Why is Scrooge so obstinate about getting to the top of Mt. Neverrest, even at the cost of putting his family in danger? His ''pride''. Scrooge's pride took a huge hit 75 years ago when he not only failed, but was betrayed and humiliated to boot and he's aiming to settle the score. Plus, Scrooge really doesn't like admitting defeat. The fact that Huey is at all capable of talking him into it is a Moment of Awesome in and of itself.
However, this slides into Fridge Horror with The Last Crash of the Sunchaser where Scrooge probably realized he was being just as stubborn as Della, ignoring the pleas to turn back. He was not only reliving Della's final moments before she was lost. He was reenacting her actions.
One that doubles as Fridge Horror: the reason why so many climbers are lost on the mountain isn't just because the portals keep them from the summit. It's also shown that more than a few portals that can be encountered going down the mountain will deposit you further back up it. Not only could these ill-fated explorers not get to the top, they couldn't get back down either.
Which might explain the "Point of No Return" sign, even though the first part of the climb seems safe enough; even people who venture that far up the mountain might find themselves unable to make it back.
When Huey gets confused while charting Mount Neverrest, he scribbles "WTD?" on the map. Although the "D" can stand for several Gosh Dang It to Heck!-type swearwords (e.g. "deuce" or "devil"), it most likely stands for "duck" given the setting.
The comics frequently followed the formula of Scrooge going on a dangerous treasure hunt, finding the treasure, and not being able to keep it because it legally belongs to some individual/group/government, but getting to keep some artifact or memento from the journey to place in his trophy room — which (after a brief tantrum over losing the money) Scrooge was always perfectly satisfied with because, for him, It's the Journey That Counts. This episode follows a non-monetary version of the same formula — Scrooge doesn't achieve the goal he was aiming for (reaching the top of the mountain) but gets a consolation prize (going farther than anyone ever has) sufficient to feed his adventure addiction. Once he gets over the initial disappointment, it's still ultimately the journey that counts with him.
The carving of people with their heads/bodies separated by wormholes means there may have been people who lived on Mt Neverrest once and so must have known of the existence of wormholes. It may not have helped them though, if the wormholes are too random to navigate by.
Scrooge never had a chance of winning. He wasn't up against a man-made enemy like a rival or a booby-trapped treasure, he was up against a mountain, a force of nature. No one can ever control or master nature, no matter how hard they try.
The tourist village at Mt Neverrest may have been created by former explorers who decided to cut their losses on Mt Neverrest and settle down there.
Scrooge was probably being more intentionally reckless with the supplies than usual because him being weighed down by supplies was what caused Mallardy to cut him loose in the past. He not only wanted to get farther than Mallardy, he wanted to prove he wasn't the same young, wimpy duck who was too scared of losing his equipment to keep going.
Noodle Incident aside, there is a certain logic in Scrooge hating Santa Claus: while Scrooge believes that hard work is the only thing to be rewarded, Santa gives gifts for children just for being nice. Scrooge probably thinks that Santa's gifts promote laziness.
Fridge Horror:
Mt. Neverrest itself and the random wormholes that dot it. The wormholes themselves are creepy enough, but the more you think about them the more horrifying they get. For one, they're in a high altitude location where blinding snowfall, or even snow blown about by high winds, can happen at any moment, meaning that visibility is low. The wormholes are invisible even in clear weather. As such, it's all too easy to not only get turned around on the mountain, but to never realize that you've even been turned around. Suddenly the best navigational skills on the planet are rendered completely useless for finding your way around the mountain. Add in the possibility of being separated from your survival gear by a random wormhole (assuming you didn't ditch any to lighten your load) or even sudden Tele-Frag and it's no wonder so many people don't return.
What's more unsettling, are the wormholes random or are they manipulated by an unknown source? Is the mountain itself sentient?
The T-Shirt Mallardy's skeleton is wearing. The 'I Didn't Survive Mt. Neverrest' T-shirt that is sold in that exact style back at the tourist trap at Mt. Neverrest's base. It's highly unlikely those shirts have been on sale for 75 years with no change, especially since Scrooge is surprised by the tourist trap's very existence. Meaning that someone must have found him in that cave and put the shirt on him... and then promptly got lost trying to find their way back and likely died on the mountain themselves.
After the avalanche has brought everyone back to the tourist town, the streets are pretty much flooded by the snow. It doesn't seem likely that they were evacuated in time, so some people might have been buried alive.
