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Surprised this has not come up already on here - what this guy did is absolutely INSANE. I am reading his book right now. The naysayers will say that he did it

Surprised this has not come up already on here - what this guy did is absolutely INSANE. I am reading his book right now. The naysayers will say that he did it with oxygen and talk smack but the reality is that using O2 is a perfectly valid way to do it - just as is doing it without O2. Of course you cannot compare speed with the two methods (meaning obviously doing it with O2 should help you do it faster) but at the top elite level there is nobody actually looking down on those who use bottled oxygen. This guy basically assembled a superhuman team of climbers and perfectly executed a style of climbing I might describe as semi-Alpine style and achieved in 7 months what used to take people 10 years. The other awesome thing about this is that the Sherpas have essentially been doing this for years and years and never really getting the kind of credit and attention they deserve - all the big ascents we remember the western explorers who are paying for their help - but in fact pretty much every ascent relies on their skills. They are superstars in their hometowns but Nims has really brought them more into the spotlight and that is just awesome. I don't do much social media or follow really any famous people but if you checkout the Instagram accounts for example of some of the more active Sherpas it is actually super interesting. In terms of Nims himself a very interesting part of the book / various documentaries is the sheer amount of funding work he was able to accomplish and also the just ridiculous amount of red tape and permitting and logistics that he pulled off. To top all off this is during Covid lockdowns which of course throws a whole wrench in planning. And they filmed the entire thing!

orange_joe 4y ago
Are there accounts of the sherpas that you’d recommend (ideally instagram)? That sounds really cool.
- mark_h 4y ago
  If you follow Nims on Instagram he often links to other accounts.
deleted 4y ago
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fpgaminer 4y ago
> To top all off this is during Covid lockdowns which of course throws a whole wrench in planning The website says the climbs occurred "Between April and October 2019"?
rdslw 4y ago
No it’s not. This is money project. 1. Financial side of his project (sponsors, movies, advertising) is tremendous. This is financial project done mainly for money, while hiding it. 2. Listen to any of his live interviews. Dude is arrogant as hell. 3. Whole Sherpas motiv is virtue signaling (and clever fake shield for do not criticise me) - this was even written about! 4. Check his media presence: i t is massively huge. Done for revenues and attention. 5. Difference between him and Kukuczka original feat is only one: MONEY (Ok maybe two: Nims ego) 6. Check what of him thinks mountain guides, and people say on r/mountaineering/ - disdain and criticism. Money buys things like that. And is the main cause of it, while being mentioned in fine print only (another sign of fakeness) T h i s i s s i m p l y m o n e y. And ego. A lot of ego with arrogance sauce :-(
- noitpmeder 4y ago
  Yours is a pretty terrible take. Even if what you said is all true (it very well might be) the accomplishment alone (n peaks in x months) is a great feat. It's as if saying the moon landing wasn't impressive because it was financed by the USA and used as a propaganda tool. "Its simply money".... The dude climbed FIVE 8k peaks in LESS THAN 2 WEEKS (12 days). That alone is absolutely insane.
  - rdslw 4y ago
    Nope. Difference is: You spent one month to prepare huge party for your 100 people extended family, just alone and spending 1000€ Vs You did the same with 200 people crew, while spending 200 000€. It took one day. What you praise on him is praising money :-/ Edit: He did, while on oxygen, being teleported by heli (sic!) directly between base camps with literally 100+ support team (including on climbs) all WHILE SPENDING 10+ MLN USD ON IT. The other (previous) guys did not. Please go check and read mountain community opinion on him.
  - saberience 4y ago
    Fixed lines, Nims wasn't leading, standard routes/ascents, tons of money and tech used. Messner could make the same ascents today at 70+ years old given all those advantages. But Messner did it all 40 years ago, leading the climbs himself, without oxygen, and often on new routes/first ascents.
mjul 4y ago
He proved the supplemental oxygen issue moot by climbing K2 without it, in winter. https://www.climbing.com/people/nirmal-nims-purja-the-man-who-climbed-k2-in-winter-without-supplemental-oxygen/ https://www.climbing.com/people/nirmal-nims-purja-the-man-wh...
saberience 4y ago
He did it with oxygen with fixed ropes and having a whole bunch of elite climbers leading for him, setting the ropes, so he could follow them up. He's a fit guy for sure, but there's nothing groundbreaking here. No new ascents/routes, not leading at all, basically throwing bodies at the problem + oxygen. Messner did it all 40+ years ago, without any modern tech/gear, without oxygen, often on new routes (not the standard ascents), and leading the climbs himself. He's another breed entirely to Nims.

orange_joe 4y ago

Are there accounts of the sherpas that you’d recommend (ideally instagram)? That sounds really cool.

mark_h 4y ago
If you follow Nims on Instagram he often links to other accounts.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

fpgaminer 4y ago

> To top all off this is during Covid lockdowns which of course throws a whole wrench in planning The website says the climbs occurred "Between April and October 2019"?

rdslw 4y ago

No it’s not. This is money project. 1. Financial side of his project (sponsors, movies, advertising) is tremendous. This is financial project done mainly for money, while hiding it. 2. Listen to any of his live interviews. Dude is arrogant as hell. 3. Whole Sherpas motiv is virtue signaling (and clever fake shield for do not criticise me) - this was even written about! 4. Check his media presence: i t is massively huge. Done for revenues and attention. 5. Difference between him and Kukuczka original feat is only one: MONEY (Ok maybe two: Nims ego) 6. Check what of him thinks mountain guides, and people say on r/mountaineering/ - disdain and criticism. Money buys things like that. And is the main cause of it, while being mentioned in fine print only (another sign of fakeness) T h i s i s s i m p l y m o n e y. And ego. A lot of ego with arrogance sauce :-(

noitpmeder 4y ago
Yours is a pretty terrible take. Even if what you said is all true (it very well might be) the accomplishment alone (n peaks in x months) is a great feat. It's as if saying the moon landing wasn't impressive because it was financed by the USA and used as a propaganda tool. "Its simply money".... The dude climbed FIVE 8k peaks in LESS THAN 2 WEEKS (12 days). That alone is absolutely insane.
- rdslw 4y ago
  Nope. Difference is: You spent one month to prepare huge party for your 100 people extended family, just alone and spending 1000€ Vs You did the same with 200 people crew, while spending 200 000€. It took one day. What you praise on him is praising money :-/ Edit: He did, while on oxygen, being teleported by heli (sic!) directly between base camps with literally 100+ support team (including on climbs) all WHILE SPENDING 10+ MLN USD ON IT. The other (previous) guys did not. Please go check and read mountain community opinion on him.
- saberience 4y ago
  Fixed lines, Nims wasn't leading, standard routes/ascents, tons of money and tech used. Messner could make the same ascents today at 70+ years old given all those advantages. But Messner did it all 40 years ago, leading the climbs himself, without oxygen, and often on new routes/first ascents.

mjul 4y ago

He proved the supplemental oxygen issue moot by climbing K2 without it, in winter. https://www.climbing.com/people/nirmal-nims-purja-the-man-who-climbed-k2-in-winter-without-supplemental-oxygen/ https://www.climbing.com/people/nirmal-nims-purja-the-man-wh...

saberience 4y ago

He did it with oxygen with fixed ropes and having a whole bunch of elite climbers leading for him, setting the ropes, so he could follow them up. He's a fit guy for sure, but there's nothing groundbreaking here. No new ascents/routes, not leading at all, basically throwing bodies at the problem + oxygen. Messner did it all 40+ years ago, without any modern tech/gear, without oxygen, often on new routes (not the standard ascents), and leading the climbs himself. He's another breed entirely to Nims.