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/TyPerfect Jul 09 '25

Kinda. In recent years it has become very much easier and the numbers of successful summits have gone up.

All of that is predicated on the sherpas doing basically everything short of carrying the climbers up.

I suspect that Ethan might be able to do it with the proper plan and a long time spent on acclimatization.

Just getting from the US to Nepal is quite the task. Sailing solo? Selecting a vessel he can manage that also has the endurance to get there? This is already a big risk to success.

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u/SvanirePerish Jul 09 '25

Them being a pilot would make it a lot easier; in the right conditions a helicopter could make it mostly to the summit too, further helping the cause

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u/No_News_1712 Jul 09 '25

Even a pilot would need a clear runway to land and a fueled and fully operable plane. None of that is guaranteed and it would be difficult for a pilot to do that.

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u/SvanirePerish Jul 09 '25

I’d assume a pilot could fuel a plane but definitely still hard, I would just imagine the best odds

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u/No_News_1712 Jul 09 '25

Well a small plane, maybe. But a pilot probably wouldn't know how to fuel up an airliner that can actually get across the ocean, I'm guessing.

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u/SvanirePerish Jul 10 '25

Perhaps I'm over estimating pilots, in my head I also thought Air force pilot less so Passenger. I'd figure if everyone just vanished and left everything laying around most experts in aviation (which again, I'm assuming a pilot would be) could figure most things out but you're probably right.

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u/AFirewolf Jul 10 '25

I have bo statistivs to back this up, but I would assume rhat somewhere in the US a plane is sitting fueled and ready for takeoff at any time.

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u/No_News_1712 Jul 10 '25

The plane might be, but is the airport? And what about the destination? How do you know whether the destination is clear?

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u/AFirewolf Jul 10 '25

Planes take off with enough regularity that gibfing one that was just about to take off with a cleared runway should be possible, I think. You dob't need to actually land the plane, just put on a parachute and jump out before it crashes.

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u/Downtown_Boot_3486 Jul 10 '25

Sherpas have lifetimes of experience and generations worth of knowledge passed down that you won’t be able to find in a book. I don’t think any amount of preparation could give you that level of knowledge to get up there.

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u/TyPerfect Jul 10 '25

He could do it and just place pony bottles every 100 meters. He could spend months or years setting up.

The trip also counts as a success even if it's one way only.

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u/Emphursis Jul 10 '25

But Ethan wouldn’t have Sherpas to carry his tents and spare oxygen bottles. He wouldn’t have Sherpas to put down fixed lines for him to use to pull himself up the slope - maybe if he got there quickly enough there might be some left from the last climbing season but no guarantee. He won’t have any weather forecasts to know when conditions are good enough to attempt the climb.

Maybe if he’d summited before or was an experienced mountaineer he might have a shot. But otherwise, he’d be dead before getting a mile out of base camp.

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u/Wide_Lock_Red Jul 15 '25

I think the sailing part is easier than it seems and submitting Everest is harder.

With time, you can select an appropriate vessel for transocean travel and learn the basics of piloting. As long as weather holds up, there isn't to much that can go wrong. Getting a good ship is the biggest barrier for doing it, and that no longer matters.

Climbing Everest has way more risks and you can't research your way into solving them.

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u/WJLIII3 Jul 09 '25

Pacific is easy. Plenty of cargo freighters in California. Plenty will be freshly serviced and ready to go. They have onboard gps. Turn key, throttle up, and aim. Gonna fuck your boat up, running it without technicians and knowledge, gonna crash it when you get there, but it won't completely fail in one trip. You could even take a naval vessel, except I suspect the ignition on those might be a bit of a trick for Ethan to manage- probably not as straightforward as turning a key.