Latest / Stuff You Should Know / Are there dead bodies on Mount Everest?
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
- 0:03Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know
- 0:08Speaker 1: from House Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to
- 0:12Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh. That's Chuck. How you doing, Chuck?
- 0:15Speaker 1: I'm great, man. Let's just stop right here, Chuck, We've
- 0:18Speaker 1: got something to shamelessly plug. I wanted to just get
- 0:20Speaker 1: it over with. I feel really bad about this. I
- 0:22Speaker 1: call it anything other than what it is, right, Okay,
- 0:24Speaker 1: So um, everybody, Chuck and I just made and Jerry
- 0:29Speaker 1: Jerry was a huge part of it, agreed, our producer, Jerry.
- 0:32Speaker 1: It would have just been steaming had Jerry not been
- 0:36Speaker 1: involved in this, right, agreed. Chuck and I just recorded
- 0:39Speaker 1: our first spoken word album. Right. We have joined the
- 0:43Speaker 1: likes of Jack Kerouac and Barack Obama except our spoken
- 0:48Speaker 1: word albums on the economy economics? Right, Chuck, We took
- 0:52Speaker 1: the path less traveled, did something that's kind of obscure
- 0:55Speaker 1: and people you know are talking about much of these days. Um,
- 0:58Speaker 1: And what's it called, Chuck? It is called the Stuff
- 1:00Speaker 1: you Should Know, super Stuffed Guide the Economy. And it
- 1:03Speaker 1: is super stuff because it's long and detailed and we've
- 1:08Speaker 1: got interviews with experts. There's we go on site, we
- 1:11Speaker 1: leave the studio, chicken farm, not just that's not just
- 1:14Speaker 1: a boiler, worry about it. But yeah. So it's up
- 1:17Speaker 1: for sailor and iTunes right now, right um, and it
- 1:20Speaker 1: is for sale, it is. I know you folks are
- 1:22Speaker 1: always saying I can't believe your podcasts are free. Well,
- 1:24Speaker 1: we took your advice, so yeah, thanks for that. Hopefully
- 1:27Speaker 1: this will allow us to keep doing what we do. Yeah.
- 1:29Speaker 1: So that's have we reached the end of the shameless plug.
- 1:33Speaker 1: So if you want to go buy it, that would
- 1:34Speaker 1: be totally fine with us. That would be great. Okay,
- 1:37Speaker 1: So that now we've reached them the same as yes,
- 1:40Speaker 1: and it's time to get into your shameless segue. Yeah,
- 1:44Speaker 1: which is this? Have you ever mountain climbed? I know
- 1:47Speaker 1: you've repelled, but where you ever on a mountain to
- 1:50Speaker 1: repel mine was one must climb? Now, I've never actually
- 1:54Speaker 1: rock climbed, but I've done plenty of hiking in the mountains,
- 1:57Speaker 1: but not rock face climbing. That's was there snow in
- 2:00Speaker 1: any of these mountains? Were you up so high that
- 2:02Speaker 1: there's like perennial snow. Really yeah, where like Colorado stuff
- 2:07Speaker 1: like that. Huh wow, that's pretty impressive. That was shocking.
- 2:11Speaker 1: I see you like wearing your little shorts and hiking
- 2:15Speaker 1: boots with like thick socks kind of pushed down. Um,
- 2:18Speaker 1: so far, so good. Yeah, and just kind of hiking
- 2:20Speaker 1: along what most people would call like a hill or
- 2:24Speaker 1: something like that. Certainly not like where there's like kenne
- 2:27Speaker 1: Saw Mountain kind of yeah, which is I can't say
- 2:30Speaker 1: anything because it's way out of my league. Kenna Saw
- 2:32Speaker 1: Mountain is let alone the Rockies. I mean, trust me, dude,
- 2:36Speaker 1: I'm not You won't think I'm a sharpa like scaling
- 2:40Speaker 1: the mount Everest or anything like that. Yeah, And I
- 2:43Speaker 1: think at this point I can tell you left untoward
- 2:46Speaker 1: behind and sharpa is now my favorite word right now. Okay,
- 2:50Speaker 1: I love that word. It just rolls off the tongue.
- 2:53Speaker 1: You're cute little guys. Yeah, agreed, Um, okay, So you
- 2:56Speaker 1: have done some mountain climbing, so so you can speak
- 2:58Speaker 1: to what we're going to talk about with reasonable authority.
