I wonder if they’ve ever done a study on the lifespan effects of a Mt. Everest climb.
Low oxygen, extreme cold, and extreme physical stress would most likely do irreparable damage to the heart and lungs, as well as the brain; possibly shortening the life of the person that “survived” the climb.
Then again, I can see the point in such an act in any case.
But the view is pretty, right ?
Sir Edmund Hillary lived to nearly 90, FWIW.
Don’t most potential climbers get physicals first? Considering that a number are wealthy, why not choose to do a full head to toe check including MRI and CTSCAN before and after. That could provide good information for comparisons. I wonder if any place in Pakistan has an excellent Radiology department to do these tests? Thus getting the best results as close as possible to getting off the mountain.
Edmund Hillary lived to 88... I'm thinking that the fitness requirements to climb to altitude are more than able to compensate for the stresses of the climb.
I was thinking that maybe pre-climbing with treatment of diamox or dexamethasone may be the way to go and study those that took it versus those that didn't.
I’ve seen cattle which were pastured at about 8000’ elevation dying of pulmonary edema, which is what kills many climbers (or used to). The only cure is to get the animal down to a lower elevation where there is more oxygen. I once heard one of the early Everest climbers say that above 20K feet, the human body inevitably starts to deteriorate. I would guess that the highest permanent human habitation on earth is roughly 1/3 the elevation of Everest.
I don’t know, but I did catch a documentary once where they showed an experienced climbers brain after an MRI... He showed no outward signs of problems, but his brain has major scarring and atrophy in the MRI.
I’ve long wondered about the long-term effects of high altitude, and also about whether there would be new discoveries of harm in years to come.
In my younger days I was a fairly serious climber (not at international levels but simply doing technical climbs up to 14,000 feet in the US Rockies etc.
One reason (besides the obvious risk of life) that I decided fairly early on not to go much above 14,000 feet was that I suspected that more extreme altitude climbing might have all sorts of deleterious effects that might not be known to medicine just yet. (I also developed increasing risk-aversion to simply dying or being maimed), but I always wondered a lot about how the brain and body could go to 1/2 to 1/3 of normal oxygen without some serious effects.