r/whowouldwin • u/ThePriestofVaranasi • Jul 09 '25

Challenge Every human on Earth vanishes, except for one random person in the US. A button is placed on the summit of Mount Everest that can be pressed to undo this change. Can humanity be restored?

Every human on Earth vanishes without a trace, except for one random survivor: Ethan from the United States. Moments after the disappearance, a mysterious device materializes before him, displaying a message:
"Humanity can be restored. To activate revival, you must press the button housed at the highest point on Earth—the summit of Mount Everest."

Ethan essentially has as much of a prep time as he wants to gather all the essentials like food, water, weapons, vehicles and everything else that has been suddenly abandoned. He can raid supermarkets, libraries, military depots, and pharmacies for supplies. Ethan can still die of old age so this prep time isn't unlimited.

Now, Ethan faces an impossible gauntlet:
He must travel to Nepal and ascend to the summit of Mount Everest without dying.

Can Ethan survive long enough to reach the button and restore humanity?

1.5k Upvotes

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432

u/this_curain_buzzez Jul 09 '25

No chance. Ethan would need to be an Everest level solo climber while also being able to cross an ocean and then get to Tibet by himself. Even if the task was “can the average person in the US make it across an ocean alone” I don’t think it’s possible.

112

u/captain-_-clutch Jul 09 '25

Doubt he could learn to scale it but he could definitely learn to fly a helicopter up there given enough time.

122

u/foxywoef Jul 09 '25

I don't think helicopters can operate at 8km altitude

129

u/captain-_-clutch Jul 09 '25

They do helicopter tours to the base camp and some dude landed on the peak once. Better chance of hopping out there than trying to hike up.

73

u/foxywoef Jul 09 '25

I stand corrected. In that case our Ethan just need to be experienced at flying planes (to get to tibet) and helicopters. I don't think it would be possible for him to learn that if he doesn't have prior experience though.

47

u/captain-_-clutch Jul 09 '25

Boat across the ocean then helicopter around. Both of those you can get some experience without risking immediate death. Still dangerous but you can work your way into it over a few years. With enough books and videos plane is probably possible but meh. Also it's probably not feasible to find instructional dvds for the planes.

Helicopter and boat will have info on board to get them started and you can learn from there.

68

u/forever_a-hole Jul 09 '25

Learning helicopter from scratch with no one to teach seems way more dangerous and difficult than a plane. But I can’t do either and don’t know anything about flight other than playing Microsoft Flight Simulator a few times.

64

u/27Rench27 Jul 10 '25

One of my friends learned to fly helos a couple years ago. During his first sessions, he was telling me how hard it was just to hover 20ft off the ground without drifting in one direction or another

Ethan would kill himself long before he got good enough to fly to an Everest base camp lol

32

u/chinggisk Jul 10 '25

Yeah people in this thread are way underestimating how difficult it is to fly helicopters lol

21

u/captain-_-clutch Jul 10 '25

Didn't say it was easy, but it takes 50 flight hours for a helicopter license, 150 for a commerical license. Since he has no one to teach him outside of books let's go ahead and times that by 10. 500-1500 hours of hovering off the ground and he'll get the hang of it. He has nothing but time and resources.

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2

u/foxywoef Jul 10 '25

Boat probably has a higher chance of mechanical issues. And the longer Ethan takes to get to Tibet the more infrastructure will degrade

2

u/Seth_Baker Jul 10 '25

I wouldn't trust helicopter fuel after a few years.

3

u/Kennaham Jul 10 '25

worked on military helicopters. we keep a step-by-step how to manual in the cockpit of all our aircraft. i have full confidence ethan could start a helicopter. how good he is at flying depends on how good he is with a game controller and video games. i'm more concerned about other environmental issues for him tho once the power goes out

1

u/foxywoef Jul 10 '25

Wouldn’t it be very difficult flying/landing at those attitudes? Another comment said there are unpredictable gusts at that height

1

u/Kennaham Jul 10 '25

that's true, but if i were ethan i would simply fly a lot of the way up the mountain, not quite to the peak. i'm also a hiker tho so idk how far ethan's abilities will get him if he's say, 2/3 of the way up the mountain by helicopter

1

u/foxywoef Jul 10 '25

Something like that is probably most via le, he should have enough left over supplies. But anyway biggest point is that 'random person' defo doesn't make it

2

u/clayalien Jul 10 '25

key empasis on once. Helicopters can fly at that altitude, but the thinner air makes controlling and manouvering considerably more difficult. And helicopters all ready take considerable skill to fly, even in ideal conditions. The controlles are quite unintutive and it constantly wants to whril off uncontrolled. Usually learners will have a dual control system with an experienced instructor who can give expert advice and stop things going too far out of control, but on your own, it's one mistake from a twisted pile of burning metal.

I think they'd have a better chance just walking.

1

u/captain-_-clutch Jul 10 '25

He doesn't technically need to land it 😂

Beyond zero chance walking. Sherpas have generations of knowledge and still die sometimes

1

u/EnumeratedArray Jul 11 '25

Technically they can buy it's very risky, difficult, bad for the heli, and almost never worth it. I think a Heli has gone all the way to the top to prove it's possible once, but I doubt it ever would again

15

u/Downtown_Boot_3486 Jul 10 '25

Time wouldn’t be the issue, fuel would be. He wouldn’t have that many practice attempts before he runs out of fuel and on your own there’s really no way to get more in.

