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

95% Upvoted

839 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

69

u/jedz_se Jul 09 '25

its not like you can learn to sail ocean crossing ship solo with youtube (which, btw, might be down, as there is noone to support it).

65

u/toolatealreadyfapped Jul 09 '25

Not just YouTube. Without a person keeping things active, you can expect basically ALL utilities like electricity, Internet, sewage to crap out within a week.

11

u/pj1843 Jul 09 '25

That's not the main issue really. You can go raid the local library to figure a lot of that out and get real good at reading user manuals.

The real issues arise when you realize your on a time limit because the fuel everywhere will degrade quite and will begin to ruin stuff.

Then once you get on the boat and start your journey your going to realize that there is no one to communicate weather patterns to you, so unless you picked a yacht with a Doppler radar your sailing blind and likely could just get dead in a squal or major storm.

Basically there is a lot that can and will go wrong with this without the infrastructure in place to support you.

3

u/toolatealreadyfapped Jul 10 '25

All the books in the world can't replace months and years of experience that are typically required for a solo transoceanic trip. So yeah, you're on a time crunch, with A LOT more to do and learn and train and plan for than time allows.

And that's just to get to Nepal! We haven't even approached the issue of what to do once there. When is the last time, if EVER, someone handled a base to summit solo expedition?

1

u/Throbbie-Williams Jul 13 '25 edited Jul 13 '25

You can do Africa to Europe in under 9 miles of sailing

North America to Russia in 2.5 miles.

Edit: with both of those examples you also don't have to have any navigation skills at all, you can see your destination at all times if you leave in daylight

Unless you start in Australia/new Zealand or on tiny islands like Vanuatu almost anyone would be able to cope with the sailing!

2

u/CrabAppleBapple Jul 11 '25

You can go raid the local library to figure a lot of that out and get real good at reading user manuals.

Your local library has a book on trans Atlantic/Pacific solo voyages, extensive sea charts, extensive overland maps, extensive reading on how to prepare for that, how to prepare for a solo climb of Mt Everest. Books on mountain climbing to the skill level required to climb Mt. Everest? Books on the right meteorological conditions for your sea voyage? For the climb?

Anyone in the thread saying anything other than 'No, best bet is to hole up somewhere nice to wait out the rest of your days and leave the planet to all the other animals', is deluded.

3

u/pj1843 Jul 11 '25

Yeah, there is a very good chance your local library has all those things. Libraries be dope AF like that. That being said you are right, the humans best bet is to find a nice comfy house and do their best to live a nice comfortable apocalypse.

Honestly though if they actually wanted to achieve the goal, their best bet is to try and launch an ICBM at everest and hope to hit the button with a missile. Not sure that possible, but definitely a higher likelihood than trying to solo cross the Atlantic then scale everest alone with no training or real prep.

2

u/CrabAppleBapple Jul 11 '25

Honestly though if they actually wanted to achieve the goal, their best bet is to try and launch an ICBM at everest and hope to hit the button with a missile. Not sure that possible, but definitely a higher likelihood than trying to solo cross the Atlantic then scale everest alone with no training or real prep.

Absolutely impossible I'm afraid. Even if they happen to work in a missile silo, it takes dozens of people to maintain, prepare for launch, target etc etc etc

1

u/RocketDog2001 Jul 16 '25

How long could you be the last person on earth before you start getting visits from the Hatman?

2

u/Throbbie-Williams Jul 13 '25

From Almost anywhere on earth that isn't australia/new Zealand you can get to Nepal with very little sailing.

2.5 miles if you start in North america, sub 9 miles from Africa, you can see your destination at all times so don't even need to think about navigation!

The only real challenge is ascending Everest, even this is easier than usual as he doesn't actually need to survive after pressing the button.

It's not a challenge I'd like to do but it's far from as insane as it sounds.

The mountain is the only real challenge

35

u/gripsousvrai Jul 09 '25

book. good friend. Good book for sailing.

13

u/heyvlad Jul 09 '25

Went far before I saw someone say the obvious answer.

3

u/cockmanderkeen Jul 09 '25

I'm not sure transpacific boating for dummies is going to cut it.

1

u/gripsousvrai Jul 10 '25

Atantic, mediterenane , red sea , india.

