00:00This tourist destination has the highest entrance price of all.
00:04It could cost you your life.
00:06Those who spend over 16 hours in the Death Zone, and it is the official name of the most
00:12dangerous area on Mount Everest, risk never returning home.
00:17Those who endure 48 hours there will almost certainly never see their families again.
00:23The altitude in this region is over 26,000 feet, and winds can reach speeds of 62 miles
00:29per hour, sweeping everything, including you, off their path.
00:34Only one person has stood tall in this hostile environment for 90 hours, as it was with supplemental
00:41oxygen.
00:42Yep, the precious O2 gas is extremely scarce there.
00:46Without this vital resource, the maximum time someone can survive is about 21 hours, a record
00:53set by this guy.
00:54Yeah, he was tough.
00:56He reached the Everest peak 10 times.
00:59His fastest ascent took slightly under 17 hours, but Pemba broke his record, ascending
01:04Everest in 8 hours and 10 minutes.
01:07However, these accomplishments are not feats for the average Joe.
01:12These record holders have, in a sense, won a genetic lottery.
01:16Both are Nepali Sherpas, hence the names.
01:19Mountains are native to the mountains and have evolved a natural resistance to high
01:23altitude living.
01:26Despite the undeniable dangers, people seem unwilling to stop visiting the death zone.
01:32Since the establishment of climbing records, over 300 people have lost their lives there.
01:38Last year alone, 18 people perished, and as of July 2024, the death zone has claimed 8
01:45lives.
01:46As creepy as it may sound, the death zone on Mount Everest resembles a graveyard.
01:51The challenge lies in that recovering a body from this perilous location costs families
01:57a fortune.
01:59Oxygen alone, which is necessary to descend a body, can amount to as much as $20,000.
02:05This may seem far-fetched, but the operation requires 12 people, each needing an oxygen
02:11cylinder that costs around $400.
02:14So do the math.
02:16And it's not just the oxygen, imagine the other expenses summed up.
02:20Still, it's not only the money.
02:23The retrieval process is fraught with danger for those tasked with it, causing many private
02:28companies to decline such requests.
02:31Recently, authorities managed to recover 4 bodies and a skeleton from the treacherous
02:36area.
02:37While not all of them have been identified, one body belonged to an individual who passed
02:43away in 2017, remaining in the death zone for 7 years.
02:49El Caminito del Rey in Spain, Maluga, may look like child's play compared to Everest's
02:55death zone, as, reportedly, it has only claimed 6 lives.
03:00But still, this is eerie.
03:02Imagine you're standing on an old piece of wood, some people dare to call a walkway,
03:08that seems to be about to fall apart.
03:11You can't really move freely on it, as it's just 3 feet wide.
03:15And if you look down, you'll see nothing but a river 330 feet below you.
03:21You may want to sarcastically call it an engineering wonder, but in reality, it really is.
03:27Look, it seems like this walkway was glued to the side of a cliff.
03:32The tools and technique used to build it were quite rudimentary and unsafe, which is not
03:38surprising.
03:39This pathway is over a century old.
03:42If you're wondering how it was built without any machinery we have today, let me explain.
03:48The poor builders just hung off the side of the mountain using ropes.
03:52It's obvious no one wanted to work on that project, so prisoners who had received the
03:57death penalty were invited to participate.
04:01In exchange, they could get a reduction in their sentences, if they made it out alive,
04:06of course.
04:07Now, originally, the walkway was built to connect workers at the hydroelectric power
04:11plants by some local waterfalls.
04:14You know, just a little bridge to help them cross while transporting materials and keeping
04:19things in check at the channel.
04:21The construction kicked off in 1901 and wrapped up by 1905.
04:27The walkway was famously crossed by King Alfonso XIII in 1921 during the inauguration of a
04:34dam.
04:35This pathway has seen some rough times by the early 2000s and was partly closed for
04:41over a decade.
04:43Four years of renovations and 9 million euros later, it burst back onto the scene in 2015.
04:50It has gained a reputation as the world's most dangerous walkway due to a couple of
04:54tragic accidents in the late 90s.
04:57Now you can stroll along a 1.8-mile path that hugs the edge of the gorge.
05:04Hey, remember I told you this Caminito only took 6 lives?
05:08Forget it.
05:09Nobody knows how much it really was.
05:12Alright, the next cliff destination may seem totally safe at first glance, but it's all
05:18about a very particular activity performed there.
05:22It's definitely not as high up in the sky as El Caminito del Rey, only soaring 89 feet,
05:29but this cliff is meant to jump from, and people actually do that.
05:33Now, if you were to take a watermelon and give it a dramatic drop into the water below,
05:39you'd end up with a spectacular crimson splash of watermelon juice, looking like a
05:44crime scene.
05:46It would plummet at a wild speed of 53 mph, and it begs the question, can a human handle
05:52that kind of dive?
05:54Spoiler alert, absolutely.
05:56Welcome to Red Bull Cliff Diving, where brave athletes take the plunge from heights equivalent
06:02to an 8-story building.
06:04But before you think about trying this for kicks, let me tell you, it takes serious fitness
06:09to pull it off.
06:11The better your shape is, the better your dive, but it's also all about your peepers.
06:16Your eyes become your ultimate navigation system as you make that fearless leap.
06:21Fearless?
06:22Haha.
06:23The impact is no joke.
06:26If you dare to jump, you'll feel around 5 g-force on impact.
06:30For comparison, when you're on a commercial flight, even during the craziest turbulence,
06:35you rarely feel more than 1.3 g-force.
06:39But when you dive from a cliff, your heart's working overtime, and that 5 g-force can leave
06:44you lightheaded in no time.
06:47Your brain starts to feel a bit oxygen-starved, and before you know it, you could black out
06:51in a few seconds.
06:53All that blood suddenly rushes to your head, your face puffs up, and your lower eyelids
06:58practically cover your eyes.
07:00This phenomenon is called red-out, because all you see is a bright glow through those
07:05squeeze-shut eyelids.
07:07Yeah, that sounds like fun.
07:09Unlike all those cliffs, this place is pretty accessible, and it's popular among freedivers
07:15for having little current, which is good when you go in-depth.
07:19However, despite all those seemingly nice aspects of the Blue Hole in Egypt, this place
07:26has taken around 200 lives in recent years.
07:29To be honest, technically, the Blue Hole is a complete average dive spot.
07:34There's nothing extraordinary that would make it more dangerous than any other spot
07:39in the Red Sea.
07:40However, diving through the arch at the Blue Hole is no joke.
07:45It's a tricky, submerged tunnel that has seen its fair share of accidents.
07:50While there's no official count of how many have lost their lives here, one source estimates
07:56that around 130 divers perished there between 1997 and 2012.
08:02That's more than 8 each year.
08:04Some say the number could be as high as 200, including a few snorkel-related accidents
08:09not tied to the arch dive.
08:12To help keep things safe, Egyptian authorities placed a police officer at the Blue Hole who
08:18makes sure divers are with certified guides who know the ropes.
08:23Now the arch itself sits 170 feet down, which means you really need to know what you're
08:30doing and have the right gear since recreational divers usually max out at around 100 feet
08:36or so.
08:37For experienced technical divers, it's mostly manageable.
08:40The real challenge is keeping track of your air in your tank because if you mess up and
08:46take too long down there, you're going to need more than one tank of air to get through
08:50safely.
08:51If the gas isn't planned out right, you could find yourself short on air when you
08:56need to do your decompression stuffs.
08:58Or even worse, you can run out of it completely.
09:02And you know, that would be bad.
09:04That's it for today!
09:06So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your
09:11friends!
09:12Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!
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