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Everest has become a freakshow. Humans are not built to climb that high, even with supplemental oxygen there is a non-trivial risk of brain trauma from blood v
by harshreality 7y ago
Everest has become a freakshow.
Humans are not built to climb that high, even with supplemental oxygen there is a non-trivial risk of brain trauma from blood vessel leakage even if you don't die from it. When the final push from camp 4 to the summit is a human traffic jam, the risks multiply. Because of the logistical difficulty of getting there and preparing, and the perceived (not real) "accomplishment" of reaching the summit, people take excessive risks rather than quitting when they start having cognitive impairments, the weather turns, or they're moving too slowly or using too much oxygen on the ascent, making the risk severe during descent. It's not a good situation.
Anyone with a death wish should take on one of the other peaks in the Himalayas, without all of the route prep that goes on on Everest and turns it into fast food mountaineering.
Anyone without a deathwish can find plenty of challenge on more convenient mountains elsewhere, climbing only when weather and avalanche risk are very low, since there's less pressure of feeling, like many do on Everest, that it's a once in a lifetime opportunity and they've paid lots of money to get there so they have to keep going. Or take up rock climbing. Excellent technical challenge and strength training, lower risk (with rope and prudence).
Everest used to be at real challenge. Now it's more of a contest of luck and whether you have the money. People climb it for the status, but look at the damned lines! That's not status, people. That's being a lemming. Wake up.
- actuator 7y agoI agree with your sentiment mostly but I think rock climbing and mountain expeditions are just different ballgames. I think you can't just label mountain expeditions as deathwish, a big reason people are pulled towards mountaineering is the sheer thrill you get not just battling the knowns(technical climbs, routes) but also the unknowns(weather, AMS). Mountains can be unforgiving(8 climbers died in Nanda Devi a week back) but the accomplishment you get is also something worth savouring. Once you start, you can hardly go back. I have only done six thousanders but even I want to do more.
- lhorie 7y agoI read it as GP saying that rushing Everest specifically is a death wish, but that mountaineering elsewhere responsibly is what a sane person ought to look for.
- pizza234 7y ago> I think you can't just label mountain expeditions as deathwish I think the parent refers to high-risk mountaneering, particularly in the context of inexperienced climbers. Given the high-risk and the inexperience, I think it's fair to label it (derogatorily) as death wish. I agree that rock climbing hasn't such impact, but certainly there are highly demanding+highly satisfying activities. I guess completing an Ironman or the Marathon Des Sables (the latter if one expects risk) give as much satisfaction as climbing the Everest, along with status, if one's looking for it (if I got to know somebody who's climbed the Everest, it would give me a bad impression, though).
- willio58 7y agoAs stories like this come out more and more people’s perspective of Everest will change. The recent pictures of the lines at the top have surely changed mine.
- soup10 7y ago"climbing Everest is not that big of a deal, everyone does it these days" -- internet commenter
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]