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Who Can Save the Grand Canyon?

smithsonianmag.com

11–20 of 134 posts

Re: Who Can Save the Grand Canyon?

#12
post #7

I couldn't get a real sense of just where this development wanted to be, what it looked like: http://grandcanyonescalade.com/comparison-chart-grand-canyon... That monstrosity should absolutely not be built.

All I see on that page is some buildings at the rim of the canyon, similar to (if probably somewhat larger than) what's there now. Is that really what you're complaining about? It's tiny compared to the canyon.

Re: Who Can Save the Grand Canyon?

#13
post #10
post #4

A gondola ride to the bottom of the Grand Canyon would be like a gondola ride to the top of Everest. These projects are deeply frustrating because all the developers have to do is get them built once - they can essentially fail as many times as they need to in order to get their project built. If you oppose this kind of project, you have to succeed in your efforts over and over again. If you fail once, the wild natur…

A gondola ride to the top of Everest would be awesome. Right now, 1.4% of the people who try to summit it die. That's ludicrous and totally indefensible. Anyway it's not as wild as it used to be. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Everest#Everest_economy

A gondola ride to Everest would be awful. A quick ascent to that height would virtually guarantee some pretty awful side effects for most passengers. I certainly wouldn't want to be on it.

Re: Who Can Save the Grand Canyon?

#14
post #13
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A gondola ride to the top of Everest would be awesome. Right now, 1.4% of the people who try to summit it die. That's ludicrous and totally indefensible. Anyway it's not as wild as it used to be. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Everest#Everest_economy

A gondola ride to Everest would be awful. A quick ascent to that height would virtually guarantee some pretty awful side effects for most passengers. I certainly wouldn't want to be on it.

Don't be so pedantic. You know what he meant. That an easy way for people to visit the top of the mountain would be great.

Re: Who Can Save the Grand Canyon?

#15
post #9
post #7

I couldn't get a real sense of just where this development wanted to be, what it looked like: http://grandcanyonescalade.com/comparison-chart-grand-canyon... That monstrosity should absolutely not be built.

Do you live in Arizona? Are you affected by this in any sense? Why shouldn't the people who live there have the say in it. It's jobs for them, it's their home. The Grand Canyon is thousands of feet deep and hundreds of miles long, it formed millions of years ago. It doesn't need to be "saved" from a tourist attraction that will be a blip on a tiny side of the canyon and an even smaller blip in the history of it. The…

I personally know three groups of people who avoided the Canyon because of that crappy walkway that was built.

People visit the Canyon for its natural beauty. You can't improve on that by building something.

Re: Who Can Save the Grand Canyon?

#16
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A gondola ride to Everest would be awful. A quick ascent to that height would virtually guarantee some pretty awful side effects for most passengers. I certainly wouldn't want to be on it.

Don't be so pedantic. You know what he meant. That an easy way for people to visit the top of the mountain would be great.

I read somewhere you can do that today with a helicopter.

Re: Who Can Save the Grand Canyon?

#17
post #10
post #4

A gondola ride to the bottom of the Grand Canyon would be like a gondola ride to the top of Everest. These projects are deeply frustrating because all the developers have to do is get them built once - they can essentially fail as many times as they need to in order to get their project built. If you oppose this kind of project, you have to succeed in your efforts over and over again. If you fail once, the wild natur…

A gondola ride to the top of Everest would be awesome. Right now, 1.4% of the people who try to summit it die. That's ludicrous and totally indefensible. Anyway it's not as wild as it used to be. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Everest#Everest_economy

>> Right now, 1.4% of the people who try to summit it die. That's ludicrous and totally indefensible.

The only problem I have with it is that bodies are rarely taken back and therefore contribute to the pollution of the mountain. Other than that....as long as everyone climbing knows that there is a 1.4% chance of dying, it's fine. I imagine there are extreme sports which have a similar if not higher death ratio,and I would never want to be forbidden from doing something I love just because I "can" die. And I imagine climbing to the top of Everest is what makes it special, not just standing on the top.

Re: Who Can Save the Grand Canyon?

#18
post #13
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A gondola ride to the top of Everest would be awesome. Right now, 1.4% of the people who try to summit it die. That's ludicrous and totally indefensible. Anyway it's not as wild as it used to be. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Everest#Everest_economy

A gondola ride to Everest would be awful. A quick ascent to that height would virtually guarantee some pretty awful side effects for most passengers. I certainly wouldn't want to be on it.

Millions of people ascend to the height of Everest's summit every day, extremely quickly. I imagine that such a purpose-built gondola would, like modern jets, have a pressurized cabin.

Re: Who Can Save the Grand Canyon?

#19
post #4

A gondola ride to the bottom of the Grand Canyon would be like a gondola ride to the top of Everest. These projects are deeply frustrating because all the developers have to do is get them built once - they can essentially fail as many times as they need to in order to get their project built. If you oppose this kind of project, you have to succeed in your efforts over and over again. If you fail once, the wild natur…

> A gondola ride to the bottom of the Grand Canyon would be like a gondola ride to the top of Everest.

Yeah! Oh wait, you mean bad.

Counterpoint: I once rode a sled down a shiny metal track to get down from the Great Wall of China, instead of walking back down the equivalent of 20 flights of steps. It was great!

http://kiplingandclark.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/mutian...

If they'd also had a gondola to ride up in, I would've been able to spend that much more time and energy exploring the top. And imagine the impact it would have on the less able-bodied.

Re: Who Can Save the Grand Canyon?

#20
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't be so pedantic. You know what he meant. That an easy way for people to visit the top of the mountain would be great.

I read somewhere you can do that today with a helicopter.

No, you can't. There is no helicopter that can reach those heights.
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