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Everest is littered with dead, exposed bodies

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Re: Everest is littered with dead, exposed bodies

#11

Post by sliverstorm »

ck2 wrote: post #2

Is it ego or the "human spirit" that makes people try the summit anyway? Some things I'll never understand in this world. How about just running a marathon instead?

Depends on the person. The original climbers probably went for things like extreme personal challenge, or fame. I'm sure there are climbers now as well (now that climbing Everest has been commoditized a bit) who do it for the novelty.

Re: Everest is littered with dead, exposed bodies

#12

Post by joe_the_user »

I had a friend describe his experience when climbing one of the highest peaks in South America.

He said it was the most specular view he had seen in his life - he could literally see both the Atlantic and the Pacific simultaneously. But despite this, he was so physically miserable that he derived no joy from the experience at the time.

Of course, that's still much lower the Everest.

Re: Everest is littered with dead, exposed bodies

#14

Post by wikyd »

makeramen wrote: post #4

I'm not the only one noticing the connection to startups right? Though not as morbid, I would imagine "stepping over dead bodies" and "leaving teammates behind" is a rather common experience in startups as well, though potentially frowned upon (but even then, it would depend on the situation). EDIT: I think I need to clarify, I'm thinking more that startup COMPANIES are like everest climbers, trying to reach profitab…

It's been my experience that the community is exactly the opposite. Founders and early employees are generally eager to help others, even when they probably don't have the time to spare. I've always tried to do the same and it has paid off easily 10x in terms of the amount of advice and help my startup has received.

Re: Everest is littered with dead, exposed bodies

#15

Post by rdl »

burgerbrain wrote: post #3
ck2 wrote: post #2

Is it ego or the "human spirit" that makes people try the summit anyway? Some things I'll never understand in this world. How about just running a marathon instead?

I'm going to go with mental illness. These people arn't proving themselves, they're abandoning their humanity. It's not something to be celebrated.

I'd be willing to assume a lot more personal risk to be the first person to do something like land on Mars or summit Everest, especially if it's not even clear that it can be done, than to be the 50th. Even more so if there is some compelling scientific benefit to going (which, thanks to robotics, there really isn't anymore, at least for brief boot/flag-planting visits).

There are extremely limited cases where it would be worth sacrificing someone's life to accomplish something (jumping on a grenade to save a bunch of other people, perhaps where acting saves other people). I could see people willingly sacrificing themselves for sufficiently otherwise unobtainable knowledge, but it would be immoral if not voluntary.

Re: Everest is littered with dead, exposed bodies

#16

Post by rfreytag »

I keep hearing how startup founders are often "scratching an itch." I think the climber's itch is different in primarily beginning and ending in personal gratification.

If you are looking for a challenge climbing Everest might be only a little cheaper that doing a startup (about $65K it appears: http://outside-blog.away.com/blog/2009/12/how-much-does-it-c...).

Re: Everest is littered with dead, exposed bodies

#17

Post by cubicle67 »

rdl wrote: post #9

Deep wreck and cave diving is similarly dangerous (and was much more so before the adoption of Trimix by the technical diving community). There have been numerous fatalities among rescuers trying to recover corpses of other dead divers, too. I decided after reading a fair bit about this that even if I can afford to dive like this ($20k+ for equipment, $10-20k+ for training, and $500+ per dive for helium-based gas fil…

example http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/How-a-cave-diver-film...

Re: Everest is littered with dead, exposed bodies

#18

Post by d2viant »

burgerbrain wrote: post #3
ck2 wrote: post #2

Is it ego or the "human spirit" that makes people try the summit anyway? Some things I'll never understand in this world. How about just running a marathon instead?

I'm going to go with mental illness. These people arn't proving themselves, they're abandoning their humanity. It's not something to be celebrated.

That's a pretty harsh characterization of their motivation. I'm guessing when you're standing on the top of that summit you establish a connection with nature that you can't get from simply running a marathon. I'd absolutely celebrate anybody who achieves that. The world needs more people who are willing to step so far out of their comfort zone to achieve seemingly impossible things.

Re: Everest is littered with dead, exposed bodies

#19

Post by zzleeper »

ck2 wrote: post #2

Is it ego or the "human spirit" that makes people try the summit anyway? Some things I'll never understand in this world. How about just running a marathon instead?

There is a certain beauty in mountain climbing that I doubt any marathon can compete with.

That said, maybe they can just climb smaller--but also beautiful--mountains? 6k? 7km? Why does it has to be 8.8km?

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