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Can you elaborate a bit on why you'd see people wanting to do this? I mean, I understand that mountain climbing affords a nice view, and I understand that it's

Can you elaborate a bit on why you'd see people wanting to do this? I mean, I understand that mountain climbing affords a nice view, and I understand that it's a feat that you can tell people about, but I can't imagine being willing to take a risk as large as Mt. Everest for those reasons.

paulgerhardt 16y ago
http://www.amazon.com/Eiger-Dreams-Ventures-Among-Mountains/dp/1599216108/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_5 http://www.amazon.com/Eiger-Dreams-Ventures-Among-Mountains/...
thaumaturgy 16y ago
Mountaineering in general is not just about the views, wildlife, and other unique memories, it's also about being probably the hardest thing you will ever do, mentally, and physically. One of my hobbies used to be brutal enduro-hiking, and my little trip up Rainier years ago still stands out in my memory as the hardest thing I've ever done. If HN readers really need that entrepreneur spin on this, then I'd suggest that there are a lot of parallels between summiting (and knowing when not to summit) and entrepreneurship. Everest specifically is probably more because it's a trophy; there are a lot of mountains out there that would afford a pretty similar challenge.
- bmj 16y ago
  Alpinism, mountaineering's crazy sibling, takes this a step further. Often, cutting edge alpinists (the people who do dangerous, high stuff with little more than a pack on their back) don't climb for the summit--they climb to plumb the depths of what they are capable of. Sometimes, the summit doesn't even matter. Everest is a trophy, for sure, and it is hardly a purely difficult climb (that's not to underscore the objective dangers, however). Stevie Haston, a famous and accomplished British alpinist, has compared Everest to doing push-ups with a plastic bag over your head.
- Tichy 16y ago
  I hope the risk of dieing is significantly lower than 1:10 with entrepreneurship.
  - Mahh 16y ago
    It's not
    - Tichy 16y ago
      How so? (I am not talking of death because of old age).
  - thaumaturgy 16y ago
    Different people measure value in different ways. I can't speak for anyone else, but as for myself, I would be driven suicidal by a long, boring life. If the risks that I take in the pursuit of memorable experiences and exciting ventures results in a shorter life ... that's OK with me. Also -- risk of accidental death aside -- climbing and mountaineering are probably the two singularly best ways to maintain great physical conditioning. Anyway, that's enough HN for me for a while.
    - Tichy 16y ago
      I would agree, if I couldn't think of lots of other exciting activities with lower risk.
wooster 16y ago
It's just the way some people are wired, and sometimes peoples' wiring changes. They may decide they're not comfortable with the idea of someone else being able to do something they can't. They may have always wanted to climb the highest mountain in the world. They may just want to add it to their summit collection. Sometimes it's just a job. Sometimes it's a trophy, or the crowning achievement of a lifetime. I used to have arguments with one of my old roommates about space exploration. He would argue that if we found a planet several thousand light years away that could support human life, we'd never get there because nobody would volunteer to go. I could never get through to him that there are people who will take any risk to get to do something like that, even if it meant only being memorialized in the memories of their distant descendants or being frozen for a few thousand years and never again seeing everything they'd ever known. However, human history supports the idea that there will always be those few who are willing to do things for reasons which evade the rest of the human race. That's just the way we're wired.
- mtw 16y ago
  just imagine our ancestors lived only in savannahs, somewhere between africa and middle east, and a few them foolishly wanted to explore north and eastwards... and they were right. In the same way, a few foolishly played with fire and other sharp objects ... and they were right again, inventing precious tools. My opinion is that this "wiring" is crucial in what makes us human. It makes us grow and discover our full potential. So you will still have people wanting to dive in apnea for 5+ mn or crazy programmers experimenting stuff with twitter. And that happens even if those people are extremely logical/intelligent people.
- DuncanIdaho 16y ago
  Nobody would want to go? I'd go to friggin Mars, just to step on its red soil. I'd go there on a one way trip to stay there and die and I'd sign up tomorrow. If I only could. But sadly modern world is too worried about my well-being to let me do something like that.
  - JabavuAdams 16y ago
    > But sadly modern world is too worried about my well-being to let me do something like that Not really. Many of the people actually working towards going to Mars probably feel as you do. The problem is it's actually hard (technologically and politically).
Evgeny 16y ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mallory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mallory Mallory is famously quoted as having replied to the question "Why do you want to climb Mount Everest?" with the retort: "Because it's there", which has been called "the most famous three words in mountaineering".
- JabavuAdams 16y ago
  I love unfiltered information, but there was something pathetic about seeing Mallory's corpse in that picture -- just a frozen, eroded lump of meat. There's a reason we don't see more pictures of our dead heros.
  - dasil003 16y ago
    Of course, I don't think it's bothering him any.
- Hexstream 16y ago
  Wouldn't that be 4?
  - kbutler 16y ago
    No.
    - Hexstream 16y ago
      Uh? What am I missing? "Because-it-is-there." The 's counts as one word, no? At least that's what I was always told.
      - wtetzner 16y ago
        The 's doesn't count as a word. "it's" is one word, but it has the same meaning as "it is".
- poet 16y ago
matwood 16y ago
Some quotes: "Mountains are the means, the man is the end. The goal is not to reach the tops of mountains, but to improve the man." - Walter Bonatti "When I rest I feel utterly lifeless except that my throat burns when I draw breath...I can scarcely go on. No despair, no happiness, no anxiety. I have not lost the mastery of my feelings, there are actually no more feelings. I consist only of will." - Messner on the first solo ascent of Everest I have never been to Everest (would like to one day), but I climb 14ers in CO all the time. Climbing at high altitude is simply the hardest thing I've ever done from a mental, physical, and emotional standpoint. Once I started climbing everything else in life just seemed easier.
JabavuAdams 16y ago
Some people like extreme situations. I remember the John Krakauer Book _Into Thin Air_, about an Everest disaster, made me want to climb it -- I haven't. It's the whole "yeah people die, but it won't be me" attitude. I remember coming out of Saving Private Ryan thinking "that looks like fun", despite what I know intellectually.
- joe24pack 16y ago
  > I remember coming out of Saving Private Ryan thinking "that looks like fun", despite what I know intellectually. Going through live fire infiltration training cured me of any such sentiment.
roqetman 16y ago
To feel well and fully alive sometimes requires one to step out of the boundaries of comfort (and some would say sanity). I honestly believe that you don't appreciate your life as much as when you've been close to losing it.

