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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]this kind of reminds me of Everest in way--if you fall victim to Everest, it's unlikely you'll be rescued and you're just left up there to die.  Unless a sherpa comes along and bundles you up and carries you down the mountain like the recent rescue, but that is rare.  so this is similar--you're stuck at the bottom of the ocean with no rescue option available. They knew this going in, just like Everest climbers assume the risk. At least on Everest your death is pretty quick and peaceful. [/quote]

You are dramatically misstating what goes on on Everest—but you are more right than you know.

Sherpas don’t “come along” and help people out on Everest. Wealthy Westerners pay big bucks for guides and equipment-carrying (including bottled oxygen) that enables a lot of would-be summiteers to be in places their training and experience do not justify them being in.

They do not accept the risk, for the most part—they spend a lot of money trying to derisk an inherently risky environment. When it goes wrong, sherpas who are hired to work as part of the businesses supporting this risk their own lives to bail these folks out.

There are proposals by expert climbers to ban bottled oxygen on Everest to prevent this kind of nonsense (because none of these people could climb Everest without it), but the local economy depends so strongly on this setup that it’s a nonstarter.

It’s a small mercy that there is no undersea equivalent of this.[/quote]

No I know that--except in this recent case of the sherpa who literally stumbled upon someone dying and had to make the choice between saving this person or continuing to guide his guy up the mountain. they both agreed to abandon their ascent to save the person who had run out of oxygen and was dying.  totally agree that most people who climb Everest don't fully understand the risks, but I think most people climbing Everest, regardless of your physical ability, recognize that if you collapse, break something, make a wrong turn, etc. you're as good as dead.  [/quote]

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