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?

[u/ThePriestofVaranasi]

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?

[u/Remember_Megaton]

Assuming he can figure out if it has enough fuel, how to even get it started, navigate out of the port, keep the engines operating properly, and knows how to bring any and all necessary supplies that will last the full trip while also not getting any moderate to significant injury or disease.

[u/playmaker1209 → u/Remember_Megaton]

Can a container ship even be operated by 1 person. Probably not, but he’d have a greater chance with a decent sized yacht.

[u/WJLIII3 → u/playmaker1209]

For certain definitions of operated, sure. It can be piloted by one person- it can be aimed, and its throttle can be engaged, by one person, so it will move, in a direction chosen by the person. Many, many things will rapidly become fucked up about the boat, without the many technicians it should have, but it will go in a direction.

[u/rasco41 → u/playmaker1209]

Yes a container ship can be operated by 1 person.

It cannot be maintained by one person.

[u/DAJones109 → u/playmaker1209]

And more fun!

[u/thelefthandN7 → u/Remember_Megaton]

If it's at a bunker barge, it's already out of the port, and it certainly has the fuel because that's the whole point of stopping at a bunker barge. Starting the engines and maintaining them to the standard of finishing one trip is actually pretty easy because everything is documented in 3 places with the understanding that the crew may not be familiar with the particular ship they've been assigned to (30 days on, 30 days off, and you may get dumped on a new ship by the company who doesn't really care). Supplies would mostly be food, and much of that will already be on the ship since it's one guy, not the usual crew. But he can stop at any and every grocery store on the way to the harbor and stock up since he's not obligated to pay for anything. Now, supplies for the mountain climb... that's a bit more difficult, but all of that should be at the various base camps scattered around everest and the major landing point for climbers.

Avoiding injury is just normal day to day life. How often does the average person get a life threatening injury while completely alone? How often do they get a disease without being around other humans? The answer to both of those is that it's *very* infrequent. Most injuries are sprains and strains and sports related injuries. A moderate or severe injury is going to be very unlikely for someone completely solo. Most diseases that don't involve contact with another human are pretty easy to avoid by properly washing your hands, cooking your food, drinking clean water, and wearing bug spray. All things he would have the ability to do.

All in all, getting to everest isn't that challenging. The challenge is at least 90% everest itself.

[u/CyberWarLike1984 → u/thelefthandN7]

This guy barges

[u/thelefthandN7 → u/CyberWarLike1984]

Nah, I'm a trucker, I just try to understand the other steps of the logistics chain that I'm the last link in.

[u/_alexandermartin → u/thelefthandN7]

You can't possibly think this.

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. This is actually right, 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.

[u/thelefthandN7 → u/[deleted]]

The sanitation stuff is pretty easy to avoid by just following your nose. Do you smell an open sewer? Don't go there. Additionally, the sewer system in most cities is gravity powered, so it will continue to drain, and no new waste will be added to the system since everyone is gone. So any sewer back up is likely to go unnoticed, especially if our guy is going to actually accept the challenge. He'll probably be moving toward the challenge at everest.

For wild and formerly domesticated animals... this is the US, I can walk out my door and get to a place selling guns and ammo in 10 minutes on foot, and there is no shortage of cars, trucks, and SUVs around. A pack of wild dogs isn't going to get me out of a car, especially if I can fire off a couple of rounds. And they can't get to me in a house. The larger wild life, bears and cougars, won't be coming into the cities any time soon, and by that point, our guy should be well on his way to Everest.

[u/ChicagoDash → u/Remember_Megaton]

Probably more important than how to start the ship is figuring out how to stop it. Crashing a container ship into a port seems pretty risky.

It is sort of like flying. Landing is more difficult than taking off.

[u/cheesesprite → u/ChicagoDash]

I doubt it. If he goes to the back of the ship and crashes front first he'll have a huge crumple zone. Obviously he'll try to reduce his speed as much as possible first. Or he could hop in a lifeboat once he nears shore

[u/thelefthandN7 → u/cheesesprite]

Ramming ships on shore is a thing that happens all the time. It's how they get ships into breaker yards. It's pretty safe. The ship *will not* be decelerating fast enough to cause injury, it's just too heavy.

[u/thelefthandN7 → u/ChicagoDash]

Ramming a really big ship up on shore isn't dangerous to the people on the ship. See also: Ship Breaking. Point the ship at a beach, give it the beans, wait till it comes to a stop. For best results, wait until high tide.