WTF?!? More fun banter about Everest

Discussion area for peaks outside of the USA
Forum rules
  • This is a mountaineering forum, so please keep your posts on-topic. Posts do not all have to be related to the 14ers but should at least be mountaineering-related.
  • Personal attacks and confrontational behavior will result in removal from the forum at the discretion of the administrators.
  • Do not use this forum to advertise, sell photos or other products or promote a commercial website.
  • Posts will be removed at the discretion of the site administrator or moderator(s), including: Troll posts, posts pushing political views or religious beliefs, and posts with the purpose of instigating conflict within the forum.
For more details, please see the Terms of Use you agreed to when joining the forum.
User avatar
Jesse M
Posts: 550
Joined: 7/18/2011
13ers: 15
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: WTF?!? More fun banter about Everest

Post by Jesse M »

Wow, the smug has reached a whole new level on 14ers.com.

"If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything."
User avatar
MtHurd
Posts: 2925
Joined: 8/17/2006
14ers: 57  4 
13ers: 29
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: WTF?!? More fun banter about Everest

Post by MtHurd »

Has a dog been up Everest yet? If not, REI has a dog coat as the deal of the day today. :)
User avatar
Boggy B
Posts: 781
Joined: 10/14/2009
14ers: 58  7 
13ers: 777 76
Trip Reports (40)
 

Re: WTF?!? More fun banter about Everest

Post by Boggy B »

jameseroni wrote:The United States of Police has no authority in the Himalaya.
Blasphemy. America, f**k yeah!
User avatar
djkest
Posts: 1420
Joined: 9/7/2009
14ers: 58 
13ers: 19
Trip Reports (44)
 
Contact:

Re: WTF?!? More fun banter about Everest

Post by djkest »

MntOwl wrote:I for one still dream about climbing Everest. I know it is easy to insult these people who climb it and fork out the 50,000$ plus, but I would go tomorrow at the drop of a hat. Put me in that conga line anyday. I have been putting 25$ away every month into a mutual fund since my 16th birthday to climb this mountain. It has become more than just a mountain to me; it is a life long goal that has helped mold the choices I make. Who knows, maybe by the time I have the funds and skill, my time to climb the mountain will have passed, but I can't see why y'all feel the need to bash these folks who are living their dream. Who cares if it is their 'first' mountain!! The guides who take their money and the climber are the ones taking the risk, physical and financial and maybe even mental.

Everest is more than just a mountain, at least to me it is.
Simple. Unprepared, unconditioned climbers are a deadly threat to other climbers. And the oxygen bottles and fixed lines do much to cheapen the accomplishment.
Life is a mountain, not a beach.
Exploring and Wine, my personal blog
User avatar
davebks
Posts: 764
Joined: 6/5/2008
14ers: 10 
13ers: 10
Trip Reports (3)
 

Re: WTF?!? More fun banter about Everest

Post by davebks »

No disrespect to those that have passed on.. but....
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =3&theater" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Very hard to stand because ice is too hard for my crampons.
— at Everest Base Camp." Shriya Shah-Klorfine

and there you have it. RIP
User avatar
Scott P
Posts: 9438
Joined: 5/4/2005
14ers: 58  16 
13ers: 50 13
Trip Reports (16)
 
Contact:

Re: WTF?!? More fun banter about Everest

Post by Scott P »

A few comments:
The mountain is being trashed and as I'll say again, raped.
As far as trash goes, it’s actually cleaner than it used to be; at least on the Nepal side.

Personally, I don’t care so much how a mountain is climbed as long as whoever climbs it leaves it clean. Luckily many of the guiding services are doing this. By law now, all trash is supposed to be carried down, though if someone dies, who carries it down could be debated.
It's dangerous with so many slowing everyone to a hault on summit day which then causes deaths
.

Very true, but it’s still safer than it has ever been and safer than most of the other Himalayas (including ones that aren’t guided. Due to the ice doctors, deaths in the Khumbu Icefall, for example have dropped dramatically.

The above does not mean I like to see lots of development in the mountains nor that it’s the way I like to climb mountains, but we in Colorado the same type of things (in a different way). Just look at the amount of people complaining about the fee on the Mt. Evans road. Isn’t it pretty wussy to drive up a mountain anyway. Driving up a mountain is far worse than going guided IMHO.

=====================================================================================================================

Anyway, one (generically, not directed to Noah in any of these comments) must not denigrate Everest into only a big slag heap, always crowded with a conga line.

The truth is that Everest is a big and impressive mountain when seen in person. No mountain in Colorado (for example) compares. In shape, it’s like a much bigger version of Pyramid Peak or North Maroon from the south much more impressive from the east. Form the north it’s more or less a typical mountain shape.

Everest is chunky and lacks the elegant ridges and shapely faces of Ama Dablam, Dhalagiri, Alpamayo, etc. It has some huge vertical walls on all faces, ones that would dwarf the Diamond on Longs many times.

As far as crowds go, they are limited to two routes for a few weeks in the year. Even on the standard routes, they sit empty the vast majority of the year.