- 3:02Speaker 1: I can defer to you when I get confused, inevitably, So, Chuck,
- 3:06Speaker 1: have you ever read into thin air? I have not,
- 3:08Speaker 1: but I did read Into the Wild, which is John
- 3:11Speaker 1: hour That his name, yeah, John crack Our. He is
- 3:13Speaker 1: a journalist for Outside magazine, and he knows how to
- 3:18Speaker 1: take an outdoor UM event and turn it into a
- 3:23Speaker 1: good book. Into the Wild is a great example. Chris McCandless,
- 3:27Speaker 1: who actually went to school down the road at Emery
- 3:31Speaker 1: and decided that he was going to go to Alaska
- 3:33Speaker 1: and basically just didn't quite do it right. Yeah, died
- 3:37Speaker 1: after three months of exposure the elements. I think there's
- 3:40Speaker 1: some varying theories on why I died, but that's not
- 3:43Speaker 1: what this is about. Okay, Well, no, we're thin Air.
- 3:45Speaker 1: Into thin Air is much much more pertinent to this
- 3:48Speaker 1: topic than I think. Okay, So, Um, that's actually about
- 3:51Speaker 1: an an expedition on Mount Everest, um and that took
- 3:56Speaker 1: place in May. He was actually on this one, right, Yes,
- 4:00Speaker 1: he was, UM, which is one of the reasons the
- 4:02Speaker 1: book is so incredible. UM. And it was a complete
- 4:07Speaker 1: cluster of a um of an expedition. Eight people died,
- 4:12Speaker 1: accounting for um more than half of the deaths on
- 4:17Speaker 1: Everest that year. It's one expedition. UM. There was a
- 4:21Speaker 1: rogue storm that whipped up and it killed some people
- 4:23Speaker 1: and others were lost and then they died, but then
- 4:26Speaker 1: other people went after them to try to rescue him,
- 4:29Speaker 1: and then they died. And it was just more like
- 4:31Speaker 1: a let's get out of here whenever we can. You
- 4:33Speaker 1: basically just have to write everybody off right, um. And
- 4:37Speaker 1: and like, like I said, it's a very very good book. Um.
- 4:41Speaker 1: But one of the things that I took from it
- 4:43Speaker 1: is that number one, Mount Everest is a total bear
- 4:47Speaker 1: as far as mountains go, completely inhospitable for humans. Yeah,
- 4:52Speaker 1: you want to talk about you want to talk a
- 4:54Speaker 1: little bit about Everest. Yeah, I guess we should get it.
- 4:56Speaker 1: Just a couple of stats out of the way. Everyone
- 4:58Speaker 1: knows just the tallest peak in the world. They call
- 5:00Speaker 1: it the roof top of the world they do, and
- 5:02Speaker 1: good reason. Quick aside, um, there is a Discovery micro
- 5:06Speaker 1: site on Everest and it has a three hundred and
- 5:10Speaker 1: sixty degree panoramic view. You shall remember you show me
- 5:13Speaker 1: that like my first week here. It's amazing. It was unbelievable.
- 5:16Speaker 1: And I said to myself, that is awesome. And this
- 5:18Speaker 1: Josh dude has it going on. That's all it takes.
- 5:21Speaker 1: That's how I've collected all of my friends. That's how
- 5:23Speaker 1: the magic starts. You send him the Everest photo. Yeah,
- 5:25Speaker 1: I just I pay it out a little bit at
- 5:27Speaker 1: a time. Start with the Everest photo. It's really cool.
- 5:30Speaker 1: You're sitting up at night. You actually feel like you're
- 5:32Speaker 1: there when you look at this panoramic picture, and so
- 5:35Speaker 1: much so that I don't feel like I need to climate.
- 5:37Speaker 1: You can almost hear the wind whipping. Yeah, so okay,
- 5:40Speaker 1: So give me some more steps. The tallest peak in
- 5:43Speaker 1: the world, share which is what's the peak? How? How
- 5:46Speaker 1: it tall? Is it thousand thirty five ft which is
- 5:50Speaker 1: eight thousand, eight hundred and fifty meters for our friends
- 5:52Speaker 1: who don't live in the US or Liberia or Burma? Correct?
