Mount Everest: The World’s Deadliest Tourist Attraction 

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Everest has always struck me as a mountain to leave alone above the elevation that can support life - and just admire it from a reasonable distance

When I was a young boy, I heard an experienced mountain climber say: "remember, when you reach the top, you only completed half your journey". I didn't fully understand then, but oh boy, was he right. The flashy goal in front can blind you, but never forget to leave enough in the tank to make it back, or turn around early to prevent disaster.

I met the first blind climber to successfully climb and survive it. He also climbed the other six tallest peaks on every continent. He describes the ice fall straight out of base camp as the worst place on earth for a blind person. And he had to do it 13 times. Also, during the 96 disaster, 8 people in a group nearly walked off a 3 km vertical cliff into Tibet. The only reason they didn’t is because one of the guides sensed an abyss in front of them during the middle of the blizzard

Fun fact, Mount Everest is still growing, surprisingly by almost 2.5 inches per year. So, every single person who summits it holds the record for the highest summit ever... until the next person stands atop and temporarily holds it for themselves.

It’s almost as if climbing Mount Everest is a horrible idea.

Just remember, every corpse on Everest began as a highly motivated, goal oriented individual!

Make a video about K2! Its even more difficult and more deadly

-27 C to -34C. For anyone curious.

“This is hardly a trip to Yellowstone” that’s what 99% of inexperienced travelled don’t understand

I learned about the ethics of attributing European names to geographical features in non-European locations in an interesting and, I think, unique way. While researching my ancestry in New Zealand, I learned that a particular mountain's secondary peak is named after my kinswoman, who was the first European to ascend the peak. She did not continue on to the summit however. The mountain in question was, at the time of her ascent, referred to as Mount Egmont by the pakehas, or Europeans. To the local Maori, it was Taranaki Maunga. Not unlike Ayers Rock, eventually it reverted to its Maori name, Taranaki Maunga. When colonialism is brought to a sovereign nation, like Te Aotearoa, I always picture it in a strange way: a group of people, happily living their lives, sitting together in a communal space, and some foreigner walks in, plants a flag and says, "I claim this land for my Sovereign, and the souls of the people for the Church. Cue confused "WTF?" faces. I hope that one day Chomolungma reverts to the name given to it by the people to whom she is the home of the "Mother Goddess of the World" - and historically they had no idea that it was the highest mountain peak above sea level (but NOT the tallest mountain on the planet). I personally believe that, if expedition contractors make a fortune from leading climbers up the mountain, it should be incumbent upon them to remove their waste and the dead bodies of their clients from the mountain. I recall the tale of one of the Sherpa people who, hiking in the Khumbu Valley, stopped to drink from a mountain stream. After he swallowed his drink, he noticed a human body part in the bed of the water course. It was likely the remains of someone who died on a glacier and was washed down because of glacial melting. The entire watercourse in the region is being contaminated by human activity on the mountain. Imagine all the human urine and feces left on the mountain? The Sherpa who experienced the horrific moment of drining "human tea" was prompted to organize an extensive clean-up effort on the mountain. Several bodies were brought down the mountain because of his efforts. The people of Tibet and Nepal should not have to place their lives in jeopardy to clean up the crap left behind by climbers.

Sherpas doing the heavy lifting, ropes, ladders, plenty of cached oxygen, equipment, food. Etc. yet many still die. Seems like the individual actual mountaineering is done by the sherpas though. Not the people paying to walk up.

Some days my feed seems more like Simontube then RU-vid and I'm ok with that

I'll just watch everyone else Climb from my Base Camp: Mississippi

Do one on Simon Whistler, the man that spends all his time making documentaries.

I had to write a paper on this disaster at Uni and let me tell you this was a sad case. Part of the prompt was to pick a stance on if it was avoidable or not. I say it was 100% avoidable and a lot of people died for pride.

It's also called "The world's tallest graveyard" for good reason

I'm 100% going to climb Mount Everest...... As soon as they make a Playstation game for it.

Thanks geographics for putting out a video on Everest. Lots of love from Nepal. 😍😍

"Chinese-controlled Tibet". Nice one, sir!

How about a Geographics video on Olympus Mons, the tallest mountain in the solar system?

My cousin-in-law and his wife made it two the second camp before his missus felt she couldn't go any further, and left. On the way both up and down, they were told and saw some of those who fell along the way, still waiting to be taken away, but mainly used as directional guide-posts. I find it absolutely macabre and utterly fascinating for the longest time these bodies were used as a way to direct and measure where and when they would reach the next safe point in their ascent....I'll never have the chance to go, but wow, what a way to go if you do and find yourself on the highest cemetery in the world.... Only mountain I ever ascended on the hardest of the hard was Diamond Head on Oahu when I was just 9 with my sister, mother and father. It pales in comparison to Mount Everest though ^O^

