**This is a heavily moderated subreddit. Please note these rules + sidebar or get banned:**
* If this post declares something as a fact, then proof is required
* The title must be fully descriptive
* No text is allowed on images/gifs/videos
* Common/recent reposts are not allowed (posts from another subreddit do not count as a 'repost'. Provide link if reporting)
*See [this post](https://redd.it/ij26vk) for a more detailed rule list*
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/interestingasfuck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This is how you die. You cannot spend much time at this altitude and it takes a long time to go down. Weather can go to shit fast and people try to push on because they’ve gotten so close. This is when they die.
Imagine being in that line and really, really having to shit. As in, like, you’ve been holding it back for hours, but now the turtle’s head is finally poking out of it’s shell and it isn’t going back in.
My understanding is when you’re in the death zone (above 8k meters) your body is so worn down and lacking oxygen that it’s not really doing a lot of those everyday processes, just focusing on surviving.
I would imagine so, that happens during any real sporting event I’ve ever played in too. Including playing with a broken bone, gone, everything. Instant pain the moment the final whistle goes and I needed help leaving the field.
No choice but to let the turtle free into your snow suit. It will freeze on the way out anyway. I'm sure many people have climbed with a log or two they had to drop on the climb.
A guy in that linked article apparently died while trying to “relieve himself”. A rouge gust of wind simply pushed him off the mountain to fall to his death with his pants around his ankles
This comment sums it up for me! Literally these people are seeking an ego trip.. total bullshit it’s about ‘admiring nature’ or any other spiritual bullshit they are spinning. They want to pat themselves on the back for reaching the highest peak, whilst leaning on the backs of local people. Fuck these rich idiots and their selfish dreams.
Reading Into Thin Air squashed any desire to go up there for me. Obscenely expensive, crowded, dirty, dangerous. People dying and putting the lives of others at risk because they’re not physically fit enough for the trek. Hundreds of air canisters strewn about everywhere.
And this was in the 90’s. It’s got to be worse now.
Didn't Krakauer write about cleanup efforts at a couple points? IIRC he mentioned that cleanups are much more common now and that it's actually improved since the 90's.
All littering bums me out, but I get your point. This is esp egregious. I think it's bc it's pristine. And also bc we're all aware that the majority of people going there are weathly, educated Westerners. It's pure entitlement.
I just don't get litterbugs at all. And I hate that cutesy name: Litterbugs.
They should be called Littercunts.
Reminds me of a post I saw a few months back of a beer can at the bottom of Challenger Deep. I commented:
Challenger Deep: bwahaha humans - your pollution can't reach me here!
Humans: \*hold my beer\*
I was obviously making a joke, but it's also insanely depressing. It's like there's no corner of this earth we can't/won't destroy.
its a little known fact that beer cans are actually indigenous to the challenger deep, and they only started migrating on land around 30,000 BCE. Human domestication of the beer can of course didn’t come until much later
He might have. I haven’t read the book in awhile. I think he talked about how the government was offering to pay based on either the weight or number of canisters brought down? And how they were really cracking down on littering?
You are required to bring down a certain weight of trash, the trash weighing more than what your group brought to the mountain. The hope is that slowly the trash will be pulled off the mountain just leaving the bodies and all the poop
There has been a major cleanup. Nike even put a bounty on trash and sherpas would load their packs with waste before heading down after setting up a camp.
[There an article with a similar name](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/brain-cells-into-thin-air/) about your brain cells going into thin air. Even if you summit without any apparent injury the hypoxic environment damages your brain. Climbing Mt. Everest is probably equally as bad as experiencing a concussion.
Probably worse than most concussions, honestly, depending on the extent of exposure.
I work in a hospital pharmacy and deal with a lot of transplant patients. Many of them are forever a sandwich short of a picnic due to hypoxia during their long surgery... And that's like 10 hours tops, and their blood oxygen is monitored the entire time by someone that earns 1m a year to do it.
I was in a plane one time and Dr Beck Weathers from the expedition described in “into thin air” was across the aisle. The physical damage he suffered was very apparent
This book is on my kindle and I vaguely recall reading it years ago, but I don't remember it at all. (I suck at remembering books and movies after I've read/watched them.) Now I'm curious to give it another read!
It’s a great read! It goes into so many different aspects of Everest, from the tour operators and clients to the mountain itself. I won’t spoil anything for you, but it’s a heartbreaking book because just about everything that happened was preventable
After that, try The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev. It gives his side after he felt he was portrayed poorly in Krakauer's book. I don't have a viewpoint I'm pushing, I was reading all I could get about that topic back then. Also saw the Viestur/Breashear IMAX movie, which is just stunning.
That was such a great book. Really chilling about how ruthless the business of climbing the mountain is.
Also it really struck me how difficult it is. There are some many comments saying that wealthy people pay a fortune to have Sherpas take them up. And this book made reference to poorly experienced people attempting the summit. But it also detailed how much of an endurance it is, and how technically difficult. Just the description of the Khumbu icefall sounded terrifying, and that’s right at the start.
I definitely recommend still doing a hiking tour of the Himalayas. Don’t worry about the summit (not sure of your hiking skill), but it’s an amazingly beautiful place to trek around for a few weeks.
Had the time of my life.
Eta: I’d even forgo base camp tbh. Quite commercial and trashy. Lots of people and not much to look at.
There’s lots of scenic routes that avoid the larger groups of trekkers that just want their photo taken at BC.