paulgerhardt 16y ago

http://www.amazon.com/Eiger-Dreams-Ventures-Among-Mountains/dp/1599216108/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_5 http://www.amazon.com/Eiger-Dreams-Ventures-Among-Mountains/...

thaumaturgy 16y ago

Mountaineering in general is not just about the views, wildlife, and other unique memories, it's also about being probably the hardest thing you will ever do, mentally, and physically. One of my hobbies used to be brutal enduro-hiking, and my little trip up Rainier years ago still stands out in my memory as the hardest thing I've ever done. If HN readers really need that entrepreneur spin on this, then I'd suggest that there are a lot of parallels between summiting (and knowing when not to summit) and entrepreneurship. Everest specifically is probably more because it's a trophy; there are a lot of mountains out there that would afford a pretty similar challenge.

bmj 16y ago
Alpinism, mountaineering's crazy sibling, takes this a step further. Often, cutting edge alpinists (the people who do dangerous, high stuff with little more than a pack on their back) don't climb for the summit--they climb to plumb the depths of what they are capable of. Sometimes, the summit doesn't even matter. Everest is a trophy, for sure, and it is hardly a purely difficult climb (that's not to underscore the objective dangers, however). Stevie Haston, a famous and accomplished British alpinist, has compared Everest to doing push-ups with a plastic bag over your head.
Tichy 16y ago
I hope the risk of dieing is significantly lower than 1:10 with entrepreneurship.
- Mahh 16y ago
  It's not
  - Tichy 16y ago
    How so? (I am not talking of death because of old age).
- thaumaturgy 16y ago
  Different people measure value in different ways. I can't speak for anyone else, but as for myself, I would be driven suicidal by a long, boring life. If the risks that I take in the pursuit of memorable experiences and exciting ventures results in a shorter life ... that's OK with me. Also -- risk of accidental death aside -- climbing and mountaineering are probably the two singularly best ways to maintain great physical conditioning. Anyway, that's enough HN for me for a while.
  - Tichy 16y ago
    I would agree, if I couldn't think of lots of other exciting activities with lower risk.