I'd love to see a walk through of the other 8000ers on this channel. Maybe a little bit about each - location; Nickname (Savage mountain, Killer mountain etc.); first summit; technicality; number of attempts; and number of fatalities. After all, Everest may be a monumental challenge for most normal folk, but for mountaineers there's even harder out there. As the expression goes, "If you want to impress your friends, climb everest. If you want to impress mountaineers, climb K2". 1. Everest 2. K2 3. Kanchenjunga 4. Lhotse 5. Makalu 6. Cho Oyu 7. Dhaulagiri I 8. Manaslu 9. Nanga Parbat 10. Annapurna I 11. Gasherbrum I 12. Broad Peak 13. Gasherbrum II 14. Sishapangma

The tallest point I've been to was the Sphinx Observatory atop the Jungfraujoch ridge in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland (11,719 ft up), so to know that Everest Base Camp is nearly 6,000 ft higher than that is mind-blowing. Just being on the Jungfraujoch (home to Europe's highest railway station) was somewhat tough to acclimate to.

Also mention Tenzing Norgay in the same breath as Edmund Hillary !!!

I met one of the survivors for the avalanche from the 2015 earthquake. He had video and images of the before and after as well as during. So crazy and looked so scary!

You should do a Biographics on George Mallory and Edmund Hillary.

An amazing place, surprising how many people go on a adventure that is so potentially fatal. lots of bodies on Everest.

In to Thin Air is an awesome read.

i'd love to visit everest. not to climb it, just to see the ol gal. there's plenty to see in the surrounding region as well; i definitely get the desire to just "be" near the mountain. i'm okay on climbing to the top though especially with the ethical problems involved with it of late.

The top shelf of my freezer is a mystery to me never mind climbing a stupid mountain. And just imagine getting to the summit to find there is no gift shop !

Great video, thank you!

Those sherpas are put in a position to either help climb Everest, and maybe die, or not feed there family. Climbing Everest is a vanity endeavor. No one cares if you climb it or even ski down it. It’s been done. Start exploring other parts of Nepal and make there tourism industry not revolve around climbing.

Simon, I love ya lots. But, if you're going to use the imperial system, would you also be so kindly to put the metric system next to it, please?

Everest is littered with trash nowadays. I wish people would clean up after themselves.

Simon, love your Bio and Geo videos ❤️ always chuck them on to listen to as I fall asleep as theyre super relaxing

K2 would make an interesting video, even if you make it to the summit you're likely going to die before you make it back down. That's one crazy mountain!

"It certainly not a gift shop.." 😄

This video goes hand in hand with Last Week Tonight's episode on Everest climbing, just can't stop thinking about it while watching this..

Superb video!

More facts about the death zone: air is so scarce that it feels like you are breathing through a straw while running on a treadmill, your body is in a constant state of dying because your cells in your body are slowly dying, you have a risk of just suddenly drop dead from a heart attack, stroke or pulmonary edema without any warning, your whole digestive system shuts down in the death zone so you can't eat or gain more energy, also fluid absorption is extremely slow so pretty much all the water you drink just goes straight through Edit: typo

" The Mountain is a Killer" flashbacks to Sir Gregor Clegane intensifies

Sometimes I sleep on my sofa because I can't be arsed to walk upstairs. I'm good.

Thank you. This was very interesting.

i'm part Nepalese from my grandmothers side and im really happy that you mentioned the role Sherpa's play in the industry and what they have had to and continue to endure. i just watched the film Sherpa for English class and i was shocked about what they have to go through. the fact that you mentioned their role shows how much research you did and how much you value all people's lives so thank you. :) - just a 16 yr old kid on youtube

One of my best friends has met Sir Edmund Hillary and said he was a very intelligent and humble man. Sir Edmund was a friend of his brother and one time when Gavin went over to NZ to visit him, his brother asked if he minded him having a few friends over for dinner. Gavin said sure...whatever and he was shaken when he was seated next to Sir Edmund at dinner and chatted to him for hours after.

Wow Simon, the way you narrated this made it sound like another adventure for Indiana Jones! Good job!

4:19 that must be a shot from the China side base camp, because the Nepal side has no motor vehicles from Lukla and upwards.🇳🇵 Love your videos🙌

Doing a video on K2 would be fantastic also, it’s had much worse events and is considered harder to climb

My doctor is still on the mountain. He will be forever missed. May he RIP♡

Thank you sir, K2 next perhaps! Good luck.

Oh my god yessss this is now my favorite Biographics videos

When Simon spoke of the view from the summit and had mentioned the turnaround time, I immediately had the image, in my head, of Clark W. Griswold, his arm around Ellen Griswold, looking out over the world, bobbing his head a few times, then abruptly announcing, "Okay, let's go!"

I don't wanna climb this Goddess, I just want to see her up close and immerse myself in the feeling of insignificance in front of the might and grandeur of the World 🗻

Excellent video

I am so glad that I came across your channel! You have a new subscriber! I cannot wait to catch up on all your videos! 💛💛💛💛💛💛💛

I wish he would do either a biographics or a geographics on Dyatlov Pass and the infamous deaths thereof.