- 5:56Speaker 1: Very well done, uh little shout out insider, shout out
- 5:59Speaker 1: to our SNAr mail or. She wrote in with that, um,
- 6:02Speaker 1: and the mountain itself shares a border with Nepal and Tibet,
- 6:05Speaker 1: but the actual peak is in Nepal, so India is
- 6:07Speaker 1: not involved, not as far as I know. Um, why
- 6:13Speaker 1: did you say that you're trying to throw me off
- 6:15Speaker 1: my game? Yeah, don't worry about it. Checking No one
- 6:18Speaker 1: can throw you after game, right, not even me? Josh
- 6:21Speaker 1: messes with me sometimes people, but it usually gets cut out.
- 6:23Speaker 1: I have a feeling this will make it in so
- 6:24Speaker 1: check out. Have a question for you, Shoot, what is
- 6:26Speaker 1: the worst season to go on Everest? Well, really anything
- 6:31Speaker 1: outside of um May in June May to June. Yeah,
- 6:35Speaker 1: that's when you want to climb Everest. June is the
- 6:38Speaker 1: time you want to go. Yes, oh well, okay, got so, Josh.
- 6:41Speaker 1: An average day, if you want to talk weather, an
- 6:43Speaker 1: average day in May of two thousand and eight was
- 6:46Speaker 1: minus seventeen degrease fahrenheit, which is mine degrees celsius true
- 6:52Speaker 1: and wins of fifty one eighty one KOs right, very good.
- 6:57Speaker 1: So that's during the most hospitable time in the year,
- 7:00Speaker 1: barring no like freak storms and unusual activity. Other times
- 7:05Speaker 1: of the year, the jet stream passes directly by the summit,
- 7:09Speaker 1: which is in made of June, the jet stream does
- 7:11Speaker 1: not do that, which is why that's the time to go.
- 7:13Speaker 1: And you can get winds up to like, you know,
- 7:15Speaker 1: a hundred and twenty miles an hour and miles an hour,
- 7:20Speaker 1: which would be a hundred and eighty nine kilometers an
- 7:23Speaker 1: hour and minus a hundred degrees fahrenheit. So which is
- 7:26Speaker 1: minus seventy three degrees celsius. Right, so you cannot imagine.
- 7:30Speaker 1: Have you ever been up in then a tall, tall building?
- 7:32Speaker 1: Um get in the wintertime? No outside, Okay, I climb
- 7:37Speaker 1: the Empire. There's no mountain climbing, certainly, no Colorado hiking,
- 7:42Speaker 1: no tall buildings in the wintertime. But you've been to Malta.
- 7:47Speaker 1: Um I just a few years ago, Emily and I
- 7:50Speaker 1: were at the top of the Empire State Building around
- 7:52Speaker 1: Christmas time and dude, that's the Empire State Building and
- 7:56Speaker 1: I thought I was gonna die the wind in the cold,
- 8:00Speaker 1: and that's the Empire stabling. So imagine Mount Everest at
- 8:02Speaker 1: twenty nine feet Well, were you properly outfitted on the
- 8:05Speaker 1: roof of the Empire stuff? Yeah, you established a base
- 8:09Speaker 1: camp by then, yeah, on the on the ground floor
- 8:14Speaker 1: comes out. I was like, what are you doing? Right? Yeah? Okay, So, so, Chuck,
- 8:17Speaker 1: I think we got it down. Mount Everest is not
- 8:20Speaker 1: the place to be, especially with your Empire state allegory.
- 8:23Speaker 1: That's pretty good, thanks, okay, so um and we've also
- 8:26Speaker 1: established that people die on Everest. How many was there?
- 8:30Speaker 1: Eighty nine? So that's the that's the current count, and
- 8:34Speaker 1: you said that two thousand people have died or have
- 8:38Speaker 1: have successfully summitted Everest. Right, that was as of a
- 8:41Speaker 1: few years ago. That was the count, And the BBC
- 8:44Speaker 1: told me, well, you so somewhere between there for every stat,
- 8:48Speaker 1: there's another stat when it comes to stuff like this
- 8:51Speaker 1: and equal enough isite stant like some guy might have
- 8:53Speaker 1: snuck up to Everest and not officially logged it with
- 8:55Speaker 1: the BBC. You know. Well, the problem is is that, um,
- 9:00Speaker 1: if you die on Everest, apparently you stay on Everest
- 9:04Speaker 1: pretty much. Yeah, which is what your article is about, right, Yeah,
- 9:08Speaker 1: it's much. Uh, it's a suicide mission to try and
- 9:12Speaker 1: bring a body down from the death zone. And the
- 9:16Speaker 1: death zone is above twenty six feet. That's like the
- 9:18Speaker 1: final area, above the final base camp where you go
- 9:22Speaker 1: to reach the summit, and that's where most people die.
