Dead Pool 26th June 2022

This issue is a bit mountainous. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

Former Oasis guitarist Bonehead has given fans an update after undergoing treatment for cancer. The musician, real name Paul Arthurs, was diagnosed with tonsil cancer earlier this year.. Writing on Twitter on Friday, he informed fans of the progress of his treatment, saying he was now “in recovery”. “Quick update,” he wrote. “Today I finished my course of treatment, 30 radiotherapy sessions and two chemotherapy. I’m feeling the pain right now but I’m in recovery and things can only get better from here. I can’t thank the team who supported and treated me at The Christie enough. Doctors, radiographers, dieticians, speech and language. You all really made it so much easier,” he continued. “I’ll forever look back at what you all do with a hand on my heart. Thank you massively. I’m back for a scan end of September to check all’s well, but for now it’s into recovery mode. Couple of tough weeks ahead yet but I’ll get there.” He then thanked his fans for their messages of support. “There’s so many each day and I read them all,” he said. “They mean a lot so thank you for that.” Bonehead was a founding member of Oasis. He announced he was leaving the group in 1999, during the recording of Oasis’s fourth album, Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, explaining that he wished to spend more time with his family. He continued to work with Liam Gallagher over the years, and had been scheduled to perform with him this summer.  

A British man has been killed after falling at the notorious “Devil’s Pass” mountain in northern Spain. The 25-year-old was staying in a hotel in Eibar, a city in the province of Gipuzkoa, with a friend and mountaineering in the Basque Country, as reported by the flying monkeys. He reportedly became separated from his climbing partner and continued on his own to navigate the limestone mountain crest of Anboto on Thursday afternoon in stormy conditions. It is suspected that dire conditions caused the unnamed climber to fall as he attempted to navigate the exposed route, which is known for being difficult to climb in wet weather. Emergency services were scrambled to find the young man and a search took place overnight to locate him that included helicopters, rescue dogs and the Red Cross. His body was recovered by the Ertzaintza Surveillance and Rescue Unit, with the assistance of a helicopter on Friday. It is understood the man was a tourist on holiday. A spokesperson for the Ertzaintza police force said: “Emergency services have located the lifeless body of the mountaineer who we had been searching for since Thursday evening. The alarm was raised around 8.30pm, saying the 25-year-old had gone missing near to the Alluitz mountain summit. A police helicopter found his body in a place called the canal de Infernu Zubi, near to the Alluitz peak, where it appears he could have suffered a fall.” The Devil’s Pass – Paso del Diablo in Spanish – is notoriously difficult for even the most experienced climbers and has previously caused fatalities. However, the mountain is still popular with hikers despite frequent slips on the treacherous limestone.  

Thirteen years ago this week, Michael Jackson died suddenly, on June 25, 2009, an event which soon became one of the most widely reported celebrity deaths.  Aged 50, Jackson died in his Los Angeles home after a cardiac arrest caused by a fatal combination of drugs, prescribed by his personal doctor. As well as the controversy surrounding his death, soon, Jackson’s financial situation was cast in the public’s eye. He passed just 18 days before he was due to take the stage in his This Is It tour. The tour was supposed to be his last, and broke multiple box office records when tickets were released. However, some reports suggest that the tour was intended to help pay off some of Jackson’s mountainous debts. At the time of his death, Jackson had a $500million debt. Many blamed his spending habits for the debt, with lavish purchases like the Neverland Ranch, which reportedly cost $19.5million to purchase. On top of this, it is said to have cost $10million per year to maintain. After his death, the executors of his estate were able to save Jackson’s financial state thanks to an aggressive tactic. They sold all of his future music rights to Sony for $250million. Once his debts were settled, Jackson’s heirs could finally access their inheritance. Forty percent of his assets were split equally between his three children, and another 40 percent was left to his mother Katherine Jackson. The final 20 percent of the superstar’s estate was left to various children’s charities. Each of Jackson’s children are purported to be worth $100 million each, which ain’t bad for doing fuck all. 

