when you get to the top and the view is always worth looking out over the horizon. However, I'll never understand the curious thrill that many of these climbers must get by risking life and limb near the top of the world.