- 9:25Speaker 1: And not everybody who's died on Everest is still there,
- 9:28Speaker 1: but a significant portion is, like of the nine, there's
- 9:32Speaker 1: one twenty. And also we should probably say before you
- 9:36Speaker 1: sharpen your pencils and email us, we're working off of
- 9:38Speaker 1: what like two thousand four stats right here, So at
- 9:42Speaker 1: least several people have died since then. I think I
- 9:46Speaker 1: know at least one guy died in two thousand six
- 9:48Speaker 1: on everest Um. The thing is is you can't even
- 9:52Speaker 1: bring your oxygen canister down. Basically, a dead person and
- 9:58Speaker 1: an oxygen cancer not the same thing. But it kind
- 10:00Speaker 1: of puts it in perspective like you are going up
- 10:03Speaker 1: there and getting back down and you're lucky to escape
- 10:06Speaker 1: with your life, basically exactly. And from what I what
- 10:09Speaker 1: I've read and had been described to me, to try
- 10:13Speaker 1: and bring a body down is as suicide mission for
- 10:16Speaker 1: everyone involved. So it's like, you can't save this person
- 10:20Speaker 1: because you put your entire crew at risk, So you
- 10:22Speaker 1: just have to march on um. Now that's kind of
- 10:26Speaker 1: the predominant view of people who who climb everest Um.
- 10:31Speaker 1: But it seems like it's starting to change, like technology
- 10:34Speaker 1: is advancing enough, and people's gear and and oxygen equipment
- 10:38Speaker 1: it's getting good enough so that that that sentiment is
- 10:42Speaker 1: almost um being outlived. It's already been outlived obviously. Sir
- 10:49Speaker 1: Edmond Hillary is the guy who summited everest for the
- 10:51Speaker 1: first time. With their debates about that too, did they
- 10:55Speaker 1: think nor Gay beat him? Uh? Well, George Lee Mallory
- 10:59Speaker 1: actually is an other climber and there's there's some speculation
- 11:02Speaker 1: as to who actually got there first, because Mallory was
- 11:04Speaker 1: found dead and actually in the article there's a picture
- 11:07Speaker 1: of his i know, petrified, frozen, headless body. It is
- 11:10Speaker 1: a cool picture. Yeah, yeah, his head is just pretty
- 11:12Speaker 1: much withered away. The weird thing is is like if
- 11:15Speaker 1: you look at his left hand, it's totally intact, Like
- 11:19Speaker 1: it looks like he's just laying there if you just
- 11:21Speaker 1: look at his arm. But where did they find him?
- 11:23Speaker 1: I mean, did they find him at the summit or
- 11:26Speaker 1: they think he made it to the summit and started
- 11:28Speaker 1: to climb down and died maybe exactly. I think that's
- 11:30Speaker 1: the speculation. They did not find they found beneath the summit,
- 11:33Speaker 1: And there's speculation as to whether what you said, whether
- 11:37Speaker 1: he made it all the way down and died on
- 11:38Speaker 1: the way back, or whether he never made it all
- 11:40Speaker 1: the way up and he would have been before Hillary.
- 11:42Speaker 1: So that's that's a pretty big deal. Yeah. He was
- 11:45Speaker 1: in the twenties, right, Yeah, And it looks like he
- 11:48Speaker 1: was running around in like a burlap sack. I think
- 11:50Speaker 1: it's not good climbing. It weathered some over the years. Well.
- 11:54Speaker 1: Either way, the first person to be to document their
- 12:00Speaker 1: place at the top of Mount Everest is Sir Edmund
- 12:03Speaker 1: Hillary and he did it with the nepolie serpa tending
- 12:06Speaker 1: nor Gay, who's just got the best name. Yeah, he's
- 12:09Speaker 1: got Sherpa right there. And then Tensing in nor Gay.
