I was earlier reading the 'Bizzare Ways to Die' chapter from Final Exit, by Derek Humphry. He mentioned how some terminally ill people climbed up a mountain to die up there from the cold. Some took tranquilizers.
Also, he mentioned some poor Japanese people used to bring their elderly up a mountain, leaving them to die in the cold. And Eskimos. Euthanasia was a normal part of their culture.
"Freezing
Not so bizarre, and a method for which I have respect, is freezing to death on a mountain. It takes a certain sort of person to wish to die this way: determined, having knowledge of the mountains, and an enduring courage to carry it off. They must be still fit enough to make the journey. A few terminally ill persons I have known have quietly ascended their favorite mountain late in the day and made sure they were above.the freezing line for that particular time of year. They used public transport to get there so a parked car was not spotted. Then, wearing light clothing, they sat down in a secluded spot to await-the -end.
Some have said that they intended to take a tranquilizer to hasten the sleep to death. From what we know of hypothermia, they would pass out as the cold reached a certain level and they would die within a few hours. Of course, in a very cold climate there is no need to climb a mountain.
The originators of this idea were the Eskimos, who used ice floes, and the Japanese, who climbed mountains. In Japanese lore, if the person was unfit to climb the mountain, a son had to carry his parent on his back. Remember, though, that the Eskimos practiced this form of euthanasia to remove the elderly so that the tribe could move fast enough across the tundra to hunt for food. The Japanese did it out of poverty. I do not think this same practice occurs with those two groups today, but a few modern believers in euthanasia have adopted the practice as their preferred method of exit"