On This Day

  • 1483 – Richard III becomes King of England.
  • 1906 – The first Grand Prix motor race is held at Le Mans.
  • 1963 – Cold War: U.S. President John F. Kennedy gave his “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech, underlining the support of the United States for democratic West Germany shortly after Soviet-supported East Germany erected the Berlin Wall.
  • 1974 – The Universal Product Code is scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley’s chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio.
  • 1977 – Elvis Presley holds his final concert in Indianapolis, Indiana at Market Square Arena, before succumbing to a burger induced shit death a couple of weeks later.
  • 1997 – J. K. Rowling publishes the first of her Harry Potter novel series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in United Kingdom.

Deaths

  • 2003 – Denis Thatcher, English soldier and businessman (b. 1915).
  • 2005 – Richard Whiteley, English journalist and game show host (b. 1943).
  • 2012 – Nora Ephron, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1941).

What is the most dangerous mountain to climb? 

Is it the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, which claims lives almost every season? Could it be the medium-sized Matterhorn in the Alps? Or even little old Mount Washington in New Hampshire? We set out to try to answer this question and to uncover what makes a mountain so dangerous. 

It should go without saying that climbing and mountaineering are inherently dangerous activities and require a great deal of safety training and gear. One of the sad facts of climbing is that injuries and fatalities seem to take up as much news space as the success stories, but it is certain that far more people reach the world’s summit than perish trying. 

In setting out to answer this question, we relied on statistics surrounding fatalities, since these are better recorded than injuries and incidents which often go unreported. It’s safe to say that of all the possibilities when it comes to climbing, death is the worst one and therefore a good indicator of danger.

However, we’ve made a point to compare not just total death toll but also death rate, since some peaks have very few climbers attempting them and a high death rate, suggesting they may be more dangerous than those which attract thousands each year. We’ll let you look at the numbers and decide which you think makes the deadliest mountain.

Finally, our goal in approaching this common question is not to reinforce morbid fascination with climbing deaths; rather, want to provide you some perspective as to the relative dangers of climbing, and another reason to celebrate the many outstanding climbing success stories of our time. 

There are lots of factors that can make a mountain dangerous for climbing. Any slope that is 30 degrees or steeper is subject to powerful snow slides. Then there’s the question of wildlife – animals such as mountain lions, bears and moose that live at higher altitude certainly can pose some risk to humans.

And of course there’s the issue of the weather. Rain and snow storms, high winds and lightning all make for even more treacherous conditions up high. Mountain tops experience colder temperatures than land at sea level and their mass can actually influence weather patterns, forcing air to move over the barrier it creates and causing meteorological instability. Case in point: Mount Washington. Many people will be surprised to learn that this small 6,822ft peak in New Hampshire has claimed more lives than any other US mountain, largely due to its wild weather patterns. 

Then there are so-called internal factors that can make a mountain dangerous for climbing. You might experience altitude sickness at elevations above 8,000ft, which can mean dizziness, shortness of breath, nausea, headaches, or in the worst case scenario high altitude pulmonary oedema and cerebral oedema. 

Getting lost is another factor that increases the dangers of climbing. The more remote the terrain, the less there is in terms of helpful navigational features. Getting lost on a mountain can mean spending the night on a rock face exposed to the elements, or risking a dangerous fall if you end up off-route.

Finally there’s the very real possibility of suffering from hypothermia, since mountains usually mean very high altitude and that almost always means sub-zero temperatures and the need for extreme weather gear and survival skills. 

Most people assume that Mount Everest, standing at 29,032ft in the Himalayas, is the deadliest mountain in the world and any deaths on Everest certainly do generate headlines. After all, it has claimed over 300 climbers and its perilous conditions have been chronicled by the likes of Jon Krakauer in his book Into Thin Air and in documentaries like Sherpa that spotlights the deadly 2014 avalanche that killed 16. Everest claimed the life of famous mountaineering pioneer George Mallory and turns back about a third of all those who attempt it each year. It becomes increasingly crowded with images of long lines of climbers waiting to reach the summit frequently circulating the internet. 

