HUEY, R.B.; Univ. of Washington, Seattle: Himalayan Mountaineering: Patterns of Success and Death in Thin Air

Since the first ascent of Mt. Everest in 1953, tens of thousands of mountaineers have traveled to the Himalayas in pursuit of summits and adventure. Some have been successful, and some have died. It is now possible to compile data on patterns of success and death of Himalayan mountaineers, and to analyze those data using techniques developed by evolutionary biologists to study selection in nature. Here I illustrate the approach with two case studies. One tests the widespread view that the Khumbu Icefall is the most dangerous section on Everest, and the other evaluates whether the use of supplemental oxygen enhances survival during descent from the summits of Everest and K2. I also explore paleo-mountaineering and �predict� how marked changes in oxygen levels during the Phanerozoic would have influenced the maximum altitude mountaineers could have reached (had humans existed!), and then comment on the implications for distributional patterns of terrestrial animals.