- 12:11Speaker 1: I love that guy's name. That's that's your fake name
- 12:14Speaker 1: when you check in the hotels, isn't it. Why did
- 12:17Speaker 1: you do that? I tell you things in confidence. Thank you,
- 12:20Speaker 1: Chuck to change my name. This brings up a point though,
- 12:23Speaker 1: that he's he's obviously the most well known serpa ever.
- 12:27Speaker 1: Have you ever heard of any other Sherpa? I have,
- 12:29Speaker 1: but I never retained their names, like Tensing nor Gay. Well,
- 12:32Speaker 1: they get a raw deal, as my point, Like you
- 12:33Speaker 1: always see the guy, you know, the white dude and
- 12:36Speaker 1: the jam Sport North face gear on top of Everest,
- 12:40Speaker 1: and you don't see like there's like two on the
- 12:43Speaker 1: outside of the frame. It's their third trip up that week.
- 12:45Speaker 1: You know, they're like big deal. Did you ever see
- 12:47Speaker 1: the episode of The Simpsons where Homer climbs Mound Springfield
- 12:51Speaker 1: and the two Sharps are like doing cartwheels on the
- 12:54Speaker 1: way down and dragging him up while he sleeps at night. Yeah, yeah,
- 12:57Speaker 1: I imagine that that's probably. I think it's a thankless job,
- 13:00Speaker 1: is what I'm saying. I think of the world, they
- 13:02Speaker 1: need to form a union or something. So how did
- 13:04Speaker 1: we get on Hillary? Well, you said that he was
- 13:07Speaker 1: the first man. Okay, well, I know, I know what
- 13:12Speaker 1: I was going to say. He lived until two thou eight,
- 13:14Speaker 1: so he lived to see a lot of people follow
- 13:17Speaker 1: in his footsteps and die and um. In two thousand
- 13:20Speaker 1: and six, this guy named John Sharp. I believe he
- 13:24Speaker 1: died on the mountain. I think of exposure maybe, and
- 13:30Speaker 1: as many as forty climbers passed right past him and
- 13:35Speaker 1: not like him and didn't see him like past him,
- 13:39Speaker 1: noted he was dead, dying, dying, and just kept going
- 13:43Speaker 1: because that that mentality is still around, like hey, it's
- 13:46Speaker 1: too dangerous, right. The thing that so Hillary came out
- 13:50Speaker 1: and publicly criticized the people who didn't even do anything
- 13:54Speaker 1: make an attempt um. And then the thing that really
- 13:57Speaker 1: kind of drove that criticism home was the following year,
- 14:01Speaker 1: a Nepalese woman was successfully rescued by an American climber,
- 14:05Speaker 1: very experienced American climber, but she was in virtually the
- 14:08Speaker 1: same spot under virtually the same conditionings, and he got
- 14:12Speaker 1: her out. But forty people walk past this guy just
- 14:15Speaker 1: under the assumption that, And I can imagine it's drilled
- 14:18Speaker 1: into your head like if you die or you're dying,
- 14:21Speaker 1: we're going to leave you here. But I don't think
- 14:24Speaker 1: that's necessarily I don't think that necessarily has to be
- 14:26Speaker 1: the case anymore as that that American guide proved by
- 14:30Speaker 1: saving the Nepalese woman. Right, And this is this is
- 14:32Speaker 1: me speculating here, but I bet a certain amount of
- 14:34Speaker 1: this too, in addition to having that drilled in your head,
- 14:37Speaker 1: is it's so much effort and a lot of money
- 14:41Speaker 1: to go on one of these expeditions and not you know,
- 14:43Speaker 1: some people climb it more than once, but a lot
- 14:45Speaker 1: of people this is there there one shot and they
- 14:48Speaker 1: hear this, and they might see someone dying and they think,
- 14:53Speaker 1: you know, I can't ruin my opportunity to climb Everest
- 14:55Speaker 1: and potentially die in the process to rescue the stranger
- 15:00Speaker 1: or so it's pretty sad. And I know there's a
- 15:01Speaker 1: lot of controversy. Well there was. There's definitely one guy
- 15:05Speaker 1: who has probably received the most public eye or of
- 15:08Speaker 1: anybody who's let somebody die on ever. So his name
- 15:11Speaker 1: is Ian Woodall, and he actually figures as basically the
- 15:15Speaker 1: villain in Into Thin Air. He was actually he was
- 15:19Speaker 1: on the mountain when crack Howard's expedition went pear shaped,
- 15:23Speaker 1: and um so crack Hower was. You know, these expeditions
- 15:27Speaker 1: were very close together and oftentime, like coming into the
- 15:30Speaker 1: same place at the same time, and they try to
- 15:32Speaker 1: stagger it kind of like golf, except much much deadlier.
