Death Zone

In mountaineering, the death zone refers to altitudes above which the pressure of oxygen is insufficient to sustain human life for an extended time span. This point is generally considered to be 8,000 m, where atmospheric pressure is less than 356 millibars. Standard sea-level pressure is 1013.25 millibar. The concept was conceived in 1953 by Edouard Wyss-Dunant, a Swiss doctor, who called it the lethal zone. All 14 peaks above 8000 m in the death zone are located in the Himalaya and Karakoram regions of Asia.