However, the number of climbers attempting Everest rose by more than 50% between 2006 and 2019 compared to the previous 15 years, the death rate remained the same at about 1%. So in a typical current year, of the average 800 climbers who attempt Everest, eight are statistically likely to die doing so. Further, it found that the summit success rate has actually doubled from the first 15-year period studied to the next, meaning we’re actually getting better at safely summiting the world’s highest peak. As it turns out, Mount Everest is not dearly as deadly as some other mountains in the vast Himalayan range. 

The next tallest mountain after Everest is K2, standing at 28,251ft in Pakistan. This remote mountain features a long approach and is known for treacherous weather and deathly avalanches. From 1906 to 2008 only 264 people managed to reach the top, far fewer than summit Everest in a single year.

This treacherous mountain has some grim statistics, especially when it comes to women climbers, having claimed the lives of such mountaineers as Alison Hargreaves. Hargreaves was the first woman to summit Everest without support or supplemental oxygen but perished along with six other climbers on K2 in1995. Compared to Everest’s average 1% death rate, the percentage of climbers who die attempting to climb K2 is reported by NASA to be around 25%. So K2 is statistically much more dangerous than Everest, but is it the most dangerous mountain to climb?   

There are two other Himalayan peaks worth looking at when trying to determine the most dangerous mountain to climb. Nanga Parbat, the world’s ninth tallest mountain in Pakistan, where mountaineer Tom Ballard lost his life, is reported to have a death rate of about 25%, or one in four, which is staggeringly higher than Everest. Meanwhile, Nepal’s Annapurna, the world’s tenth highest peak, frequently tops the death toll rate with a fatality rate of more than 30%. In other words, for every three people that attempt Annapurna, only two survive. It’s also worth noting that both of these mountains have far fewer successful summits – under 300 total compared to over 4,000 on Everest – owing to how challenging they are.

So in terms of death rate, even with only 63 total deaths, Annapurna currently holds the title of the world’s most deadly mountain. Annapurna’s highly technical route and geology of unstable rocks are pointed to as primary factors making it considerably more dangerous than other surrounding peaks. Its avalanche-prone terrain features ice walls and crevasses and it is the victim of unpredictable weather and climate. 

At over 300, Everest seems to be a strong contender for highest death toll, but believe it or not, the answer to this question doesn’t seem to lie in the Himalayas at all. It is estimated that over 500 alpinists have died on The Matterhorn, a relatively small mountain at only 14,685ft in the Swiss Alps, making it the deadliest mountain in the world for climbing.

Though it is half the height of Everest, Swiss mountain guides told the newspaper Tages-Anziger that climate change was to blame for so many recent deaths, with rising global temperatures causing permafrost thaws and dangerous crumbling rock.

However, while more climbers may have died on the Matterhorn than any other mountain, it’s important to note that the first ascent of this peak took place back in 1865, almost a century before Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay summited Everest. So once again, the numbers are all relative.  

Last Week’s Birthdays

Nick Offerman (52), Ariana Grande (29), Chris Isaak (66), Ricky Gervais (61), Sheridan Smith (41), Erin Moriarty (28), Iain Glen (61), Nancy Allen (72), Peter Weller (75), Mick Fleetwood (75), Joel Edgerton (48), Selma Blair (50), Frances McDormand (65), Joss Whedon (58), Bryan Brown (75), Duffy (38), Meryl Streep (73), Bruce Campbell (64), Lindsay Wagner (73), Stephen Chow (60), Cyndi Lauper (69), Tim Russ (66), Prunella Scales (90), Chris Pratt (43), Juliette Lewis (49), David Morrissey (58), Lana Wachowski (57), Lana Del Rey (37), Tom Wlaschiha (49), Nicole Kidman (55), John Goodman (70), Robert Rodriguez (54), Christopher Mintz-Plasse (33), and Brian Wilson (80).

This entry was posted on 26th June 2022 by . It was filed under 2022 .

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