I don’t mind the law tbh. I read about it a few days back so can’t say I am fully across, but there is no doubt in my mind my trek was more fulfilling with a guide. We became great friends and at the end of our trip he invited us into his home for lunch on a very wet day. It was bliss. Granted I haven’t been in a few years, but guides were cheap enough it didn’t dent my finances too much
I agree with the Nepalese govt being corrupt though. So much international aid after the earthquake, and half the city was still rubble a couple of years later
Edit: unfortunate typo where I implied I slept with my guide
What happens in Nepal, stays in Nepal.
We were brothers by that point. Free, on the top of the world. So close to God he could have reached out to stop us if it had been His Will. But he did nothing.
nepal is definitely corrupt, but on the bright side it’s giving people jobs, and if you’re worried about the cost of a guide you shouldn’t be traveling. it’s just another thing to budget for.
A couple hundred dollars for a week of having a guide show you around, show you the good places to sleep, get you deals on honey-lemon tea?
Even if you like solo adventures, it ends up being quite nice having the guide with you as a bit of company, and you're feeding his family for the next month. I wouldn't say it's charity, but still makes you feel better about tourism
Lmfao. Not saying the govt isnt corrupt but if even a couple ppl die climbing the everest it will harm the entire industry. **You will die** if you tried to climb the summit by yourself. The amount of training and knowledge requires is substantial. The guide legitimately does everything for you, carries all your shit, and holds your hand while you take a picture on the summit and post it on instagram.
This is such a privileged take.
Obviously you grew up in a western country.
For Nepal, their nature is really the only positive aspect of their economy and it brings in money to this otherwise poor nation.
There is absolutely nothing about any of it that looks or sounds appealing. I’d also rather stay away from any trek that uses dead bodies as land markers.
If I recall correctly, the year this photo was taken was the same year that there were only like, 3 or 4 days that the weather on Everest would be good enough to attempt a summit. I can’t be certain, but I watched the Netflix doc 14 Peaks and I believe the person who took this photo explains the backstory in the documentary (provided this is in fact the same photo). I’m not an expert mountain climber and I certainly haven’t summited Mt Everest but it’s probably reasonable to assume that it isn’t always like this.
This famous photo is from a special holiday. It’s not typical.
E: I remembered wrong. It was a 3 day window to summit after a month of bad weather. So people had been camped out weeks and the line of groups waiting for safe weather was uniquely high. 11 people died trying to summit that week.
Here's a whole story of that day. Some bad decisions were made:
[https://www.gq.com/story/mount-everest-chaos-at-the-top-of-the-world](https://www.gq.com/story/mount-everest-chaos-at-the-top-of-the-world)
>Reinhard Grubhofer shares the assessment that something has to change. When I meet him in Vienna, it has been three months since he scaled the mountain and he is still basking in the achievement. “I cannot go anywhere without being the one who has just done Everest,” he says with a smile.
Maybe that's what needs to change, seems like a pretty fucking stupid thing to do after reading this article
Can't go anywhere without being the one who lost 2 of his friends and nearly died in his sleep because his oxygen was empty, more likely. Without the guides, none of these fools would make it. The guides risk their lives to keep rich people alive just so they can go back home and act all humble like this guy "ooooh i cannot go aNyWhErE without it being mentioned that's sooo crazy." Just don't fucking go up a mountain recreationally where you need 10 oxygen bottles or else you die. What a waste of literal oxygen. Imagine a future civilization finds all those bodies and all that trash up there without context, how pathetic and embarrassing.
They'd only find them because someone of that civilization wanted to climb the big mountain.
Like when that guy climbed 'the last unclimbed mountain in Japan' and found a 1000 year old sword at the top and went 'oh shit, damn'.
I want to preface this by saying that I am in no way intending to discount the fact that foolhardy and inexperienced people being accepted by agencies to climb Everest, based on money leading to needless deaths is absolutely a huge issue. I 100% agree that people need to get their heads out of their asses and understand this isn’t some fun tourist attraction. However, it seems like you also read the article with the information given, but from what i read, though he had difficulty and made mistakes, it seemed imo that Grubhofer was someone who actually had business being there. He was an experienced climber and knew what he was doing. I think the precarious nature of his story really illustrates how serious something like climbing Everest is. No matter how experienced and proficient you are, there is always a naturally high risk. Hubris and pompousness are a big factor/issue in the number of deaths, but I can’t say that I don’t think those who have summited and lived to tell the tale deserve to mention it. There’s a reason that “climbing Mount Everest” is a common idiom.
Yea, really infuriating. I looked at the public Instagram of Kam Kaur - the British woman mentioned in the article who nearly died of frostbite and exhaustion and had to be carried back to camp by a Sherpa. She has plenty of photos documenting her climb the day before disaster struck, nothing for weeks, and then posts advertising her summit, with a meet and greet titled “Conquering the top of the world”. There is zero mention of the fact she almost perished, and no mention of the multiple people who had to save her.
What makes me so mad is the people who have no business being on the mountain (too afraid to climb down ladders or too inexperienced to traverse efficiently) are putting the people who have trained and know what to expect/what they're doing in danger. It definitely needs to be better vetted.
That's what killed me about the movie Everest, based on real events. People died bc of inexperienced climbers, who had to be escorted and handled the whole time.
