I fucked up! Now I want the government to pay for it.

Nothing to say here but GO FUCK YOURSELF to the family of the "victim".

I trust my government will not be stupid enough to pay for this.

If I ever pull something like this, just leave my frozen ass up there as a warning to others.

I would think that if it was her lifelong dream to climb Everest, it would be a fitting tribute to leave her body there.

I think anyone engaged in "extreme" sports such as mountain climbing, helicopter skiing, etc. should be billed for 100% of the cost of any rescue or recovery efforts. Fuck 'em. Tax dollars and lives of emergency personnel should not be put on the line to satisy someone's need for an adrenaline rush.

Two thoughts -

• There are worse places to be interred than around the peak of Mount Everest.
  
• Wouldn't be surprised if one day it became a celebrity cemetery hot spot of sorts.

Kkkkkk, Katmandu
That's where they're gonna drag my body to
I'm a Popsickle but I don't care,
I'm goin to Katmandu

So.... this thread isn't about the Wall street bailouts?

I don't know...I'd think it would beat being put in a box, in a vault, underground. It must be silent, awe inspiring and beautiful...far more sacred in and of itself than a hole.

Where is the line though? What about hiker's in a National Park? What about commuters on a freeway?

We all engage in risky behaviour, but it's always the OTHER GUY's behaviour that is an unacceptable risk.

What WAB said.

I mean, really. What else needs to be said about this?

1) There are lots of bodies still high up on Everest. A great many people who die up there are never recovered, even if the bodies are located. (And a lot of bodies are never located.)

2) How are they going to get a helicopter up to camp 2? It was already considered a major feat and a serious risk to get a helicopter up to camp 1, in the 1996 disaster, to rescue someone who was alive and could still be saved (and was). But though they had brought them down from camp 4, they feared for the lives of the injured if they had to take them down the icefall, so a pilot took the risk of going that high. Have helicopters improved so much since then that you can go all the way up to camp 2 just for a dead body?

Actually, it is. They are going to take all the executive bonuses from the companies that took the bailouts and pile them on top of each other to reach the top of Mt Everest in order to recover the body.

Helicopters can't get enough lift with the thin air. Might I suggest....and I'm just trying to think outside the box here.....building a giant conveyor belt to all the bodies?

I read something a couple of days ago that the Sherpas had recovered the body or something.

Above a certain altitude bodies are not recovered. Too dangerous. Climbers routinely walk past the bodies of the failures.

And rigorously avoid touching them, because the Sherpas think that brings the wrath of the gods on everyone, and will revolte en masse if you do.

Death Zone.

You know, if only they'd give it a menacing name that implied some danger, we might avoid some of these tragedies.

If you want to know what it's really like up there, read "Doctor on Everest" by Ken Kamler. It is truly a doctor's perspective on it, with lots of insights on the psychological and physiological effects of being that high up. It is by no means the most detailed book I know of about climbing Everest, or about the 1996 disaster in particular, but overall it is a great read for anyone who wants to find out about the subject without getting too technical.

The term "death zone" is indeed appropriate. You have to wonder what goes on in the minds of people who want to go up there...

Indeed. They should call it Justin Bieber zone or something.

Then it would be the "Please God Kill Me" Zone.

I'll go one better and say it should be called the "Celine Dion Zone".

Then they can put up loudspeakers continually playing "My Heart Will Go on". If that doesn't stop people from going there, nothing will.

Celine and Justin, Canada's gift to the world of music!