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/TyrconnellFL Jul 09 '25

I don’t think any helicopters have trans-oceanic range, though. I’m skeptical of learning to leapfrog from fueling base to fueling base all the way to Everest.

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

Certainly, no copters have that kind of range. Also, very, very few copters have that kind of height!

Conveniently, however, the vast majority of the helicopters on Earth that do have the ability to climb higher than Everest, are actually already very close to Mt. Everest, because the only reason humans need such things is to fly around the Himalayas.

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u/TyrconnellFL Jul 09 '25

Right, but the first hurdle is getting to the base of Mount Everest. Crossing an ocean is not easy. The Bering Strait is narrower but even getting up to sub-Arctic Alaska and making it across is not easy.

I don’t think a helicopter gets you to the mountain. Once you’re there, I agree that you’d probably die trying to manage a helicopter landing at the summit but you’d definitely die in a solo climb, so Nepalese helicopter it is.

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u/Sekh765 ​ Jul 10 '25

People thinking Helos can just ez mode fly to the top of Everest lol. Better off finding that crazy balloon that skydiver used to get there.

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u/WJLIII3 Jul 11 '25

Successfully getting a helicopter anywhere near the summit, much less landing it anywhere near, is hugely difficult and dangerous. The alternative, however, is climbing it, alone, in a world without sherpas. Call me crazy, I'm taking the chopper.

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u/Caleth Jul 09 '25

None that I know of, but you do that or you aren't making it. No one in the history of ever has made it up Everest without help. Well maybe something did back when they were the hymilaian hills instead of mountains, but no human has done it.

So scavenging from base to base or getting a plane you can learn to fly well enough to get to Nepal to then get a helo to fly you up to Everest is likely the only way this is happening.

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u/TyrconnellFL Jul 09 '25

You’d be better off using a helicopter already in Nepal. You still need to get to Nepal, but stealing, navigating, and landing/beaching/crashing a boat, while risky, is probably less risky than trying to launch, navigate and land an airplane.

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u/usa2z Jul 09 '25

I'm thinking this is the objective answer.

Spend the remaining lifetime of the internet trying to learn to fly a helicopter, roadmap to a Pacific port, crash a container ship into the Asian coast, roadmap to Mt. Everest, and then hope the flight simulators you found in step one were realistic enough.