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/smontesi Jul 09 '25

Be me:

  • 30M former software engineer with a boring corporate job

  • somewhat fit, go for regular walks in the mountains around my area

  • background as a boy-scout

  • decent shooter

The reality is I will just surrender after a few months, maybe years?

But let’s go with it…

Scenario 1:

I’d say reaching the west coast should be easy, taking my time etc

Once there I need to learn how to operate “the biggest boat a one-man crew can run”, lol

I am a decent swimmer (I am a former lifeguard), but have never been “at sea” and no idea how you call the different parts of a boat

I can probably start with a smaller boat and work my way up reading book etc

GPS should stay up and running for a few years without maintenance, but idk how that could help…

I would probably take (what I think is) a safe route and stay near the cost until it “looks like I’m in Alaska”, and from there go straight west until I find land, hopefully Russia, from there south near the cost until China

In my free time in the boat I should have learned a bit of Chinese, hopefully enough to read road directions….

Then I guess train for the big final boss…

If I arrive at the Everest I give myself a 0.1% chance of doing it after the training, so humanity is doomed

Scenario 2:

Find a library and get “aviation for dummies”, try my luck traversing the Atlantic when I feel ok about it…. Yuck

2

u/BobbleBobble Jul 09 '25

Scenario 3: teach yourself to fly a jumbo jet, parachute out above Everest, YOLO fingers crossed!

3

u/smontesi Jul 09 '25

Parachute is not an option due to wind I’m afraid, but it would be badass ahahah

A plane is probably feasible if you get access to some simulator first, the issue is if you fail to die during training lol

Also idk how long fuel lasts, gasoline expires pretty quickly without stabilizers

1

u/alamohero Jul 09 '25

This would unironically be my plan. Even with wind and my fear of heights I’d still have a better chance at getting there than I would surviving the climb.

2

u/BobbleBobble Jul 09 '25

Does Ethan have to press the button? Or does it just have to be pressed? Let's just fill a cargo plane with gravel and carpet bomb the button until one hits it hard enough