I mentioned upthread that the daughter of one of our residents was summiting Everest recently. She apparently made it, and is going to give a talk and slide show on Monday of her adventure.
Would you risk death to be the first person to climb Everest directly up the East Face? Nobody has been crazy enough to attempt that, yet.
I believe you are correct in that Everest is not a difficult climb from a technical perspective. Especially with pre-planned routes, ladder-bridges, ropes, and so forth.
The biggest obstacles are the altitude (including weather hazards) and lack of oxygen - the latter of which is sparse enough that its lack will, eventually, kill you if you stay at the peak/in the Death Zone long enough. How long is that? It all depends on your body’s tolerance for high altitude/low oxygen, which is not exactly the same thing as being physically fit or strong.
I mean, all of this is premised on the counterfactual hypothesis that I were an elite climber with the relevant skills to actually achieve something meaningful.
I think a better modern example - Alex Honnold must surely have had a risk of death of at least 5% in his free solo of El Capitan. If I had his skills and aptitude - yes, I’d accept that risk with no hesitation. It’s a monumental achievement. It’s hard to see how it’s not the greatest athletic achievement of any kind, ever.
Romney’s Kendal Mint Cake was immortalised in history on May 29th 1953 when it was carried on the first successful summit of Mount Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.
I believe they do.
I saw a tour of their factory on an old episode of Escape to the Country. It was the first time I’d ever heard of it, and it looked very unappetizing.
I was once offered a pathology job where one of my colleagues would have been Beck Weathers.
Don’t know if the subject of his Everest experience would ever have come up in conversation, but I think I’d have kept my opinion of mountain climbing to myself.
“Look, Beck, don’t stick your nose into my business and I won’t stick my nose into yours, okay?”
I wasn’t climbing Everest, but those came in handy hiking in the Lake District.
There are increasing problems because of climate change at base camp and last year they said they were going to move it. But now:
Cool! Are you going to attend yourself?
I’m assuming this was after 1996?
Planning to, yes.
“there’s something wrong here, but I can’t just put a finger on it…”
I might say 100% risk of death. Any flake lets go, rockfall from above…dizzy spell, (forgot his route thinking of a TV show at home…I joke) That level of commitment just boggles the mind. I agree though, probably the greatest “planned” athletic achievement ever. Perhaps some poor soul in history did some accidental achievement…falling of a boat and swimming for days etc…Some great docs on Honnold and his mindset and lifestyle. The climb itself Im afraid to watch!! Just gut wrenching. I used to rock scramble in the Sierra Nevadas…but nothing like that sort of thing.
(missed edit window) Im not sure how to quantify that level of risk that free climbers like Alex Honnold take? Where any mistake is almost certainly fatal? Similar to perhaps wingsuits or even hang gliding, where small errors lead to catastrophe. I was too too flakey in my youth for those sorts of things, ocean sports are alot more forgiving.
A 100% risk of death if anything does wrong or you fuck up. But that gets us to the motivation of many adventurers: beyond, or in spite of, successfully making a historical climb, he knew it could be done and just personally wanted to do it. No way he was going to go on with life without having made the attempt.
Beat Vesna’s record and you WILL impress me.
Wow, what a fascinating (and sad) story.