Only 137 people in the 90 years of climbing history on Everest have reached the summit via a non-standard route. That’s about 1.5 people per year. There are 18 routes on Everest, plus many variations. If you go on a standard route or outside the April-May season the chances of running into anyone are extremely slim.

As far as using bottled O2, I’d do it just to save brain cells myself (but don’t have an opinion on what others should do). If you do climb it without supplemental O2 then you will be damaging your brain by too much and it outweighs the risk, in my own opinion. I’d use it just for that reason, but I wouldn’t leave it up there.
I'm old, slow and fat. Unfortunately, those are my good qualities.
User avatar
Jim Davies
Posts: 7638
Joined: 6/8/2006
14ers: 58  1 
13ers: 67
Trip Reports (5)
 

Re: WTF?!? More fun banter about Everest

Post by Jim Davies »

ajkagy wrote:seems like Everest tends to attract the type of people that feel like they have something to prove to the world...
I blame Maurice Wilson for starting it.
Image

We get a fair number of that type of person on Pikes Peak. I once encountered a woman who was trying to get her autistic son to the summit via the Barr Trail in early June, but couldn't find the trail above timberline due to the snow. She was really p.o.'d, as this climb was so important to her.
Climbing at altitude is like hitting your head against a brick wall — it's great when you stop. -- Chris Darwin
I'm pretty tired. I think I'll go home now. -- Forrest Gump
User avatar
12ersRule
Posts: 2264
Joined: 6/18/2007
14ers: 58 
13ers: 157
Trip Reports (4)
 

Re: WTF?!? More fun banter about Everest

Post by 12ersRule »

bearcat wrote:
Kiefer wrote:Anyone remember Chilkoot Pass during the Klondike Gold Rush?

Image


Actually, scratch that. I don't think ANYONE left remembers... #-o
I just recently watched Chaplin's Gold Rush and that Everest pic made me think of the same thing.

I was thinking the exact same thing when I saw the Everest picture. Good call!

That trek over Chilkoot Pass must have been insane. They were loaded down with 50-100lbs each load and had to do the trip 20 times.
User avatar
davebks
Posts: 764
Joined: 6/5/2008
14ers: 10 
13ers: 10
Trip Reports (3)
 

Re: WTF?!? More fun banter about Everest

Post by davebks »

here's the guy who wanted to take his bike to the summit. Amazingly he made the summit sans bike. Well maybe not that amazing anymore... never climbed before in his life. :roll:
http://www.outsideonline.com/photo-gall ... -Bike.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

What's crazy to me too is that Outside, Nat Geo and others are covering all this mess like it's normal or ok. Heck Emily Harrington has never been on a big mountain climb in her life and she's going up with Conrad. A major sponsor taking people who have never climbed big mountains...still baffles me. I think that's the one thing I will never get past.

To me as a kid Everest climbers were super heroes! Now it seems like they are just rich people. It's really sad to me. I should write a poem about it. ;)
User avatar
14erFred
Posts: 1033
Joined: 7/15/2009
14ers: 51 
13ers: 1
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: WTF?!? More fun banter about Everest

Post by 14erFred »

davebks wrote:here's the guy who wanted to take his bike to the summit. Amazingly he made the summit sans bike. Well maybe not that amazing anymore... never climbed before in his life. :roll:
http://www.outsideonline.com/photo-gall ... -Bike.html
Goran Kropp would be proud...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6ran_Kropp
"Live as on a mountain." -- Marcus Aurelius
User avatar
Jim Davies
Posts: 7638
Joined: 6/8/2006
14ers: 58  1 
13ers: 67
Trip Reports (5)
 

Re: WTF?!? More fun banter about Everest

Post by Jim Davies »

So would Vern Tejas: http://7summits.com/statistics/Tejas" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Vernon Tejas' poise and overtly gentle nature seem incongruous with the challenges he presents himself. From riding his bike up Aconcagua (the site of Vernon barreling down 22,835' of the highest mountain in the Americas must have caused quite a stir) to paragliding off Mt. Elbrus, Europe's highest point, he takes his ventures very seriously and with calculated risk.
Climbing at altitude is like hitting your head against a brick wall — it's great when you stop. -- Chris Darwin
I'm pretty tired. I think I'll go home now. -- Forrest Gump
User avatar
eagrnnr
Posts: 58
Joined: 1/1/2011
14ers: 5 
13ers: 5
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: WTF?!? More fun banter about Everest

Post by eagrnnr »

I agree that the amount of people on Everest is a problem, but some people seem to be putting them down for even wanting to do Everest. What's so bad about wanting to climb something? Who cares if it isn't some cutting edge climb? I've been hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park for nearly a decade, and the entire time Long's Peak has been looming over me. I want to know what it's like to see the world from that summit. I want to test myself against the mountain, and see if it will grant me a few minutes up top. Is that so bad? Who cares if a lot of people want to climb it? That doesn't make it less special. (Although, I don't like peak baggers at the same time)

Also, on the subject that it should be illegal to have that many people on a mountain. You try telling an amazingly poor nation that one of its main money makers is going to be restricted by outside forces. It won't go over too well. Noble intentions, and I hate to see this many people spoiling the mountain, but Nepal needs the money. They will not do a single thing about this.
Post Reply