It's a grim, lonely affair.
A true battle between man and the elements.
A test of survival, in the harshest conditions.
Or is it? Seems you have to go a long way to do something truly hardcore these days. I present you... McEverest.
Here's a good article relating to last weeks deaths when some 100 climbers got caught in that bottle neck you can see in Dave's photo. Sounds like humanity flies out the window when climbers ignore dying climbers to "carry on" to the top irrespective that they might be able to save someone's life. The Summit at all cost.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2149827/Mount-Everest-deaths-Teenager-Leanne-Shuttleworth-describes-walking-dead-climbers.html
One of my mates is a mountain guide in the Swiss Alps, He went there a few times. He left a couple of toes to frost bites there!
He told me that most peeps that died did it on the way down mainly because they refused to go by the experienced climbers advice and kept going for the summit when to late. When you enter the death zone you start dieing and it is not an if but a certainty........ Your time is counted......... your lungs start to fill with liquid.
On the way down there is very little you can do to help peeps in deep trouble......... doing so would most certainly kill you. Most peeps that died there did it by stupidity!
It is impossible to recover dead peeps from the dead zone, my mate was telling me there is 100 of bodies left there frozen for all to see as it is too cold for the cadavers to decompose.
Not my idea of a fun destination!
According to my mate the place is covered in rubbish, peeps just litter as it is too hard to take it back, the worst is the oxygen containers at base camp.... 1000 of them.... the new ones are easy to take back as they are kevlar fiber and light, but some have been there for years and are the heavy metal ones!
should be a tax on all climbers that gets paid to a group of sherpers to do a clean up every so oftern.
Airlifted with what?
Helicopters have a very low service ceiling and the higher you go the less they can lift.
At the height of mt everest you would need a helium balloon to hold up the helicopter. 
i'm sure there would be a few logistical issues, but i'm sure it could be done. but the people who put it there should pay the bill.
Wounded peeps can't even be evacuated by choppers from base camp! They have now a small ER at base camp that has means to mend climbers as good as possible so they can walk back!
I have heard of some sort of program that is paying money for the sherpas to carry some of the rubbish from base camp, it is a very slow process...........
I think the good climbers do the following for an Everest Ascent;
1) Climb Island Peak, without oxygen. I good heart starter, at 6,900m, including spending about 1 week+ above 5,500m
2) get back to Kathmandu for about 10 days, to rest and recover at low altitudes.
3) Head up to Base Camp, and then spend about 7-10 days doing the acclimatisation cycles.
Total Durations of above;
1 - about 14 days
2 - about 10 days
3 - 5 days to base camp, plus 10 days of acclimatisation cycles, before you would even consider a summit attempt.
4 - at least 5-6 days to get back to Kathmandu, can be 7.
It's basically a 6 week mission. 4 weeks isn't enough.
I think they do the odd chopper run into Base Camp. 5500m. Above that is just too high for a chopper. Air is too thin.
I walked to 5000m up a mountain.
It was the hardest most gruelling walk i have done.
The downhill was good tho - 3 days going down from barren snow capped peak to lush hot jungle.
Didnt get sick but the lack of oxygen going up was hard to deal with.
considering a permit for a team of 7-10 climbers cost $70,000 usd or if you are solo it has a $25,000 price tag in one of the poorest countries in the world -
you think it would be possible for the govt to actually put a little of that back into cleaning up the place.
the pic of the 200 climbers above is just pathetic i reckon. as the old saying goes when people see a queue thay love getting in it for some reason