Climbing Mount Everest sounds a lot like surviving COVID-19, except you don't have to walk up/down a steep mountain with that low oxygen level when you're sick. The descriptions of people who got into trouble up there in the death zone remind me of how I felt when I had COVID-19 and I struggled to walk ten feet on completely flat ground to go use the bathroom. I'm in decent shape but, to be fair, I didn't acclimatize myself to oxygen levels in the upper 80s to low 90s before getting sick.

I always forget which channel has the court Jester style Simon, but this was a great video anyway 👍🏼

Can we please get the numbers in units used by most of the world next time. Celsius, meters and such

On top of Everest. Obi wan: " I have the highest ground"

Lets hope the snow & ice never melts or Everest is gonna stiiink!!

Simon you madman I can barely keep up between all of your channels!

Your videos are great! Do K2 or the Shackleton expedition please!

It's definitely worth seeing the general area in person, now climbing the mountain itself im not so sure about but the Nepalese side is beautiful and the sherpas are something else.

There's one rather dark story of a few climbers who came across what they thought was a corpse . They stopped for a quick breather when they heard the corpse talk. Turned out that climber hadn't died yet but because he'd stay din one spot for too long his body had frozen into place. And he was slowly freezing to death. They couldn't help him and had to leave him in that cave. He's still there.

Nice! Any chance you could do one of these on the Red River Rebellion??

I'm obsessed with Everest for some reason. In my wildest dreams, I'd attempt it... Wild dreams, though. In reality, I HATE the cold!

Altitude sickness really is no joke. I took a train to the top of Pikes Peak and the change was so shocking that I was struggling to breath and had to catch the first train back. My dad had to give me his canned oxygen but when that ran out, I still passed out on the train no joke don't climb mountains that were never meant to be scaled in the first place It's just a bad idea

"Money can't buy you happiness" No but it can allow you to climb a mountain

That reminded me of a video i watched on Mallory and Irvine's expedition of Mt. Everest which is still full of mystery today . i hope you make a video on it someday .

Great glasses! 👍

Of all the dangers that come with Mount Everest you didn't mention one found at the high altitudes - the Yeti!

Simon do an episode on the UK canals.

Well Simon I’m very sure you won’t find me trying to climb Everest. I get enough excitement just climbing out of bed every day! Fascinating video though with some truly awesome scenery!

Love these videos, would be cool to see one on K2 or Annapurna

A video on St. Paul’s cathedral aould be great.

i have seen it from the best possible place........looking out of the window of a Royal Nepal Airways Boeing 727 on aproach into Kathmandu in the early morning.......the mountain was way above us and the ground was way below..........it is a truly impressive sight sticking up above all surrounding peaks.

You're getting so damn close! We're definitely in the right region. You even put a pic in this vid. Hopefully the Potola Palace vid will drop soon.

Thank you

I do not know if you did a videograph geographics of three mile island but I think it would be a good subject. If you did I apologize for taking up space and I'll look for it.

So when are they putting the escalator in then? :P

20k views in only a few hours... not bad my friend... not bad at all.... (its my birthday today, and i have nothing to do but binge watch your many channels... thanks for the assist!)

How can you not use the best quote from Sir Ed when he got to the summit? He turned to Tenzing and said "So we knocked the bastard off" before a huge hug

I did the Everest Base Camp trek. It's insanely popular, and tens of thousands do it every year. Yeah, it's not necessarily actually CLIMBING Everest, but you can still say you've been, and the week-long trek to the base camp is quite beautiful.

i'm from Jamaica so i think i'll stick with dunn's river falls that's good enough for me.

Thank you for being my bed time story teller

I read Into Thin Air in my freshman year of high school. Before that I was in awe of Everest. Now I’m in awe of Everest but more in fear than excitement

I've always enjoyed hard challenges, but climbing Everest has never attracted me. Sounds like hell at best.

Imagine living at the base of Everest for hundreds of years, I think I would have topped myself halfway through the first century.

I made it to the top back in 2009. Toughest climb of my life but worth it!

Can you do the Appalachian Trail, the PCT, and the CDT?

While you mention you focus on the Nepali side. On 4:22, the picture of basecamp is from the Tibetan side. Just a piece of information. You actually cannot see Mount Everest at the Nepali side basecamp. Other high peaks are blocking the view.

Very interesting video, I like the original name of the mountain. We change the name for Mount McKinley back to Denali I think it means more

What incidental music did you use for this episode? (excellent show as always)

Where did you get your jacket? Love it!

Simon: Let's pretend that you're one of the thousands that flock to Everest every year in order to climb it. Me [knowing a lot about Everest already]: No, thanks, I'm good. Me [watches first half of video]: No, really, I said I'm GOOD. Me [watches entire video]: NO THANK YOU I HAVE NO NEED TO CLIMB MOUNT EVEREST EVER THANK YOU JUST THE SAME.

The mountain is holy to the Nepalese. Climbing it is a form of desecration. Walk in from Jiri, sit at the bottom and be awe-struck at her sheer magnificence.

Great documentary! I wish you could do one on mount Ararat, and the quests to look for Noah's Ark.

The name, the Tibet comment Simon is spilling his tea scalding hot today.