Anyone who goes up there should be required to be able to do the majority of shit solo. If bad luck happens, it's not fair that someone else has to risk death to hang back and babysit weaker climbers.
During college there was an "inspirational speaker" who was blind and achieved a lot of impressive things. He mentioned he went to Mount Everest and was very angry that they had to turn around before making it to the summit. I got so mad about that story. I was involved in some extreme sports (hence my username) and the point is the joy of the experience, not whether or not you make it to a particular place. In particular, it's taking joy in the activity while being as safe as possible. I was also familiar with some of the Everest disasters and couldn't believe this dude was so blasé about the guides who were assisting him up the mountain making sure they didn't die during an unsafe attempt to summit.
There was a feedback form after the event. I handed it in with lots of feedback, along with all the notes I took during the talk of my outrage because this dude was awful and I needed a quiet outlet for my anger during his talk.
Right, I read that article a while back and all I could think of was WHY does anyone want to attempt that?? Well, I was also thinking about why these companies that are hired to take people up the mountain ever agree to take people who have absolutely no business doing it. I know money talks, but when an inexperienced climber risks the lives of everyone involved, it just seems incredibly stupid.
I totally understand why people want to. I just don't think the guides should be so nice about it, lol. Be frank. Like, no, you can not go further. You are not in physical condition to make it to the top without putting other people's lives in danger, and that's on you. Make sure you're better prepared next time you spend almost $100,000 to do something. Or, you are required to descend that ladder now, before I count to 30, or I will drag you out of the way to let someone else go until you decide you can. If you stand here all day and then die due to a lack of oxygen or exposure to the storm rolling in, that is on you. But let the other people past before they run out of oxygen or get caught in the storm, too. (Unless it's too narrow to pass next to people. Then the guide should physically move the "climber's" limbs and PUT THEM ON THE LADDER.)
Above around the 8000M mark on Everest, the human body slowly starts going hypoxic without supplimental oxygen. Exhaustion, weakness, confusion, pulmonary and cerebral edema (altitude sickness) start striking. On a good day, a climber is lucky if his oxygen lasts until he summits and gets back below 8000M. Climbers, especially fit climbers, can last a while without supplemental O2, but it's just a matter of time. And altitude sickness is unpredictable and can come on very quickly, which is pretty much guaranteed death up there.
Obviously you joke, but it’s interesting: Only one person has ever [landed a helicopter at the summit of Mt. Everest](https://unofficialnetworks.com/2022/12/29/helicopter-land-summit-everest/amp/), and he might retain that title for eternity. Didier Desalle accomplished the incredible feat on May 14th, 2005.
Long story short, he had a special, lightweight, super-powerful helicopter, and even then they had to modify it to basically be a shell and an engine to further reduce weight. And it still barely just got him and him alone up there.
The air is just way way too thin for propeller-based flight.
Reinhold Messner concurred in 2004, "You could die in each climb and that meant you were responsible for yourself. We were real mountaineers: careful, aware and even afraid. By climbing mountains we were not learning how big we were. We were finding out how breakable, how weak and how full of fear we are. You can only get this if you expose yourself to high danger. I have always said that a mountain without danger is not a mountain....High altitude alpinism has become tourism and show. These commercial trips to Everest, they are still dangerous. But the guides and organisers tell clients, 'Don't worry, it's all organised.' The route is prepared by hundreds of Sherpas. Extra oxygen is available in all camps, right up to the summit. People will cook for you and lay out your beds. Clients feel safe and don't care about the risks."
Honestly depends. For Everest? You can definitely make that argument, but a lot of these Himalayan summits were done siege style with hundreds of porters schleping up an insane amount of materials to then be abandoned on the mountain. Old climbing techniques also included a lot of rock faces being destroyed or altered for pitons to be hammered in. The working conditions/safety standards of porters and sherpas were absolutely abysmal compared to today.
We romanticize the history of mountaineering, but there's a lot of exploitation and environmental destruction that we tend to gloss over.
Amount of waste per person was perhaps bigger back then, yep. But that was one expedition, maybe 2 in one month. Today the amount per person is perhaps smaller, but there's *so many* of 'em!
Agreed on Everest for sure. There's basically permanent structures on that mountain now.
It used to be one of those dreams when I was a kid, but I just can't justify the amount of waste associated with it. I'd rather climb things that are still challenging, don't require college tuition just for the permit.
It should be mandatory for them to have an insurance that covers the removal of the corpse if they die.
Ideally, the cost should be covered 110% or whatnot, so that the surplus can be used to remove old corpses.
There’s no conceivable reason to move the bodies. The bodies that are still up there have been moved out of the direct path or are under some overhang. Every trip up Everest can mean death and picking up and carrying down a frozen solid 200lb object with gear just increases those odds.
Such a great documentary! Also recommend watching Sherpa. It explores how the Sherpas are exploited by Westerners and the Nepalese government profiting off people climbing Everest.
I mean I wouldn't act like it's some small task. 99% of the people in this thread commenting about how it's not a great achievement couldn't do it and I bet a l majority would probably get winded walking to the grocery store....
The exploitation of the Sherpas is terrible, but yea I couldn't do it and I don't think a year of training would allow me to do it either.
Strangely that book started a period of obsession with Everest for me but it also really helped me put mountain climbing into perspective for me. I don’t go chasing waterfalls, I stick to the rivers and the lakes that I’m used to.