- 15:36Speaker 1: Um where so everybody's not hitting the same points at
- 15:39Speaker 1: the same time, right, Yeah, Well, what All apparently was
- 15:45Speaker 1: not down with waiting for anybody. I think his famous
- 15:48Speaker 1: quote in the book is will make it to the
- 15:50Speaker 1: top any time, we damn well please, or something like that.
- 15:53Speaker 1: So he's unwilling to coordinate with other expeditions. He um
- 15:56Speaker 1: wouldn't allow another expedi and I think craik Iur was
- 16:00Speaker 1: expedition to use his radio to call for help um
- 16:04Speaker 1: for whatever reason, I don't remember. I read the book
- 16:06Speaker 1: like a decade ago, but he craik Are definitely doesn't
- 16:11Speaker 1: like this guy. And basically, if he doesn't say in
- 16:13Speaker 1: so many words, he insinuates that this people died on
- 16:17Speaker 1: the mountain because of this man's action or in action. Right. So,
- 16:22Speaker 1: and there was actually one another climb that would all
- 16:25Speaker 1: went on where he Yeah, he was with a dying woman.
- 16:29Speaker 1: He and his partner Kathy o' doubt his his wife actually,
- 16:33Speaker 1: but I think they're they're climbing partners as well. Um,
- 16:37Speaker 1: we're going on their initial ascent, right, and um came
- 16:41Speaker 1: upon a woman and what is her name? Her name
- 16:43Speaker 1: is Francis are Arcentievay. Um. Yeah, and she was laying
- 16:48Speaker 1: there dying, and so they went over and hung out
- 16:51Speaker 1: with her for an hour and tried to see what
- 16:53Speaker 1: they could do. And what happened, well, they left her
- 16:57Speaker 1: behind and she said apparently the last words she said,
- 17:00Speaker 1: we're don't leave me behind. And they were forced to
- 17:03Speaker 1: leave her behind. And I didn't know that part about
- 17:06Speaker 1: the end of thin Air that he figured into that book,
- 17:08Speaker 1: but apparently he went back in two thousand seven to
- 17:11Speaker 1: bury her body up there. He did, with a couple
- 17:15Speaker 1: of others. She had. He was racked with guilt, apparently, Yeah,
- 17:18Speaker 1: she had. Um. I read an article in the Daily
- 17:22Speaker 1: Mail about him doing that. Um, And it was right
- 17:24Speaker 1: before he was actually on the mountain. They were interviewing
- 17:27Speaker 1: a via satellite phone. Um, and apparently Fran as everybody
- 17:33Speaker 1: called her, had become kind of this um ghoulish landmark,
- 17:38Speaker 1: like I think Cathy O'Dowd put it, like you get
- 17:41Speaker 1: to Fran and turn left, because she was right there
- 17:44Speaker 1: on the trail and and you know, apparently like in
- 17:47Speaker 1: like a kind of a really horrible frozen state. And
- 17:51Speaker 1: also her husband was on the climb with her and
- 17:53Speaker 1: he died. They assumed they never found him again going
- 17:56Speaker 1: to get help. Um. So yeah, it's a horrible story.
- 18:00Speaker 1: They both left their a son behind, I believe. Um.
- 18:04Speaker 1: But yeah, so so what all wanted to go barrier
- 18:07Speaker 1: and uh he ultimately ended up like lowering down, lowering
- 18:10Speaker 1: her down and dropping her down the north face instead. Yeah, um,
- 18:14Speaker 1: but yeah, he's not a very well liked person among
- 18:17Speaker 1: a lot of climbing circles. I get the impression. Well,
- 18:20Speaker 1: I know there's certainly a lot of controversy around that. Um.
