Herzog — minus his fingers and toes — became a national hero for conquering a mountain that remains one of the toughest, with a 40 percent mortality rate among climbers who have attempted it.
The death rate among climbers on Denali (6194 m), Alaska, during 1903-2006 was 0.03%, 17 whereas the overall death rate on Mount Rainier (4392 m), Washington, during 1987-1996 was 0.02%.
The majority of studies offer little support for the smaller allocation of biomass to stems or greater relative growth rates in climbers; however, these results are based on small sized (<1 kg) plants.
Ben Ayers, the Nepal country director for the dZi Foundation and a longtime advocate for trekking porters' rights, said that fees should be increased to ensure Sherpas are properly insured: "If the lives of Sherpas were insured at a comparable rate to foreign climbers, that might change the way people think about the risks they face on the mountain.
The Web site ueverest.com, while not setting records or conveying any protests, is an excellent example of how much material can be regularly updated and communicated to sea level from the remote mountain, including daily video and audio clips, photographs and blogs, even charts tracking the heart rates of the climbers.
Sherpas were killed at a greater rate per incident than climbers (1.18 v 0.54, P=0.02), with 70% of deaths in sherpas classified in this category.
21 30 Climbers died at over six times the rate of sherpas during the descent from the summit.
Climbers 60 and older also had higher death rates — about one in 20 did not make it off the mountain alive.
"You know, Himalayan mountain climbers are acute optimists because there's such a high fatality rate.
In contrast to the deaths from objective hazards at lower altitudes, climbers died during the descent from the summit at a greater rate than did sherpas (2.5% v 0.2%, P<0.001).