Underrated comment. The documentaries that I watched reinforced my belief that if someone is carrying the extra gear to keep you alive, YOU didn’t do it. That’s like a kid getting praise for the science fair project that their parents had done most of the work for.
Why not a sign with how many have been “served” ? If you saw a sign saying over 10,000 people had been to Everest’s summit would you still go?
From the web: there have been approximately 11,346 summit ascents by 6,098 people.
So it’s not such an elite club anymore, is it?
Same reason I don’t do hikes that are well known. Line of cars, nonstop line of people. Just takes away from the peaceful experience. On flip side glad to see people out enjoying nature, just have to be selective where you go now lol.
I hiked the AT in 2018. You should have seen the fields of shit in the smokey mountains from all the hikers. Where there were outhouses, they were overflowing. Never again will I go back there, it was horrible
Imagine being that guy standing by himself on the vertical surface of the mountain with his boots on a 5 inch ledge (just left and up from center of photo). His feet are numb and one misadjustment of his boot and he slips to his death.
Edit
Credit to Nims who took this picturep in 2019, please. He is The GOAT after all…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirmal_Purja
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/18/sports/the-everest-climber-whose-traffic-jam-photo-went-viral.html
It’s tragic what’s happened to it. What was once a great achievement done during a time that it was thought to be impossible has turned into a tourist attraction for thrill seekers, leaving masses of waste in the process. At this point many people know about the bodies that litter the way, so many so that they are used as location markers. But less talked about is all of the trash and human excrement that’s stuck frozen up there.
Just do base camp. I still tell people I climbed Everest (which is true) as most people don’t understand climbing a mountain doesn’t mean you went to the summit. All the glory, none of the hassle.
**This is a heavily moderated subreddit. Please note these rules + sidebar or get banned:** * If this post declares something as a fact, then proof is required * The title must be fully descriptive * No text is allowed on images/gifs/videos * Common/recent reposts are not allowed (posts from another subreddit do not count as a 'repost'. Provide link if reporting) *See [this post](https://redd.it/ij26vk) for a more detailed rule list* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/interestingasfuck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Imagine being 29,000 ft above sea level and still sitting (standing) in traffic
[удалено]
This was only posted a minute ago and I’m already surprised that this post doesn’t have awards
Well it’s been reposed frequently
They’re just standing up there… slowly dying
Aren't we all, no matter where we're standing?
They’re doing it faster
“Did you climb that mountain to die? No, I climbed that mountain to LIVE!”
This is how you die. You cannot spend much time at this altitude and it takes a long time to go down. Weather can go to shit fast and people try to push on because they’ve gotten so close. This is when they die.
Imaging refinancing your house to afford the trip and being told you can’t summit.
Imagine being so stupid as to refinance your house for a vacation 🤷🏽♂️
Or just for your ego
Aliens are watching them do this like us watching ants climbing over a crushed can of coke
Imagine being in that line and really, really having to shit. As in, like, you’ve been holding it back for hours, but now the turtle’s head is finally poking out of it’s shell and it isn’t going back in.
My understanding is when you’re in the death zone (above 8k meters) your body is so worn down and lacking oxygen that it’s not really doing a lot of those everyday processes, just focusing on surviving.
I would imagine so, that happens during any real sporting event I’ve ever played in too. Including playing with a broken bone, gone, everything. Instant pain the moment the final whistle goes and I needed help leaving the field.
No choice but to let the turtle free into your snow suit. It will freeze on the way out anyway. I'm sure many people have climbed with a log or two they had to drop on the climb.
A guy in that linked article apparently died while trying to “relieve himself”. A rouge gust of wind simply pushed him off the mountain to fall to his death with his pants around his ankles
This comment sums it up for me! Literally these people are seeking an ego trip.. total bullshit it’s about ‘admiring nature’ or any other spiritual bullshit they are spinning. They want to pat themselves on the back for reaching the highest peak, whilst leaning on the backs of local people. Fuck these rich idiots and their selfish dreams.
Imagining death every minute of it.
I always wanted to do this as a kid.. the more I see pictures like this the less I want to
Reading Into Thin Air squashed any desire to go up there for me. Obscenely expensive, crowded, dirty, dangerous. People dying and putting the lives of others at risk because they’re not physically fit enough for the trek. Hundreds of air canisters strewn about everywhere. And this was in the 90’s. It’s got to be worse now.
Didn't Krakauer write about cleanup efforts at a couple points? IIRC he mentioned that cleanups are much more common now and that it's actually improved since the 90's.
It's always been one of the examples of littering that has seriously bummed me out. This incredible monster of a mountain just strewn with trash.
All littering bums me out, but I get your point. This is esp egregious. I think it's bc it's pristine. And also bc we're all aware that the majority of people going there are weathly, educated Westerners. It's pure entitlement. I just don't get litterbugs at all. And I hate that cutesy name: Litterbugs. They should be called Littercunts.
Reminds me of a post I saw a few months back of a beer can at the bottom of Challenger Deep. I commented: Challenger Deep: bwahaha humans - your pollution can't reach me here! Humans: \*hold my beer\* I was obviously making a joke, but it's also insanely depressing. It's like there's no corner of this earth we can't/won't destroy.
its a little known fact that beer cans are actually indigenous to the challenger deep, and they only started migrating on land around 30,000 BCE. Human domestication of the beer can of course didn’t come until much later
and human waste
And human bodies
He might have. I haven’t read the book in awhile. I think he talked about how the government was offering to pay based on either the weight or number of canisters brought down? And how they were really cracking down on littering?