- 18:23Speaker 1: I know that there's also been efforts. It's a big
- 18:26Speaker 1: trash dump too, which is what's really sad, because like
- 18:29Speaker 1: you said, people will just dump their gear to make
- 18:32Speaker 1: it easier on the way down. And uh, I got
- 18:35Speaker 1: a good stat for you here. Uh, we're talking a
- 18:37Speaker 1: hundred and twenty tons of trash each year or left
- 18:40Speaker 1: behind the mountain verse by climbers. Wait each year. I
- 18:42Speaker 1: thought that was total each year, says ABC News. Holy
- 18:47Speaker 1: and climbing teams in China. They lead expeditions now to
- 18:50Speaker 1: go up and clean some of the stuff up, and
- 18:53Speaker 1: they're trying to get some of these bodies down that
- 18:55Speaker 1: are within you know, safe reach. Because if me think
- 18:58Speaker 1: about there's a hundred and twenty bodies on Everest, the
- 19:01Speaker 1: ones that are up in what'd you call it the
- 19:02Speaker 1: death zone? Um, they're they're pretty preserved, like you can
- 19:06Speaker 1: see in that picture of George Mallory, right, Um, so
- 19:11Speaker 1: they're close to trails generally, so that it I mean
- 19:15Speaker 1: imagine that. Imagine climbing Everest knowing that your own mortality
- 19:19Speaker 1: is at risk and then having like these reminders along
- 19:21Speaker 1: the way. I felt that way at the Empire State Building.
- 19:24Speaker 1: Did you were there a lot of dead bodies on
- 19:26Speaker 1: the Empire State up the stairs? You know, every couple
- 19:29Speaker 1: of days it's an elevator. So I got you. I
- 19:31Speaker 1: really had nothing to complain about. There's no stairs in
- 19:33Speaker 1: the Empire State Building like a violation of I'm sure
- 19:36Speaker 1: there are stairs, but you don't climb them to get
- 19:38Speaker 1: to the observation deck. That's why you're still just doing
- 19:43Speaker 1: the Rockies, buddy. Yeah, so okay, Well, Chuck, UM, I
- 19:48Speaker 1: guess we've answered that question. Dead bodies, Uh, hopefully less
- 19:52Speaker 1: as they retrieve them, if they can retrieve them, and
- 19:56Speaker 1: hopefully less as time goes on, because I know that
- 19:59Speaker 1: every year that goes by a fewer and fewer people
- 20:01Speaker 1: are dying because of climbing technology, satellite phones and stuff
- 20:04Speaker 1: like that, and possibly maybe a change in mentality about
- 20:08Speaker 1: what happens to you if you get injured or you
- 20:11Speaker 1: get exhausted. It's a new bang up generation of service
- 20:15Speaker 1: as well. Yes, there's no tensing nor days though he's
- 20:19Speaker 1: he's the one last of a breed. Yeah, well again,
- 20:22Speaker 1: thank you for listening to that. Are their dead bodies
- 20:25Speaker 1: on Mount Everest? You can read more about it. It's
- 20:28Speaker 1: a Chuck article, which means it's the market quality. You
- 20:31Speaker 1: can type in dead bodies Mount Everest and it's gonna
- 20:34Speaker 1: come up in our handy search bar on how stuff
- 20:37Speaker 1: works dot com and UM while I'm sitting here thinking
- 20:40Speaker 1: about a new UM pseudonym to come up with when
- 20:44Speaker 1: I check into hotels. Um, Chuck's gonna talk about our blog. Yes,
- 20:50Speaker 1: our blog is up. It's been up for a little
- 20:52Speaker 1: while now, and we've gotten some of you find folks
- 20:55Speaker 1: leading comments and we'd like to see more of it.
- 20:57Speaker 1: And I just want to say every Friday, I do
- 20:59Speaker 1: a little podcast recap on the blog where we just
- 21:03Speaker 1: mentioned the shows that were release that week. And that's
- 21:05Speaker 1: a good chance for you guys to to chat with
- 21:07Speaker 1: us about it. If you have any comments about that
- 21:09Speaker 1: week's show, we log on, we'll answer you back, We'll
- 21:11Speaker 1: answer your questions. And uh, it's a good way to
- 21:13Speaker 1: reach us. Do you want to mention the cartoon? Oh yeah,
- 21:16Speaker 1: even better? There's a for Friday the March. There's a
- 21:21Speaker 1: blog post where Josh and I are actually have been
- 21:24Speaker 1: made into a comic strip by an artist named Greg
- 21:26Speaker 1: Williams for the Tampa Tribune in Tampa, Florida, and it's
- 21:31Speaker 1: regarding our junk Mail podcast and it's up on our
- 21:33Speaker 1: blog now and it's awesome. It's really really good. It
- 21:36Speaker 1: is very cool. Um he he found the one moment
- 21:39Speaker 1: of scatological humor out of all of our podcasts and
- 21:42Speaker 1: amplified it like a million times. It's he did a
- 21:45Speaker 1: good job. And also I never realized how round my
- 21:48Speaker 1: head is until I saw it in cartoon form, and
- 21:51Speaker 1: he clearly used a compass to draw to draw me. Um,
- 21:55Speaker 1: so yeah, I have a big round head. That's good.