wooster 16y ago

It's just the way some people are wired, and sometimes peoples' wiring changes. They may decide they're not comfortable with the idea of someone else being able to do something they can't. They may have always wanted to climb the highest mountain in the world. They may just want to add it to their summit collection. Sometimes it's just a job. Sometimes it's a trophy, or the crowning achievement of a lifetime. I used to have arguments with one of my old roommates about space exploration. He would argue that if we found a planet several thousand light years away that could support human life, we'd never get there because nobody would volunteer to go. I could never get through to him that there are people who will take any risk to get to do something like that, even if it meant only being memorialized in the memories of their distant descendants or being frozen for a few thousand years and never again seeing everything they'd ever known. However, human history supports the idea that there will always be those few who are willing to do things for reasons which evade the rest of the human race. That's just the way we're wired.

mtw 16y ago
just imagine our ancestors lived only in savannahs, somewhere between africa and middle east, and a few them foolishly wanted to explore north and eastwards... and they were right. In the same way, a few foolishly played with fire and other sharp objects ... and they were right again, inventing precious tools. My opinion is that this "wiring" is crucial in what makes us human. It makes us grow and discover our full potential. So you will still have people wanting to dive in apnea for 5+ mn or crazy programmers experimenting stuff with twitter. And that happens even if those people are extremely logical/intelligent people.
DuncanIdaho 16y ago
Nobody would want to go? I'd go to friggin Mars, just to step on its red soil. I'd go there on a one way trip to stay there and die and I'd sign up tomorrow. If I only could. But sadly modern world is too worried about my well-being to let me do something like that.
- JabavuAdams 16y ago
  > But sadly modern world is too worried about my well-being to let me do something like that Not really. Many of the people actually working towards going to Mars probably feel as you do. The problem is it's actually hard (technologically and politically).

Evgeny 16y ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mallory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mallory Mallory is famously quoted as having replied to the question "Why do you want to climb Mount Everest?" with the retort: "Because it's there", which has been called "the most famous three words in mountaineering".

JabavuAdams 16y ago
I love unfiltered information, but there was something pathetic about seeing Mallory's corpse in that picture -- just a frozen, eroded lump of meat. There's a reason we don't see more pictures of our dead heros.
- dasil003 16y ago
  Of course, I don't think it's bothering him any.
Hexstream 16y ago
Wouldn't that be 4?
- kbutler 16y ago
  No.
  - Hexstream 16y ago
    Uh? What am I missing? "Because-it-is-there." The 's counts as one word, no? At least that's what I was always told.
    - wtetzner 16y ago
      The 's doesn't count as a word. "it's" is one word, but it has the same meaning as "it is".
poet 16y ago

matwood 16y ago

Some quotes: "Mountains are the means, the man is the end. The goal is not to reach the tops of mountains, but to improve the man." - Walter Bonatti "When I rest I feel utterly lifeless except that my throat burns when I draw breath...I can scarcely go on. No despair, no happiness, no anxiety. I have not lost the mastery of my feelings, there are actually no more feelings. I consist only of will." - Messner on the first solo ascent of Everest I have never been to Everest (would like to one day), but I climb 14ers in CO all the time. Climbing at high altitude is simply the hardest thing I've ever done from a mental, physical, and emotional standpoint. Once I started climbing everything else in life just seemed easier.

JabavuAdams 16y ago

Some people like extreme situations. I remember the John Krakauer Book _Into Thin Air_, about an Everest disaster, made me want to climb it -- I haven't. It's the whole "yeah people die, but it won't be me" attitude. I remember coming out of Saving Private Ryan thinking "that looks like fun", despite what I know intellectually.

joe24pack 16y ago
> I remember coming out of Saving Private Ryan thinking "that looks like fun", despite what I know intellectually. Going through live fire infiltration training cured me of any such sentiment.

roqetman 16y ago

To feel well and fully alive sometimes requires one to step out of the boundaries of comfort (and some would say sanity). I honestly believe that you don't appreciate your life as much as when you've been close to losing it.