Something Smells Rotten Here

Oh, ok first Hood is 18,000 ft lower than Everest and Denali is 9,000 ft lower than Everest. On Hood no except people out of shape is going to suffer the effects of altitude.

They don't call 8,000 meters and above the death zone for no reason, at that altitude your body is breaking down ever second you are there. It is not just the lack of O2, but also the lack of pressure that causes your body to breakdown. Also, nearly all Helicopters can not fly that high due to the nature of the way that Helicopters fly. At 8,000 meters or 26,000 ft and above you are on your own, if you can not stand and at least keep your balance it is crazy to expect others on the verge of death to be able to carry you down when you are not even awake and coherent.

Passing out at 28,000 ft and above means dying, plain and simple.

What did the guy at the end of the series say, he said that an entire team of climber came to collect a body of a dead climber in the deathzone and bring it down. They climbed to it and spent 6 hours moving it 100ft, an entire team of climbers couldn't bring a dead man off the mountian. Moving a dead man is the same as moving a man passed out.

Sigh here we go again. Hood and Denali like the previous poster has said, it's a lot lower than Everest, not only this but they're both in the United States, of course you have to stop and help. EVEREST IS IN THE HIMALAYAS, IT IS NOT IN THE UNITED STATES. Everest is a totally different world, you save your own ass because if you're in the Death Zone and you try to help someone else when your oxygen is running out you're BOTH going to DIE. You're pretty much comparing a hill in America to a giant mountain in Central Asia. The climbers who climb Everest KNOW that there is a pretty damn good chance that they're going to die on that mountain it's not like people die on the mountain and wonder where the American rescue choppers are going to come for them. They know if they don't turn back when needed, or push themselves too far, it's gameover. This "Madness" you speak of is the human spirit fighting for it's own survival. Being caught in a giant line up the summit and when finally getting there, having to race back down before you run out of oxygen or before night falls on you is priority, not trying to give the dying 185lb. man a piggyback ride down a steep mountain. He was only an hour away from death by the time they descended it probably would of taken an hour to get enough people with energy there to carry him back and another hour to get down and out of the Death Zone. It's not a walk in the park, this is not in America, get used to it.

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There are old mountaineers and there are BOLD mountaineers but there are no
OLD BOLD mountaineers.

I agree with Ed Viesturs that it's too crowded these days. It seems more like a Disney attraction because it's one of the few mountains where people actually wait their turn in line to ascend and decesnd it.