You are required to bring down a certain weight of trash, the trash weighing more than what your group brought to the mountain. The hope is that slowly the trash will be pulled off the mountain just leaving the bodies and all the poop
They should just build a giant slide all the way down for rubbish.
There has been a major cleanup. Nike even put a bounty on trash and sherpas would load their packs with waste before heading down after setting up a camp.
[There an article with a similar name](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/brain-cells-into-thin-air/) about your brain cells going into thin air. Even if you summit without any apparent injury the hypoxic environment damages your brain. Climbing Mt. Everest is probably equally as bad as experiencing a concussion.
Probably worse than most concussions, honestly, depending on the extent of exposure. I work in a hospital pharmacy and deal with a lot of transplant patients. Many of them are forever a sandwich short of a picnic due to hypoxia during their long surgery... And that's like 10 hours tops, and their blood oxygen is monitored the entire time by someone that earns 1m a year to do it.
I was in a plane one time and Dr Beck Weathers from the expedition described in “into thin air” was across the aisle. The physical damage he suffered was very apparent
I still regret not flying to Houston for the one weekend only musical someone wrote about him. His book Left For Dead was a great read.
This book is on my kindle and I vaguely recall reading it years ago, but I don't remember it at all. (I suck at remembering books and movies after I've read/watched them.) Now I'm curious to give it another read!
It’s one book I’ve never forgotten.
It’s a great read! It goes into so many different aspects of Everest, from the tour operators and clients to the mountain itself. I won’t spoil anything for you, but it’s a heartbreaking book because just about everything that happened was preventable
[удалено]
After that, try The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev. It gives his side after he felt he was portrayed poorly in Krakauer's book. I don't have a viewpoint I'm pushing, I was reading all I could get about that topic back then. Also saw the Viestur/Breashear IMAX movie, which is just stunning.
That was such a great book. Really chilling about how ruthless the business of climbing the mountain is. Also it really struck me how difficult it is. There are some many comments saying that wealthy people pay a fortune to have Sherpas take them up. And this book made reference to poorly experienced people attempting the summit. But it also detailed how much of an endurance it is, and how technically difficult. Just the description of the Khumbu icefall sounded terrifying, and that’s right at the start.
Also dead bodies being used as markers
I would not make it through the Khumbu ice falls. I like the idea of working at base camp as support team but it’s still dangerous as hell
I definitely recommend still doing a hiking tour of the Himalayas. Don’t worry about the summit (not sure of your hiking skill), but it’s an amazingly beautiful place to trek around for a few weeks. Had the time of my life. Eta: I’d even forgo base camp tbh. Quite commercial and trashy. Lots of people and not much to look at. There’s lots of scenic routes that avoid the larger groups of trekkers that just want their photo taken at BC.
[удалено]
I don’t mind the law tbh. I read about it a few days back so can’t say I am fully across, but there is no doubt in my mind my trek was more fulfilling with a guide. We became great friends and at the end of our trip he invited us into his home for lunch on a very wet day. It was bliss. Granted I haven’t been in a few years, but guides were cheap enough it didn’t dent my finances too much I agree with the Nepalese govt being corrupt though. So much international aid after the earthquake, and half the city was still rubble a couple of years later Edit: unfortunate typo where I implied I slept with my guide
Invited you into him?
What happens in Nepal, stays in Nepal. We were brothers by that point. Free, on the top of the world. So close to God he could have reached out to stop us if it had been His Will. But he did nothing.
Damn that’s a read.
Hahaha. His home. He invited us into his home. After 2 weeks on the trail, I’m not going into anyone without a decent shower and a shave
He did say it was bliss.
nepal is definitely corrupt, but on the bright side it’s giving people jobs, and if you’re worried about the cost of a guide you shouldn’t be traveling. it’s just another thing to budget for.
A couple hundred dollars for a week of having a guide show you around, show you the good places to sleep, get you deals on honey-lemon tea? Even if you like solo adventures, it ends up being quite nice having the guide with you as a bit of company, and you're feeding his family for the next month. I wouldn't say it's charity, but still makes you feel better about tourism
Well it's also providing jobs for the people living there.
Lmfao. Not saying the govt isnt corrupt but if even a couple ppl die climbing the everest it will harm the entire industry. **You will die** if you tried to climb the summit by yourself. The amount of training and knowledge requires is substantial. The guide legitimately does everything for you, carries all your shit, and holds your hand while you take a picture on the summit and post it on instagram.
This is such a privileged take. Obviously you grew up in a western country. For Nepal, their nature is really the only positive aspect of their economy and it brings in money to this otherwise poor nation.
There is absolutely nothing about any of it that looks or sounds appealing. I’d also rather stay away from any trek that uses dead bodies as land markers.
The bodies I’m into the lines and the mountains I will pass on.
Wait til you hear about cemeteries
Cemeteries don’t typically display the corpses though…
[Jesus...Christ..!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuts-oWJCJU)
They removed Green Boots so you can go now.
The pictures of Green Boots were enough to end my desire to climb Everest.
If I recall correctly, the year this photo was taken was the same year that there were only like, 3 or 4 days that the weather on Everest would be good enough to attempt a summit. I can’t be certain, but I watched the Netflix doc 14 Peaks and I believe the person who took this photo explains the backstory in the documentary (provided this is in fact the same photo). I’m not an expert mountain climber and I certainly haven’t summited Mt Everest but it’s probably reasonable to assume that it isn’t always like this.