1

u/JustARandomGuy_71 Jul 12 '25 edited Jul 12 '25

Would the Suez Canal be operable?

I think the Panama Canal use a system of locks, that would not work without someone to open and close them, and probably would not work at all. Is the same true for Suez?

1

u/gripsousvrai Jul 12 '25

but u dont care if i 's work or not, u trash ur boat and u take an other at the other side....

1

u/RocketDog2001 Jul 16 '25

Suez is sea level.

1

u/Critical-Werewolf-53 Jul 09 '25

😂 solo across the pacific 😂

1

u/sharkMonstar ​ Jul 10 '25

might as well call it suicide for dummies

0

u/gripsousvrai Jul 10 '25 edited Jul 10 '25

Atantic, mediterenane , red sea , india.
Why downvote?
U prefer go across the pacific???
Seem really much easier my propo.

1

u/JustARandomGuy_71 Jul 12 '25

It depends on where he starts.

If he is near the East Coast the Atlantic is marginally better, but if he is, let's say in California... Panama would be closed, either go down to Cape Horn, or must take the Pacific Route.

OR, cross the whole country to reach the East Coast, I guess. I don't know which would be worse.

1

u/gripsousvrai Jul 12 '25

cross a land drivable with road everywhere car and gasoline?
And make a really simplier way on the ocean?
I know some sailing and cross atlantic and pacific isnt marginally different , cap horn is one of the worst place to be...
But yep maybe go down and go by panama for cross atlantic from bresil.
What u want is to make each step the most easy.

1

u/Nopants21 Jul 10 '25

No way do you find the right book to teach you through text on how to cross an ocean solo in the right boat (which you have to find), after finding the right supplies. All of this with no power grid, no internet, limited fuel. It's not even a sure thing that the person is located anywhere close to the coast. Most actual sailors today would not undertake this journey, but a lone person with a book is supposed too?

2

u/gripsousvrai Jul 10 '25

i m responding to someone saying you tube down.
Same now i will say book better then internet.
Limited fuel if u are alone on earth????
Nope .

I m from coast , i m not saying will be easy.
Just step one go to book .
Because hey where better will u find?????
Map book are really priceless same now...
Not with just one book u will make it .
But anyway cross the atlantic with a good boat is nt so hard.
If u have no tempest.
And luck.
But after u have the himalaya ;) have fun for restart human;)

0

u/Hannizio Jul 09 '25

You maybe could learn how to sail a boat over the English channel, but learning how to navigate the pacific and doing a multi week travel without gps or similar, is a whole different story. Even for an experienced solo sailer it would be a difficult challenge

3

u/gripsousvrai Jul 10 '25

Atantic, mediterenane , red sea , india.
Pacific too hard.
Atlantic at the good period of the year increase *10 ur luck.
And u can just read it.
But at least book and map are physically able.

1

u/Normal_Ad_2337 Jul 10 '25

The sewage will crap out., but Ethan will keep the crap going.

1

u/Hoskuld Jul 10 '25

Which kills off the everest attempt as well. Good luck getting up there without modern weather services telling you when a good window will be

2

u/toolatealreadyfapped Jul 10 '25

The more this guy researches in what needs to be done, the more likely he's going to accept the fate of humanity and just try to enjoy the time remaining.

26

u/Kalsir Jul 09 '25

Gotta google a lot of info real fast and write it down before the internet shuts down haha.

22

u/TheMayorOfBismond Jul 09 '25

I'd have every printer in the library running day and night shitting out every Wikipedia article I could think of until the power finally cut out.

12

u/KaIidin Jul 10 '25

We still have books, right?

1

u/FriendlyDavez Jul 09 '25

Or you know... Go for the books

28

u/TheMayorOfBismond Jul 09 '25

Those books are still going to be there once the power goes out.

3

u/FriendlyDavez Jul 10 '25

My man.... You thought I meant to ... Print the books?

No.

I mean it's kind of silly to be hastily printing wikipedia at all while you already have a full library at your disposal. If it's a good one, it will have books with much better content than the surface level unverified wikipedia entries. Read some wikipedia entries on a subject you have deep expertise in and you'll know what I mean.

5

u/ryohazuki224 Jul 09 '25

Books exist. One can teach themself how to sail a ship or how to fly a plane.

