Is there any endeavor that you'd risk reasonable death for?

[Dave Gray]

To start, I'm not talking about a risk to save someone else....nothing like would you die for your kids or your wife or anything like that.


I just watched an old, silent movie about the Terra Nova expedition.  A whole team of people took to the South Pole.  After a perilous journey on ships, 5 of them, including the captain, went the final 900 miles in the name of claiming the South Pole for England.  They knew that survival was risky.

They all died.  Though they reached the pole, they weren't first.  The Norwegians beat the by a little over a month.

They knew what they were getting into and they died for their country, I guess.  Or they died risking it all for fame and riches, maybe.


I think that the same can be said of some early astronauts.  It's definitely the case for people trying to climb K2, where about 25% of these people die from it.  Is there anything where you'd put your life on the line to be the first, to potentially do something amazing, to be in the history books, etc?

I am just not made for it.  My life is so protected to me, deep down in my core -- my self-preservation is of the upmost importance, hard-coded in me.  Yet people who risk life for crazy advancement is how we have grown as a species.  ...not even space....but cavemen getting on a raft for the first time, people sailing the seas to unknown places....those that crossed America on wagon-trains and a 1/3 of them died from dysentery and the elements....jeez.

[Phishfan]

I can't think of anything.

[EDGECRUSHER]

I don't know about reasonable death but I would love to see Antarctica one day. It's risky but nothing like a 30% survival rate, they have "cruises" that go from South America.

I would also do a HALO Jump with Tom Cruise if the opportunity ever arose.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Most things of this type it is less about worrying about death as just discomfort. 

It would be cool to climb Mt. Everest.  The biggest deterrent for me is not the 4% chance I would die, but the 100% chance of being uncomfortably cold for a month. 

[EDGECRUSHER]

Most things of this type it is less about worrying about death as just discomfort. 

It would be cool to climb Mt. Everest.  The biggest deterrent for me is not the 4% chance I would die, but the 100% chance of being uncomfortably cold for a month. 

Is it only 4%? I know the mountain is littered with dead bodies that they are unable to bring down with them. Heard it is so crowded now during climbing season that there is basically a line to get to the top.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Is it only 4%? I know the mountain is littered with dead bodies that they are unable to bring down with them. Heard it is so crowded now during climbing season that there is basically a line to get to the top.

310 have died.  But 6014 have climbed it and many more than that have attempted.  So 4% might be a bit high.

Quite a few have died but as you pointed out it is pretty crowded. 

[Dave Gray]

I don't think people are dying much on Everest anymore.  It's kind of a tourist destination where money gets you to the top, not skill.

K2 is the new Everest.  You aren't paying your way to the top of K2.