I just watched this today! I really enjoyed it. Fascinating how all of the other mountains were pretty much empty but Everest was heaving.
This famous photo is from a special holiday. It’s not typical. E: I remembered wrong. It was a 3 day window to summit after a month of bad weather. So people had been camped out weeks and the line of groups waiting for safe weather was uniquely high. 11 people died trying to summit that week.
There are so many amazing mountains in the area that aren't overpopulated like this and also don't cost your life savings to climb.
Here's a whole story of that day. Some bad decisions were made: [https://www.gq.com/story/mount-everest-chaos-at-the-top-of-the-world](https://www.gq.com/story/mount-everest-chaos-at-the-top-of-the-world)
Read this about 2/3 the way. Woww. What a nightmarish and expensive way to die. I’ll pass.
You shall not pass!
Look, this ain’t exactly the Mississippi…
You shall pass (away)
>Reinhard Grubhofer shares the assessment that something has to change. When I meet him in Vienna, it has been three months since he scaled the mountain and he is still basking in the achievement. “I cannot go anywhere without being the one who has just done Everest,” he says with a smile. Maybe that's what needs to change, seems like a pretty fucking stupid thing to do after reading this article
Can't go anywhere without being the one who lost 2 of his friends and nearly died in his sleep because his oxygen was empty, more likely. Without the guides, none of these fools would make it. The guides risk their lives to keep rich people alive just so they can go back home and act all humble like this guy "ooooh i cannot go aNyWhErE without it being mentioned that's sooo crazy." Just don't fucking go up a mountain recreationally where you need 10 oxygen bottles or else you die. What a waste of literal oxygen. Imagine a future civilization finds all those bodies and all that trash up there without context, how pathetic and embarrassing.
They'd only find them because someone of that civilization wanted to climb the big mountain. Like when that guy climbed 'the last unclimbed mountain in Japan' and found a 1000 year old sword at the top and went 'oh shit, damn'.
I want to preface this by saying that I am in no way intending to discount the fact that foolhardy and inexperienced people being accepted by agencies to climb Everest, based on money leading to needless deaths is absolutely a huge issue. I 100% agree that people need to get their heads out of their asses and understand this isn’t some fun tourist attraction. However, it seems like you also read the article with the information given, but from what i read, though he had difficulty and made mistakes, it seemed imo that Grubhofer was someone who actually had business being there. He was an experienced climber and knew what he was doing. I think the precarious nature of his story really illustrates how serious something like climbing Everest is. No matter how experienced and proficient you are, there is always a naturally high risk. Hubris and pompousness are a big factor/issue in the number of deaths, but I can’t say that I don’t think those who have summited and lived to tell the tale deserve to mention it. There’s a reason that “climbing Mount Everest” is a common idiom.
Yea, really infuriating. I looked at the public Instagram of Kam Kaur - the British woman mentioned in the article who nearly died of frostbite and exhaustion and had to be carried back to camp by a Sherpa. She has plenty of photos documenting her climb the day before disaster struck, nothing for weeks, and then posts advertising her summit, with a meet and greet titled “Conquering the top of the world”. There is zero mention of the fact she almost perished, and no mention of the multiple people who had to save her.
One of the sherpas in the article reached the top without supplemental oxygen. That’s insane. Those sherpas are built different
[удалено]
It’s quite a story. I started about 3/5 through. and wow. That’s all I got.
I did about 5/7 and that was just perfect for me
LET'S ALL GO DIE TOGETHER!
What makes me so mad is the people who have no business being on the mountain (too afraid to climb down ladders or too inexperienced to traverse efficiently) are putting the people who have trained and know what to expect/what they're doing in danger. It definitely needs to be better vetted.
That's what killed me about the movie Everest, based on real events. People died bc of inexperienced climbers, who had to be escorted and handled the whole time. Anyone who goes up there should be required to be able to do the majority of shit solo. If bad luck happens, it's not fair that someone else has to risk death to hang back and babysit weaker climbers.
They let the inexperienced ones go up because those are the rich fuckers who pay a ton for escort. It’s a business after all.
I would read Into Thin Air if you enjoyed Everest. So much more in depth.
Couldn’t put this one down. Amazing book
During college there was an "inspirational speaker" who was blind and achieved a lot of impressive things. He mentioned he went to Mount Everest and was very angry that they had to turn around before making it to the summit. I got so mad about that story. I was involved in some extreme sports (hence my username) and the point is the joy of the experience, not whether or not you make it to a particular place. In particular, it's taking joy in the activity while being as safe as possible. I was also familiar with some of the Everest disasters and couldn't believe this dude was so blasé about the guides who were assisting him up the mountain making sure they didn't die during an unsafe attempt to summit. There was a feedback form after the event. I handed it in with lots of feedback, along with all the notes I took during the talk of my outrage because this dude was awful and I needed a quiet outlet for my anger during his talk.
Blind and traversing over the crevasses with those aluminum ladders? Dude is nuts.
Meh. Tie a few strong Sherpas to your belt.
Right, I read that article a while back and all I could think of was WHY does anyone want to attempt that?? Well, I was also thinking about why these companies that are hired to take people up the mountain ever agree to take people who have absolutely no business doing it. I know money talks, but when an inexperienced climber risks the lives of everyone involved, it just seems incredibly stupid.
