>>> Isn't that rather like siting how many people have climbed Everest, thus 
>>> *proving* that it's not impossibly difficult?
>>
>> Climbing Everest *isn't* impossibly difficult.  Extremely hard, yes, but 
>> not impossible, nor even unthinkable.
>
> Hmm, let me see now... And how many people have actually achieved this in 
> all of human history? 6? 8? It's a pretty small number, given how many 
> millions of humans are out there. ;-)

How many people have sat in my desk chair?  Only 2 or maybe 3 of the 6 
billion people in the world - it must be *really* difficult!

Anyway, to quote from Google:

"Because of the extreme conditions experienced on Mount Everest, fatalities 
are commonplace. To date, 179 people have died trying to reach the summit, 
which sets the fatality rate at around nine percent. Most of these 
fatalities happened before 1990. In the last ten years, advances in climbing 
equipment and more experienced guides have resulted in a steep drop in 
fatality statistics: from 37% in 1990 to 4.4% in 2004."

So it seems that if you are well prepared then you can expect a 90 - 95% 
chance of success.  Still pretty low compared to most other mountains, and I 
don't think I would like to go somewhere with even a 5% chance of not coming 
back.

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