I am afraid another last.
A former Gurkha soldier who lost both his legs in Afghanistan has reached the top of Mount Everest, making mountaineering history.
And … afaik, he’s still alive ! (but, then, he’s a Gurkha)
Who will be the first person without any new defining characteristics whatsoever to summit Everest?
It’ll probably be done today.
But then that is itself a defining characteristic! We can only conclude that all climbers must have some unique characteristic, because if they didn’t have one, they’d earn one by virtue of being the first to not have one.
I don’t know, being the 1729th person doesn’t seem so special.
He didn’t climb Mt. Everest, Mt. Everest bowed down to him.
Yeah but when yeti Season kicks in during November the HT really gets going.
Maybe they’ll be the first to summit in a taxicab 
.
Ah yes. That’s feasible.
It is good to prepare for this arduous climb.
Maybe I’ll be the first to summit Everest that gets this reference!
Narrator: “He wasn’t”
well - 70% of him are …
A good summing up of the season so far:
There’s GOT to be a maximum capacity that the mountain can support via the south col route. Same goes for the north route. I wonder what those daily numbers are, under ideal conditions?
I’m more familiar with the south route, which is the more popular route. The route from the south col up to the south summit, Hillary Step, and on to the summit is only so big.
They should increase the price of a permit to $100k for the standard easy routes that the chumps are doing, and set a mandatory pay structure for Sherpas that’s 3 times what they get now. The Sherpas could earn the same or more from working less time, and with less risk taking smaller groups.
It’s not like this is something where “everyone should have the right to do it even if they are not rich” really carries much weight. It’s getting so stupid that the two objectives should be to cut the numbers down dramatically while protecting the interests of the locals - which means fewer richer people.
It is getting so stupid. You’re spot on with that.
Take out all the steps. Everest has become an extreme low oxygen hike & stair climb. There’s little to no actual climbing involved anymore.
Is anyone really impressed by someone mentioning, ‘I’ve climbed Everest!’, like they must have been, once upon a time? I’m certainly not.
If you were just into remarkable views, enormous personal challenge/accomplishment, the awesome cultures of Nepal, etc, you WOULDN’T be climbing THIS mountain. You’d much more likely be climbing any number of other nearby challenging mountains.
You’ll be in the garbage dump of overcrowding that is basecamp. Your entire climb will be in a long slow moving queue, passing bodies of the dead left on the mountain. No matter how you have imaged your quest and achievement, for me these things would completely destroy any of the joy of accomplishment, the fitness challenge (as mentioned tons of secured ladders, stairs, ropes) aspect, and certainly any ‘specialness’, you may have imagined.
And it will cost you tens of thousands of dollars, and some unlucky/foolish few, their lives.
I have been to Nepal twice. A spectacular place, amazing cultures, I’ve done some trekking in the mountains. But nothing about Everest appeals. I’m looking for a very personal experience, that a crowd, would definitely destroy for me.
And, to be honest, my opinion of those seeking/achieving this goal, is not of the ‘daring adventurer with the iron will’, variety of days past. Much closer to, ‘more money than brains’.