1. Advantages and Disadvantages of High Altitude Mountain Climbing
What Price Victory?
Advantages and Disadvantages of High Altitude Mountain Climbing

2. Advantages/Victories

3. Fame & Fortune Member of an elite club
Few have actually reached the top

4. Personal Satisfaction
Achieve a goal
Overcoming an obstacle
Pride in achieving a goal or just trying is enough
Pushing oneself to the outer limits of one’s abilities
Adrenaline rush or ego trip
Setting world’s records
Bragging Rights—accomplish something few have done
Thrill & excitement + fun
The view from the Top of the World above the clouds
(29, 035 feet)

5. Gain Scientific Information
Predict earthquakes
Predict avalanches
Study the effects of altitude on the body
Geographic information, plate tectonics
How tall? Is the mountain growing?
Geological information, prehistoric rocks

6. Business Opportunities
Climbing business—costs $60,000 - $100,000 per person
Improve the life of the Sherpas
Film & books, public speaking

7. **Without risk society would not grow & develop.
For example:
Westward expansion
Advances in medicine
Advances in technology

8. Disadvantages/Price Paid

9. Death Die on the mountain, become part of it
Currently over 200 bodies are entombed on Mount Everest

10. The Risk of Serious/Permanent Injuries
Frostbite = amputation (Beck Weathers, Makalu Gao, Maurice Herzog, Louis Lachenal)
Hypothermia
Snow Blindness
Acute Mountain Sickness
Often fatal
Swelling of the brain
Swelling of the lungs = fluid = drowning
Rib cracking cough
Congestive Heart Failure

11. Mental Anguish Survivor’s Guilt Depression
Lasting psychological problems
Stress on family
Divorce
Loss of a spouse or loved one
Jealousy & Resentment

12. Financial Risk
The price of $60,000 - $100,000 & no refund if you don’t summit
Medical expenses (surgeries)
Loss of wages due to illness/injury, takes months to climb

13. Environmental Hazards
Mountain is being trashed
Health hazards
Littered with dead bodies, approximately 200

14. Obsession
Irrational desire to climb at all costs
Deal with the devil