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?

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u/DrMoney Jul 09 '25

Its a longer route, but they could probably make it across the Bearing Straight with some of the boats anchored on the Alaskan side. (not sure how rough it is there either)

23

u/Steeze_Schralper6968 Jul 09 '25

Very. It's very rough.

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u/ghotier Jul 09 '25

Sure. They just have to get to Alaska alone and then traverse Siberia, the Gobi Desert, and the Himalaya's alone.

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u/poincares_cook Jul 09 '25

Not really, you can sail a boat down the Russian, then Chinese etc shores. Weathering bad weather in seaside towns and villages. Once you cross the bearing sea there's a good number of shore towns even in Kamchatka.

Thing is you don't have much time, batteries and diesel will start going bad, and you have no way to refine.

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u/ghotier Jul 09 '25

We're discussing a scenario where the person has gone to the Bering straight to mitigate their inability to sail.

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u/poincares_cook Jul 09 '25

There's a difference between sailing a boat and an ocean liner.

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u/ghotier Jul 09 '25

Sure, true. I agree that's not the biggest hurdle.

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u/TheShadowKick Jul 09 '25

That's a poor plan. The water passage is shorter, but you have to cross a lot of empty and undeveloped land. What if your car breaks down five hundred miles from anything? You're just dead, unless you know enough foraging and wilderness survival skills to walk through the northern Russian coast.

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u/poincares_cook Jul 09 '25

Take a pickup, put a motorcycle in the back for an alternative, or steal a tow truck and use that.

Come on, we can do some better planning than that. Crossing bearing in the absolute best weather (you can afford to wait to a point) and the sailing down the Russian shore is certainly a possible option.

Another option is trying to learn and fly an easy plane like a Cessna to get across. As long as GPS is working navigation should be doable.

Transatlantic flight through Greenland and Iceland should be possible.

Climbing everest itself is a big issue though.

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u/DrMoney Jul 09 '25

Still a better plan than trying to cross the whole pacific solo and untrained.