9

u/captain-_-clutch Jul 10 '25

Mentioned that in another reply and I agree. I have no clue how you refuel some of these helicopters or if it's possible with one person. Worst case tho you keep getting new ones, can easily find airports with flight charts, which shouldn't be too hard to find.

2

u/Budget-Holiday-7325 Jul 10 '25

One thing I havent seen mentioned in this post is that the US teaches thousands of 18-20 somethings how to fuel, maintain, and pilot aircraft and ships every year. The steps to fuel (almost) any aircraft are definitely written down in a book.

First find a book about military helicopter capabilities, figure out which one can summit everest. Then travel to the military facility that houses that particular aircraft (you can google this if the internet is still working) and break into their maintnence squadron. There will be manuals there.

The harder part will be getting your helicopter to everest. I would recommend choosing a helo that is already stationed at one of america's many bases in europe or asia.

Really it's a great thing Ethan knows english. Though if he were Chinese or Indian I suppose he could use the same strategy there.

Ethan could use a similar strategy to cross his chosen ocean. I thought about military equipment again but a i would guess too many things could break on a vessel capable of an unrefueled voyage. The man has to learn to sail. he could spend years practicing.

1

u/captain-_-clutch Jul 10 '25

I was worried about whether it would physically take 2 people to refuel. Looked it up and na, just drive the tanker over and fill er up. He would have a fun first month trying to find keys and stuff but after that he should have everything he needs to learn. Written docs on maintenance and operation are extensive and should be inside whatever vehicle he finds.

1

u/kidcrumb Jul 10 '25

If he has access to the maps and an Internet guide he could. Everest isn't hard anymore. You can almost walk to the top without climbing anything nowadays.

1

u/captain-_-clutch Jul 11 '25

Everest isnt hard because locals have been taking people up for decades. That's all knowledge passed down through experience and cant just read your way through it. People still die every year, and he won't know weather cues or landmarks. Also zero chance for anything internet based after a week

1

u/Interesting_Idea_289 Jul 11 '25

Helicopters are infamously finicky pieces of shit and very few can actually fly that high. So even before accounting for learning to fly a helicopter by himself because the internet will go down with nobody mantaining anything he’ll be flying an incredibly finicky machine that hasn’t had maintenance in however long it takes him to cross the ocean by himself in some of the hardest possible conditions 

1

u/captain-_-clutch Jul 12 '25

Not getting an argument from me, I agree. But being alone in an airport, with the ability to read, you can learn to fly a chopper eventually. You will never learn to solo everest.

1

u/yuikkiuy Jul 14 '25

You underestimate the difficulty in learning how to operate an aircraft without help.

2

u/_alexandermartin Jul 10 '25

Yeah i think people in this thread think a trans Atlantic voyage is like pressing a giant green button on a ship that says go China.

Yes commercial ships have everything documented in manuals, how to start engines, run generators, do maintenance, navigate, etc. There are merchant mariners who train for this and yes ships are designed so rotating crews can figure it out. But it immediately breaks down bc this isn't a trained mariner taking off is your avg Joe from Kansas.

All of it still highly specialized knowledge. Reading the manual doesn't equal being able to do it. A ship’s main engine isn’t like starting your everyday car lmao. There are checks, auxiliary engines, pumps, oil preheating, fuel systems, cooling systems, ballast handling. Usually you have an engineer crew and an officer crew to get it moving safely. The idea that one person alone with no training could get it done is laughable.

Maybe in a years time of reading manuals and using trial and error, going through enough ships he can brute force one to start by sheer luck. It still doesn't get any easier from there. Once going, engines/generators need watchstanding, oil checks, fuel switching, leaks handled, filters swapped. One person can’t possibly do this while also sleeping, steering, navigating, and keeping watch.

Humanity is absolutely dead.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 13 '25

With access to any boat, and no need to adhere to any laws? (Like, ports, shipping lanes, radio traffic, etc.) 

It cant be THAT difficult. 

If i told a random 10yo to drive to any major city (on the same continent) without needing to worry about road laws, cost, other cars/traffic, etc., just pure navigation and "make sure it has gas in it"  im pretty sure they could do it. 

Its not like you need the boat to get there in good condition or anything either, right? And most of what can go wrong is going to happen close to land. 

I'm not saying i could do it in a sailing yacht or anything, but with access to any sufficiently large boat of my choosing?  Just drive somewhere rich, pick the biggest one, and point at Europe. I dont think that would be insurmountable. 

-7

u/WJLIII3 Jul 09 '25

With everybody else gone, it's pretty easy- the ocean part. Not Everest, at all- Everest would be impossible. But crossing an ocean in a poof everybody's gone scenario? Basically trivial. Walk to a part, get on a cargo hauler, find the ignition, the throttle, and the gps, and aim for China. You'd fuck your boat right up, but you'd get there.

14

u/sleeper_shark Jul 09 '25

I think you’re underestimating how fucked the ocean is, and how easy it is to operate a freighter.

0

u/PM_ME_YOUR_EPUBS Jul 09 '25

I think that if you had the cognizance to download a bunch of instructional videos from YouTube before the internet goes down you’re fine, without videos and documentation you’re fucked.

1

u/CadenVanV Jul 09 '25

Also paper manuals