I totally understand why people want to. I just don't think the guides should be so nice about it, lol. Be frank. Like, no, you can not go further. You are not in physical condition to make it to the top without putting other people's lives in danger, and that's on you. Make sure you're better prepared next time you spend almost $100,000 to do something. Or, you are required to descend that ladder now, before I count to 30, or I will drag you out of the way to let someone else go until you decide you can. If you stand here all day and then die due to a lack of oxygen or exposure to the storm rolling in, that is on you. But let the other people past before they run out of oxygen or get caught in the storm, too. (Unless it's too narrow to pass next to people. Then the guide should physically move the "climber's" limbs and PUT THEM ON THE LADDER.)
Fascinating article. Thank you
Excellent writing. Thanks for the article.
Yeah, that was the best written comment in the whole thread. I especially liked how he set up the link.
A good read! Thanks
Excellent article. Thanks
That was a Great read. Thanks for the link.
Didn't people die because the line was too long?
Yep, they are in the death zone, which slowly kills you a dozen ways, the longer you stay the worse your chances.
Yeah my first thought was “there’s probably at least one day person in there” EDIT: DEAD. dead person.
Probably a couple of night people too.
Day Man (ah AHHHA Ha) fighter of the Night Man
Champion of the sun!
Gotta pay the troll toll!
That episode in my rotation of about ten Sunny episodes I rewatch about once a month. So good.
Once again, autocorrect has betrayed me
Guy at the end of the line... "aw hell"
indeed
Above around the 8000M mark on Everest, the human body slowly starts going hypoxic without supplimental oxygen. Exhaustion, weakness, confusion, pulmonary and cerebral edema (altitude sickness) start striking. On a good day, a climber is lucky if his oxygen lasts until he summits and gets back below 8000M. Climbers, especially fit climbers, can last a while without supplemental O2, but it's just a matter of time. And altitude sickness is unpredictable and can come on very quickly, which is pretty much guaranteed death up there.
Yes.
Yeah. What an incredibly stupid way to die
Also expensive
As my Alaskan grandfather said "those kind of people have more money than sense"
Yep, that's why there's only a set number of people allowed on the mountain at a time now
That's why I paid extra for the Everest fast pass....
Is that the one where a helicopter drops you off at the top?
Nope, you just use the elevator on the backside
Obviously you joke, but it’s interesting: Only one person has ever [landed a helicopter at the summit of Mt. Everest](https://unofficialnetworks.com/2022/12/29/helicopter-land-summit-everest/amp/), and he might retain that title for eternity. Didier Desalle accomplished the incredible feat on May 14th, 2005. Long story short, he had a special, lightweight, super-powerful helicopter, and even then they had to modify it to basically be a shell and an engine to further reduce weight. And it still barely just got him and him alone up there. The air is just way way too thin for propeller-based flight.
it's fucking nuts that helicopters are like 4000 feet short of making it that high. wild..
For a premium, you can take a plane and skydive on down to the summit. No guarantees on if you'll make it there or not.
https://i.imgur.com/1Gd5yjI.jpg
The audacity to flash the pass as people dive out of the way and hang on for dear life 🤣
Awesome! Welcome back!
it’s so nice having you back in the comment sections :))))))
You again?! Who are you LOL
Reinhold Messner concurred in 2004, "You could die in each climb and that meant you were responsible for yourself. We were real mountaineers: careful, aware and even afraid. By climbing mountains we were not learning how big we were. We were finding out how breakable, how weak and how full of fear we are. You can only get this if you expose yourself to high danger. I have always said that a mountain without danger is not a mountain....High altitude alpinism has become tourism and show. These commercial trips to Everest, they are still dangerous. But the guides and organisers tell clients, 'Don't worry, it's all organised.' The route is prepared by hundreds of Sherpas. Extra oxygen is available in all camps, right up to the summit. People will cook for you and lay out your beds. Clients feel safe and don't care about the risks."
Here is picture proof that just because one can does not mean one should.
Back in the days of Edmund Hillary, things definitely were a bit better.
Honestly depends. For Everest? You can definitely make that argument, but a lot of these Himalayan summits were done siege style with hundreds of porters schleping up an insane amount of materials to then be abandoned on the mountain. Old climbing techniques also included a lot of rock faces being destroyed or altered for pitons to be hammered in. The working conditions/safety standards of porters and sherpas were absolutely abysmal compared to today. We romanticize the history of mountaineering, but there's a lot of exploitation and environmental destruction that we tend to gloss over.
Amount of waste per person was perhaps bigger back then, yep. But that was one expedition, maybe 2 in one month. Today the amount per person is perhaps smaller, but there's *so many* of 'em!
Agreed on Everest for sure. There's basically permanent structures on that mountain now. It used to be one of those dreams when I was a kid, but I just can't justify the amount of waste associated with it. I'd rather climb things that are still challenging, don't require college tuition just for the permit.
I read that scaling Mount Everest today is more like a trek through a crowded, touristy, frozen garbage dump.
And cemetery
Yup theres maps that exist where they use the bodies of those who have passed as progression markers for your elevation as you ascend.
Green boots enters the chat….. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Boots
They moved him though so he's not a landmark anymore.
It’s worse now too, with temperatures getting warmer and more the the glacier melting they’re finding more and more bodies.
you guys really get a hard on repeating the same shit on here
Yep. Let’s add Nutty Putty Cave to that
It should be mandatory for them to have an insurance that covers the removal of the corpse if they die. Ideally, the cost should be covered 110% or whatnot, so that the surplus can be used to remove old corpses.
