Off topic_Everest

Line waiting to hike to the summit of Everest last Wednesday. Looks like plenty of wind but hardly any oxygen @ 28,000 up. I will be content to see this from the comfort of the easy chair. I guess different strokes for different folks but will never understand wanting to attempt this. What do you think ?

Yes, makes perfect sense to me. Travel to some freezing, miserable, overcrowded place full of garbage and frozen dead people. And, pay $11,000 just for a permit to do it. Then of course pay more for all the extra bucks for the trip itself. I can hardly think of anything else that is less appealing to me.

My doctor did it. My guess is he was having what seemed to be a mid-life crisis. I say "seemed" since he was age 48, and died a year after he did the Everest thing. So it seems age 48 was not quite "middle-age" for him.

Folks from the midwest looking for a dry spot to plant corn?

How many doctors have you outlived so far?

I heard some people actually fell thousands of feet arguing, fighting and pushing at each other just to stand on a piece of rock not much bigger than a ping pong table at the very top. It's all about the "experience and the selfie."

Wow. You are thinking!! I laughed and laughed!! Witty is the word I think.

Seems like an awful lot of people are suddenly mountaineers! Do they all have the previous experience to take on something like this--or just pockets overflowing with cash and running out of ideas where to spend it? I'm thinking that quite a few who find themselves on that mountain have no idea what nature is capable of. This is played out in wild and unspoiled areas all over the globe: Word gets out that there is someplace that hasn't been ruined, and everyone goes there to change that as quickly as possible. It's happening in Iceland, too--I've seen the changes over the years. Places that were once deserted are now overrun with visitors who have no idea where they are, what they're doing, or what kind of danger they're in.

Is that for real or photoshop? Looks like way too many people. What happens when you "P" into the wind up there?

That appears to be a line going up the mountain. Suppose there is a line going down on the other side? If not, I don't see how they're all gonna fit at the top.

I get it if you are one of the first few 100 to do so. It?s something special.

That picture looks photoshopped, but I have heard there is a bit of a rush of folk trying to climb it the past year or two, and if it is the in thing everybody is doing, it would lose its appeal to me, nothing special about it then.

Not that I ever in a million years would be motivated to try it, but i could understand the early efforts to be one of the few that was there.

Not so much any more. It?s more risk than people realize, and you are just one of many that has tried or made it by now.

Paul

Two MDs, the surgeon who did my back surgery, my dentist, and my dog's vet who was only mid-40s. Those are the dead medical pros that have left this world that I am aware of (and used).

What happens when you "P" into the wind up there?

Yellow snow?
Jerry Jeff

It freezes off before you finish.

The picture is real. And those climbers are at an elevation where life can't be sustained. Run out of oxygen and your time to live is quite short.

Nepal could easily restrict the number of permits it issues to make the climb safer, but the climbers bring a lot of money into the economy.

Bragging rights, some people will pay anything.

I have seen that same picture on the news for the last several days.

My wife's maternal grandmother lived to be 102. One of her doctors who removed her gall bladder when she was in her 60s told her she had to lose 50 pounds. She just laughed at him. He died several years later. She outlived so many doctors we lost count. (;>))

Heard on the radio from a guide that was up there 3 times that at that elevation 1 step costs you 5 breaths.

One of the best books that I have ever read is "Into thin air" about one day around 15 years ago when 15 people died on Everest due to overcrowding and a bad storm that came up unexpectedly. Another complication is that oxygen deprivation often leads to loss of judgement.

I heard on the news today (Tuesday) that another climber died today .... an American ..... lawyer of course, I guess if anyone has the bucks they do. No matter who or what he does, a sad story, especially if he leaves a wife and family behind (which this guy didn't). This quote is from the news release I found on a Google search .... these kinds of statements REALLY pi$$ me off .... I guess this makes him a hero of some kind and as long as he liked climbing, then his senseless death makes sense.

""He saw his last sunrise from the highest peak on Earth. At that instant, he became a member of the '7 Summit Club' having scaled the highest peak on each continent," the statement continued. His family said he died doing what he loved and that he is survived by his mother and younger siblings.

The same picture was on the local 6 o'clock news tonight.

Another thing about the top of Everest. The rock is full of seashells. Pushed up from the bottom of the ocean when Inda and Eurasia collided.

To want to take that kind of risk with your life would be a sign of some deep-seated desire to die.

To a person not into mountain climbing the desire to do this will never make any sense. It is pointless to even attempt to make sense of it. However, in my younger days when I lived in Colorado I did quite a bit of climbing and even had the enjoyment of summitting a mountain in South America over 20,000 feet tall. I know first-hand the strong feelings that getting to the top of a difficult mountain can bring about. For some the desire is strong enough for them to justify placing themselves at significant risk in order to achieve their personal goals. While I myself wouldn't take the risks that come along with attempting the world's tallest mountains I'm not about to judge those who do because I know how the desire can motivate a person. Even easy mountains in Colorado carry a certain amount of risk and some of the more difficult ones I've climbed have claimed numerous lives. However, if a person attempted to avoid all risks they would probably live a miserable life not wanting to do anything.

I do have negatives feelings about what is happening on Everest. From a technical perspective it isn't that hard of a mountain to climb compared to other peaks in it's league (commonly known as the 8000 meter peaks) and being the tallest it is naturally the one that everybody wants to climb. There are lots of people attempting Everest who don't really have business being there but they have a bank account deep enough to hire a guide and fund a climb. I also personally don't think that oxygen should be used except as required for first aid. When someone gets to high altitude by sucking on a bottle and the bottle runs out the person is in far worse shape than if they went as high as they could go on on their own then turned back. Supplemental oxygen allows people who won't be physically up to the task naturally to get into serious trouble when delays or bad weather trap them at high elevation longer than the oxygen supply can last. Many lives have been lost due to this. It also causes a huge trash problem as most of the empty bottles are simply discarded on the mountain.

My wife and I were just talking about this. Did you know is cost upwards of 11k to climb that mountain. That dont interest me not one bit. One of the guys that climbed it says everybody pushing and shoving around trying to get the picture of them on top he also said you could get pushed off the top if your not careful. Line of fools

all of'em that are dead.

(quoted from post at 02:55:11 05/29/19) My wife and I were just talking about this. Did you know is cost upwards of 11k to climb that mountain. That dont interest me not one bit. One of the guys that climbed it says everybody pushing and shoving around trying to get the picture of them on top he also said you could get pushed off the top if your not careful. Line of fools

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They said on the news it was $11k for the permit from the government. I'll bet the total cost would exceed $20k.

There seems to have been more coverage or news stories on this lately. This photo included. There is no way I would want to go through all of that for any reason, whatever floats yer boat, makes no sense to intentionally get in a line like that in such an unforgiving place.

I've read that it's safer to take one of the more difficult lines due to the people crowding the easy line.