Why Climbing Mt Everest Gives People Weird Boners

We spoke to a mountaineer about the effect high altitude has on blood pressure... and dicks.

So you might have heard of "airplane boners." This term colonially describes erections on planes, allegedly due to changes in air pressure that affect blood pressure. Only apparently it doesn't just happen in planes. I recently got sucked down a bit of an internet rabbit hole, reading about how this same phenomenon affects mountaineers climbing big mountains. And particularly the biggest mountain of them all: Everest.

Now I have to admit I was sceptical, so I decided to ask an expert who in this case happened to be my dad, who is a doctor. I asked Dr Domenic Roscioli about altitude-related blood pressure, and whether it could cause a permanent erection while mountain climbing.

It was an awkward conversation but Dad explained that “because air is thinner at altitude, it causes blood pressure to rise.” This, he said, can cause “severe exhaustion, shortness of breath, disorientation, heart palpitations and yes… erections.”

By this point, my amusement had graduated to outright fascination, so I decided to find someone who’d climbed Everest to ask whether they'd experienced a long-term boner. And that’s how found a passionate 26-year-old climber named Srinath Varma who'd experienced Everest in all its glory.

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