# Would a Ski Lift On Mt. Everest Make Sense?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-ski-lift-on-mt-everest-make-sense/616207>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [March 19, 2012, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-ski-lift-on-mt-everest-make-sense/616207 "2012-03-19T09:15:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-ski-lift-on-mt-everest-make-sense/616207/81 "2015-10-05T17:36:33Z")

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> [@Fubaya](#):
>
> What you do is get a really big gun and shoot the bottom of the mountain.

I wonder how many howitzers it would take to make the shoulder of the Khumbu icefall safer than the central route?

Nix that. Just install a series of peak to peak pressurized gondolas, starting at the passenger gate at Tribhuvan.

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**Author:** ![straight\_man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/straight_man/32/3027_2.png) [@straight\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straight_man)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-ski-lift-on-mt-everest-make-sense/616207/82 "2015-10-06T22:08:59Z")

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> [@jjimm](#):
>
> Man, you really never read anything do you?
> 
> It’s absolutely impossible to climb the mountain without teams of people providing backup to the camps all the way up. Naturally many of the people hired are from the Sherpa ethnicity in Nepal, who have a lot of experience with mountain climbing.
> 
> You may be unaware, but Tensing Norgay was a Sherpa too.
> 
> Or perhaps you do read stuff but it all just falls into a crevasse.

**ralph124c** is actually right about this one. The very best climbers do “pure” climbs — for instance, [Reinhold Messner famously summited Everest alone with just the contents of his backpack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhold_Messner#Mount_Everest) —and even lesser professionals regularly take their own materiel up the mountain. Sherpas are still used as porters, but more for the convenience of the wealthy amateurs than out of necessity. Sherpas also work as guides at the highest altitudes.

Also, I’m not sure why you brought up Tenzing Norgay as an example of backup. He summitted Everest with Hillary as one of the climbers, not as part of the support staff. There actually was a lot of support on the Hillary/Norgay summit, but he wasn’t it, and anyway the mountaineering world has moved on since then.

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**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-ski-lift-on-mt-everest-make-sense/616207/83 "2015-10-07T01:39:15Z")

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Why stop at a ski lift? How about stringing up a sky-bucket system to Mt. Machhapuchchhre?

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