- 21:58Speaker 1: Yeah it looks nice. But yeah, that's up and blog
- 22:00Speaker 1: and thank you to Mr Greg Waynes. Yes we're doing that.
- 22:04Speaker 1: We feel very honored. Yes, and now and I know
- 22:08Speaker 1: what's time. It is listener mail, So chuck, the bring
- 22:13Speaker 1: has occurred, the toned down bring, as per the request
- 22:18Speaker 1: of some the listener mail chime, let's do it? Uh
- 22:21Speaker 1: this one? Um wait, wait wait, there's no high coup
- 22:24Speaker 1: in here, is there? Well, there's a brief one. Hi's
- 22:27Speaker 1: are brief? All right? I said, no more highkus. But
- 22:31Speaker 1: this one's funny because, um, originally I called high coups
- 22:35Speaker 1: that were corrections correction coups. I thought it was kind
- 22:39Speaker 1: of funny. But Jonathan M. Pesky of Redlands, California wrote,
- 22:42Speaker 1: as this one correction coup, No, such a clunky moniker.
- 22:46Speaker 1: Try high correction that is a little more clever, much
- 22:50Speaker 1: more better. So it's more bid. Getting on with the
- 22:54Speaker 1: correction coup. H I know, and uh I think last
- 22:57Speaker 1: week we mentioned the listener mail someone wrote in about
- 23:00Speaker 1: the MK Ultra video game. Yeah, the guy who's on acid.
- 23:04Speaker 1: While he wrote us, right, can we listen to a
- 23:06Speaker 1: little click at that real quick? Let's do that because
- 23:08Speaker 1: it was funny. Uh. In it, you were a weird
- 23:13Speaker 1: costumed a man with a gun for an arm, and
- 23:16Speaker 1: you went through and violently killed everything in your midst.
- 23:20Speaker 1: The world you were in was very interesting, different colors,
- 23:22Speaker 1: the walls moved, weird sounds. There was a talking dog.
- 23:25Speaker 1: It's your sidekick, so right, he wrote us in, And
- 23:30Speaker 1: I was really really disappointed to find out. We had
- 23:32Speaker 1: quite a few people email us and tell us that
- 23:34Speaker 1: it was not a game called MK Ultra. It's a
- 23:37Speaker 1: game called m d K. And while there was a
- 23:41Speaker 1: weird costume man with a gun on his hand and
- 23:44Speaker 1: a talking dog and lots of weird trippy things in
- 23:47Speaker 1: dark sense of humor, it apparently had nothing to do
- 23:50Speaker 1: with the MK Ultra. So I was disappointed to learn that.
- 23:53Speaker 1: But I want to thank rue from Atlanta Ali boy
- 23:59Speaker 1: eat has uh you think you practiced? That's not bad? Robbie, Yeah, Alejandro, Okay,
- 24:11Speaker 1: Charlie and Michael or and they all are video game guys,
- 24:18Speaker 1: I guess. And they wrote in um tell Us that
- 24:21Speaker 1: they had played m d K. It was a PC
- 24:22Speaker 1: game and it looked pretty cool. I looked at it
- 24:24Speaker 1: on YouTube. I haven't seen it yet. Yeah, it's pretty rad,
- 24:26Speaker 1: but there's no um there's no mk ultrack going on. Well,
- 24:30Speaker 1: thanks to everybody who wrote in. And if you want
- 24:32Speaker 1: to write to us about your video gaming experiences, or
- 24:37Speaker 1: just to say hi, or to suggest a new pseudonym
- 24:40Speaker 1: for me when I check into hotels, send it to
- 24:44Speaker 1: stuff Podcasts at how stuff works got com for more
- 24:51Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics. Is it how
- 24:53Speaker 1: stuff works dot com, brought to you by the reinvented
- 24:59Speaker 1: two thousand of Camery. It's ready, are you