Death zone? More like SAFETY ZONE. Safer mountaineering: climb the tallest peaks with ease, thanks to this new accessibility-enhancing feature.

The Issue:

Climbing tall mountains is inherently unsafe. Dangers include falling, high winds, frostbite, venomous snakes, attack by eagles, and the high altitude “DEATH ZONE,” which really makes the whole peak-conquering thing seem like a bad idea.

Additionally, this high degree of danger makes it impractical for children, the elderly, and the handicapped to fully appreciate the high-altitude mountaineering experience.

Proposal:

Fortunately, modern technology and logistics allow us to solve this dangerous situation: we can just meticulously relocate the peak of the mountain from its current dangerously-high-elevation location to a much more accessible location at sea level (Figure 1).

Fig. 1: Top: this dangerous peak lures climbers to their doom in the low-oxygen death zone (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_zone) . Bottom: after relocating this peak to a sea-level national park, it has become much safer to climb.

Ideally, this new location would also be close to a parking lot, so that climbers could drive right up to the peak and climb some stairs to the top, rather than needing to laboriously acquire mountaineering equipment and survival supplies.

This is also more eco-friendly, since fewer resources would be wasted on travel and mountaineering preparation.

Figure 2 shows how the mountain will look after its peak has been relocated.

Fig. 2: This new mountain “peak” is admittedly a bit of an acquired taste, aesthetics-wise, but people will probably get used to it. After all, many Parisians initially thought the Eiffel Tower was a ridiculous eyesore, too!

Conclusion:

This scheme might initially seem impractical, but similar endeavors have succeeded in the past! For example, the Abu Simbel temple in Egypt (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Simbel) was entirely dismantled and moved up a hill. It should be even easier to do things in reverse, and lower a peak down a mountain.

PROS: Brings accessibility and handicapped access to even the tallest mountains! An “eco-friendly” solution that should save the environment by reducing the number of climbing axes and tents that must be produced each year.

CONS: May have negative aesthetic implications. For example, Japan might be opposed to lopping off the top of Mt. Fuji (even if the safety benefits are clear).