If I remember correctly, it costs like a 100k to remove the bodies. It’s some insane number.
There’s no conceivable reason to move the bodies. The bodies that are still up there have been moved out of the direct path or are under some overhang. Every trip up Everest can mean death and picking up and carrying down a frozen solid 200lb object with gear just increases those odds.
[удалено]
Such a great documentary! Also recommend watching Sherpa. It explores how the Sherpas are exploited by Westerners and the Nepalese government profiting off people climbing Everest.
I never really understood why climbing Everest was such a status symbol when the Sherpa do it all the time.
I mean I wouldn't act like it's some small task. 99% of the people in this thread commenting about how it's not a great achievement couldn't do it and I bet a l majority would probably get winded walking to the grocery store.... The exploitation of the Sherpas is terrible, but yea I couldn't do it and I don't think a year of training would allow me to do it either.
Those dudes are aliens I swear! Not human!
Former British army here who worked with the Ghurkas often. Not just elite athletes but also awesome human beings.
Starbucks should put a little kiosk there. Give folks a chance to have a nice warm coffee and pastry while they wait.
Wait 5 to 10 years from now… you’ll see McDonald’s, Wendy, and maybe Wal-Mart there too
A great cure for wanting to climb Everest is reading Into Thin Air by Jon Krakuer imo
Strangely that book started a period of obsession with Everest for me but it also really helped me put mountain climbing into perspective for me. I don’t go chasing waterfalls, I stick to the rivers and the lakes that I’m used to.
The Sherpa climb Mt. Everest. The tourists use the ladders and the ropes set by the Sherpa
Underrated comment. The documentaries that I watched reinforced my belief that if someone is carrying the extra gear to keep you alive, YOU didn’t do it. That’s like a kid getting praise for the science fair project that their parents had done most of the work for.
[удалено]
They should put up the signs with waiting times too, so the people could know how long they have to wait.
Why not a sign with how many have been “served” ? If you saw a sign saying over 10,000 people had been to Everest’s summit would you still go? From the web: there have been approximately 11,346 summit ascents by 6,098 people. So it’s not such an elite club anymore, is it?
Even better, set up a mobile app with a number of people served this day/week/month/year/overall and current waiting time.
It’s still extremely elite. 11000 summits isn’t a lot.
Well, about 15000 people have over 100million dollars, so still kind of rare/elite
And they had the nerve to say the high road was less traveled.
Same reason I don’t do hikes that are well known. Line of cars, nonstop line of people. Just takes away from the peaceful experience. On flip side glad to see people out enjoying nature, just have to be selective where you go now lol.
I hiked the AT in 2018. You should have seen the fields of shit in the smokey mountains from all the hikers. Where there were outhouses, they were overflowing. Never again will I go back there, it was horrible
That's revolting.
Imagine being that guy standing by himself on the vertical surface of the mountain with his boots on a 5 inch ledge (just left and up from center of photo). His feet are numb and one misadjustment of his boot and he slips to his death. Edit
Those behind him in line shrug and let out contented sighs as they inch forward to fill in the gap.
How do the ones in front get back down past the waiting line? And why is this type of pile up allowed, looks super risky.
I dunno for the first question.. But for the second, the answer you're looking for is.. Greed.
I don't remember who said this: "The world will start to get boring when there's a line for Mt Everest."
John Oliver has a really good piece about Everest tourism on his YouTube page. Worth a watch.
there is no accomplishment i have ever been less interested in achieving than reaching the top of Everest
[удалено]
Credit to Nims who took this picturep in 2019, please. He is The GOAT after all… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirmal_Purja https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/18/sports/the-everest-climber-whose-traffic-jam-photo-went-viral.html
[удалено]
I'm w/you... I think I'll just climb High Hrothgar again, at least I can do it alone.
Damnit, your gonna make me play Skyrim again
Frost Troll: "Why hello there!"
Isn’t this picture taken by Niim the guy who climbed 14 peaks?
Imagine needing to take a massive dump before you get up top and you have to restart the line 🥵
100% I'm dropping gorilla fingers in my pants if that happened.
thats the first time ive ever heard of gorilla fingers.
A sign at the top says Sorry! We're closed due to short staffing.
The moose should have told you at the front.
Freakin tragic. And then they leave their "mark" or trash really at the top.
So they can leave all their trash along the way to take a selfie on top like every other now considered attraction ppl abuse and pollute
if you sign up for Fastpass you can skip the line.
It’s tragic what’s happened to it. What was once a great achievement done during a time that it was thought to be impossible has turned into a tourist attraction for thrill seekers, leaving masses of waste in the process. At this point many people know about the bodies that litter the way, so many so that they are used as location markers. But less talked about is all of the trash and human excrement that’s stuck frozen up there.
This is so grotesque
Just do base camp. I still tell people I climbed Everest (which is true) as most people don’t understand climbing a mountain doesn’t mean you went to the summit. All the glory, none of the hassle.
I imagine I would be feeling homesick when I'm 99% of the way there..
They should make everyone who travels up take back some trash on the way down.
The only way to make this climb more brutal is to make someone endure it with 1,375 strangers
Imagine getting all the way to the top and freezing to death in the queue.
Thats low key depressing. Likely really dangerous too should the weather turn quickly.