3

u/theoriginalstarwars Jul 10 '25

There are things called libraries that have books. Learn to sail with small craft and work your way up to a larger one that can be singlehanded. I would personally go for a catamaran as there is 2 motors and you can power it with 1. Cross at the right time of year and remember that everest is usually submitted in mid/late may.

1

u/jedz_se Jul 10 '25

Yup. Surely self taught catamaran sailor, that was average Joe before, will go through pacific.

2

u/theoriginalstarwars Jul 10 '25

So you ignore everything I said about learning on a small craft before going to a bigger craft and assume they would just set sail without learning the ship? The Atlantic is a much shorter trip though, why sail the pacific? Stop by the Alps for climbing gear, clothing and oxygen also get some experience climbing with mountains there. Drive to nepal, through russia would probably be best. would I make it, probably not, but I can guarantee I would give it a run for the money, even if it is a one way trip.

2

u/fearnodarkness1 Jul 10 '25

Or find a yacht

1

u/EncabulatorTurbo Jul 10 '25

as fucking unreliable as LLMs can be you're probably literally best off getting a high end macbook and putting DeepSeek on it, but youd have to download that shit before everything collapsed

also ethan probably doesnt know how to do that anyway

-8

u/WJLIII3 Jul 09 '25

You don't need to learn to sail it. You just need to figure out the ignition, throttle, and gps. Point it at China and set it to go. The condition of your boat upon landing is insignificant- the way you land it is insignificant. Use something big enough that it won't sink- cargo freighter, cruise liner, pick the one out of the harbor that has the most recent engine service recorded, and crash it into the shore in China. You might run into all the wrong currents and so on, might make any number of huge mistakes, but as long as you don't clip Hawaii, the options for failure are limited. Boats aren't that hard to use- they are hard to use well, but if you're running an industrial tanker engine, the ship has a gps built in, literally nobody else on earth exists? You're gonna get where you're going.

35

u/DBond2062 Jul 09 '25

How to tell everyone that you have never sailed on a large commercial ship. Just getting it off a dock without tugs and out of a harbor trying to steer and manage the engine room at the same time? Good luck.

-12

u/WJLIII3 Jul 09 '25 edited Jul 09 '25

Managing the engine room is gonna be a lost cause. You're gonna blow a lot of gaskets, you're gonna seriously ruin the engine of this vessel. That's why you pick the one with the most recent engine service record- I am banking on it surviving the abuse for one week, not me doing it right. Pick an easy harbor- go to LA, not SF. Something with an open horizon. Tugwork is less important when there's nobody else around- just find a harbor you can exit in a straight line.

I strongly considered going Brazil-Morocco and just taking cars the long way (grab a solid Jeep for Darien- no roads, but no guerillas), because of that very problem, but I figured a ship in good repair could handle one trip at standard speed without total failure

11

u/trenbollocks Jul 09 '25

You're an absolute moron. Incredible how confident you are, I wish I was like you (minus the moron part)

3

u/river-pepe Jul 09 '25

It's a bot roleplaying

3

u/Logical-Ad-7594 Jul 09 '25

You figured wrong. Even if it lasts a week like you hope, your gonna be stuck in the middle of the pacific

5

u/Logical-Ad-7594 Jul 09 '25 edited Jul 09 '25

Ships don’t have an ignition switch. It’s more like 20 switches on multiple pieces of machinery that all need to be turned on in the correct order or you send the ship into a blackout. I hope Ethan brings a flashlight, otherwise he’ll be lucky to get out of the pitch black engine room, let alone restore power.

And no, you can’t start the engine from the bridge.

That’s assuming it’s a diesel ship. Those are the easy ones. Steam ships take a few days to start up from cold.

1

u/WJLIII3 Jul 09 '25

Use a megayacht, then. They'll be big enough to survive most conditions, and have ordinary civilian controls.

3

u/Logical-Ad-7594 Jul 09 '25 edited Jul 09 '25

I am a marine engineer. I have no idea what you mean by “ordinary civilian controls.” Civilian vessels are more complex to operate than Naval ones. The only way you’re making a transoceanic voyage without operating an engine room is with a sail. Any vessel small enough not to need one, can’t carry enough fuel for the trip.

You are a perfect example of the Dunning-Kruger effect.