gray_ghost | Climbing K5

I'm watching this Discovery channel documentary now which is discussing the deadly history of K5 (which is actually a deadlier mountain to climb than Everest), and the way the mountaineers talk about K5 makes it sounds like a huge international pagan death cult. Why don't they shut the mountain down? It's a huge death trap. I mean - since they are mostly rich yuppified hypercompetitive assholes - I guess it's not that big of a tragedy. But WTF? This one guy was looking at his swollen black frostbitten fingers and could hardly take the pain, but was still asking the doctor if
he thought he could make the summit.

Another thing which is a little disturbing is that medical science doesn't seem to have a good grasp on who can and who cannot function properly at high altitudes. Some people get pulmonary edemas, some people get brain aneurisms, some people have trouble thinking clearly and fall off the side of the mountain, and some people are just fine with it. You don't know until you actually get that high, and by the time you are that high and start having problems, it's probably too late to do anything to help you. Even if your fellow climbers were inclined to help you. Which I would not count on if it means helping you might mean they won't make the summit. Remember the part about the climbers being rich hypercomptetive assholes?