Left on Mt. Everest. WTF! Warning graphic content.

[Growler]

We humans remain so fragile in many, many ways still unclear to us.

The article is amazing; I understand the call to climb what may be unclimbable, to attempt to conquer the unconquerable. It's what we humans have always done, since setting out in the first boats, on the first aircraft, the first spacecraft.

And some will always die in the attempt. It is also what happens when we push the envelope; some will always fall. It is through them that we others who survive learn, and continue to learn. We succeed where they fail, wiser for their experience. They died for many reasons, not all of them noble, but in their deaths, human knowledge, human experience grew some perhaps infinitesimal bit, and ahead we forged.

Is it a tragedy, that their remains lie where they fell? No, no more than it is a tragedy that the remains of explorers and sailors lie forever entombed within their ships. I can think of no more fitting tribute for some, to be forever preserved as a reminder of our fragility, and as a testament to our courage, than to be right where they are. For those who continue past those fallen cannot help but be reminded of those things, and more.

I'm failing at expressing what I'm trying to say. I hope astute observers will understand the point I'm trying to make.