Mount Everest: An Exhilarating Adventure (part 2)

Their findings were remarkable. Even at their base camp, the very low level of oxygen was noted to have a direct effect particularly on the saturation levels of blood oxygen. The usual percentage at sea level is 98% up to 99%, however at the base camp; the percentage fell to about 85% up to 87%. Even the blood samples that were taken from the summit area featured the oxygen's super low levels. With this phenomenon, the breathing rate vastly increased from approximately 20 up to 30 bpm or breathes per minute. Thus, it can even go as fast as 80 up to 90 bpm or breathes per minute. Climbers experienced exhaustion by merely catching their breadth. As a conclusion, exhaustion, lack of oxygen, extreme cold as well as the actual danger of climbing Mount Everest are factors that can contribute to the Mountain's death toll.

Reports of climbers dying in Mount Everest are usually left behind. According to record, approximately 150 bodies were never recovered. In fact, when you climb the mountain, corpses are very much visible even from the standard routes.

Another discovery about Mount Everest is that amidst its very high area, lightning does not plague it. Even the Lightning Detection System of NASA was not able to get any record of lightning episodes in the Tibetan mountains that range from 7,000 feet or 2000 meters and above, only along the fascinating Tibet plateau.

Moreover, in the expeditions to Mount Everest, climbers use oxygen tanks and masks when they are above 26,246 feet or 8,000 meters. Although Mount Everest can actually be climbed even without bringing supplementary oxygen, it still increases potential risks on the climber. This is justifiable because any person that experience low oxygen levels cannot think clearly. Plus, the low temperature, severe weather and very steep slope of Mount Everest necessitate accurate and quick decision making prowess.

This is why using bottled oxygen while ascending Mount Everest has become controversial. However, many attest to using this. Even the famous George Mallory was quoted as saying that using it is "unsportsmanlike". He later took this back when he realized it was very difficult to climb the summit without having one. He consequently used one during his climb. This was also very helpful during the initial successful summit of Hillary and Tenzing in 1953. After this, bottled oxygen has become a standard necessity for successful climbs to Mount Everest. The only dilemma, according to Jon Krauker's book called Into Thin Air, is that with the publicity of using bottled oxygen in Mount Everest, unqualified climbers are also trying and attempting to actually summit the mountain. For Krauker, this can lead to more dangerous situations and even deaths.

Thus, last May 11th of the year 1996, such disaster occurred when 33 climbers attempted to ascend Mount Everest and leaving bottlenecks at Hillary Step. This delayed several other climbers, being unable to go with the 2:00 PM turnaround time. This caused the proposal of banning the usage of bottled oxygen while climbing Mount Everest and should only use it for severe emergency cases. This would both decrease the growth of pollution in Mount Everest and this will keep off unqualified climbers from attempting to ascend the mountain. Aside from this, the 1996 disaster brought about the issue of having a guide use bottled oxygen as well. This is because many guides of Mount Everest do not use bottled oxygen. They regard it as a "false sense of security". The debate on this is about the inability of the guides to help their clients descend without the use of bottled oxygen.

Lastly, another issue in climbing Mount Everest is the reports about life-threatening thefts to climbers. The thefts were from the climbers supply caches. An example is an incident from the party of a certain David Sharp, where in the 1st Brazilian climber, Vitor Negrete died while descending Mount Everest. Speculations reveal that stolen supplies from his "high-altitude camp" contributed to this fatality.

Thus, Mount Everest is a very spectacular mountain. For climbers, it is an ultimate goal to actually ascend and descend it. For the rest of the world, it is a remarkable masterpiece of nature that should be nurtured and cared for.

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