calling a trowel a trowel wrote:
Over 3,500 people have successfully summited the 29,029 ft. Himalayan mountain peak Everest. Only 1,300 or so men have covered a timed mile in under four minutes.
Not a fair comparision. The mile is the most revered of all Olympic running events. Summiting Everest isn't even in the Winter X-Games!
Cincy Runner wrote:
My best running days are behind me and I am looking for greater challenges. I have never done any climbing, but consider myself a pretty good endurance athlete. I have run 2:33, 1:11, 31:12, and 15:09. I also finished a half iron man. I want to climb Everest, but don't even know how to start. Has anyone ever climbed it or considered it that can give me some advice?
You need to look at this as a 5 year (at least) goal. Contact a good expedition company that has a excellent record on Everest. Tell them your goal and they will tell you what you need to do as far as climbing over the next few years. Killamanjaro is good place to start. It is 19340 feet and requires no technical skills. You will get your feet wet and see if you like it. You need to get some real experience in the technical aspects after that. By the way, plan on spending at least $75,000 of the trip up Everest when you are ready. Take your time and see it as a long term goal. When you get there, remember the summit is only half way. You still have to get down. Most people die on the way down because they forget this simple truth. Go for it and good luck.
How much would it cost to fly out to Tanzania and go up with or without a guide? Can you hike up without a guide? I assume I could stay a couple weeks and do some running while I'm out there.
Cincy Runner wrote:
My best running days are behind me and I am looking for greater challenges. I have never done any climbing, but consider myself a pretty good endurance athlete. I have run 2:33, 1:11, 31:12, and 15:09. I also finished a half iron man. I want to climb Everest, but don't even know how to start. Has anyone ever climbed it or considered it that can give me some advice?
You are the equivalent of the fat girl, who has never run a step in her life except to the refrigerator, who one day wakes up and says "hey it will be cool to run a marathon!!!!".
edward teach wrote:
How much would it cost to fly out to Tanzania and go up with or without a guide? Can you hike up without a guide? I assume I could stay a couple weeks and do some running while I'm out there.
If you fly to Tanzania, if you don't sleep, it'd take about 100 days to walk to Kathmandu, then figure another several weeks to get to base camp.
Click walking:
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Dar+es+Salaam,+Tanzania/Kathmandu,+Nepal/@12.6793476,37.1603845,4z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x185c4bae169bd6f1:0x940f6b26a086a1dd!2m2!1d39.283333!2d-6.8!1m5!1m1!1s0x39eb198a307baabf:0xb5137c1bf18db1ea!2m2!1d85.333333!2d27.7!3e2
frogs wrote:
Everest is a joke now. Find a real mountain. "Climbing" everest today is like "running" a marathon being driven in a golf cart. Unless you are climbing the un-commercial routes, west ridge, southwest face, north face, etc. But you are not climbing those because you "don't even know how to start."
I am with the others here. Spend about ten, twenty years learning about real alpinism and gradually build up to greater goals. Or just be like any rich douchebag and pay a guide service 85 grand to tow you to the top and back down, carry your gear, set up your tent, cook your meals, and put a little mint on your sleepingbag every night. But if you do it that way there is nothing "great" about the challenge and you'd be equally as big a tool as if you'd saved your money and simply lied to all your friends that you'd climbed everest, when really you were just hiding out in a comfort suites in Cheboygan for two weeks.
This is a tremendous exaggeration. Everest is a huge challenge for anyone, regardless of their experience level. You're dealing with -20F temperatures, 80 mph winds, and killing altitude, for weeks on end. Anyone who does it is tough as nails regardless of whether they're being guided up the southeast ridge with an army of sherpas or soloing the pinnacles without oxygen.
Real men, like Gabe Walker and myself, climb K2.
bigtool05 wrote:
frogs wrote:Everest is a joke now. Find a real mountain. "Climbing" everest today is like "running" a marathon being driven in a golf cart. Unless you are climbing the un-commercial routes, west ridge, southwest face, north face, etc. But you are not climbing those because you "don't even know how to start."
I am with the others here. Spend about ten, twenty years learning about real alpinism and gradually build up to greater goals. Or just be like any rich douchebag and pay a guide service 85 grand to tow you to the top and back down, carry your gear, set up your tent, cook your meals, and put a little mint on your sleepingbag every night. But if you do it that way there is nothing "great" about the challenge and you'd be equally as big a tool as if you'd saved your money and simply lied to all your friends that you'd climbed everest, when really you were just hiding out in a comfort suites in Cheboygan for two weeks.
This is a tremendous exaggeration. Everest is a huge challenge for anyone, regardless of their experience level. You're dealing with -20F temperatures, 80 mph winds, and killing altitude, for weeks on end. Anyone who does it is tough as nails regardless of whether they're being guided up the southeast ridge with an army of sherpas or soloing the pinnacles without oxygen.
There is exaggeration and sarcasm, but you know exactly what means so get out of your "applaud the effort" mode.
The douchbag is no different than the guy who wants to scratch a marathon off his bucket list, "runs" one in 6 hours and runs around showing off his finishers medal and you know it.
Everest is something you train for for years before you can even understand what makes it special and are truly physically and mentally ready to do it.
calling a spade a fork wrote:
calling a trowel a trowel wrote:Over 3,500 people have successfully summited the 29,029 ft. Himalayan mountain peak Everest. Only 1,300 or so men have covered a timed mile in under four minutes.
I once did an untimed mile in under 4 minutes.
Congratulations Alex!
Climb Denali first and then you might be ready for Everest.
It's traffic jam up there whether you come up on the Nepal side or the Tibetan side. Big backups at the Hillary step or the second step.
A friend of mine climbed Everest back before the crowds. In the 1980's. He was a good runner. I've lost touch with him, but I remember talking to him quite a bit before and after.
Remember. Climbing Everest is a business these days. Pick a good organization to take you up and back.
Screw that. You wouldn't get me past the deadly Khumbu Icefall for a million dollars.
edward teach wrote:
How much would it cost to fly out to Tanzania and go up with or without a guide? Can you hike up without a guide? I assume I could stay a couple weeks and do some running while I'm out there.
I'm talking about flying to Tanzania and going up Kilimanjaro, although walking from Tanzania to Nepal would be pretty cool if I could somehow avoid getting arrested in Iran or Saudi Arabia or Pakistan.
Try this as your first marathon and get a taste of Everest at the same time.
Go climb Rainier with RMI. If that's a positive experience, then go climb Denali with RMI. That will require an "expedition school" where you learn about things like crevasse rescue and avalanche conditions. The school lasts a week and is held on the slopes of Rainier over the winter. Obviously aerobic conditioning and the ability to "hang" are plusses, but high altitude mountain climbing involves a lot of hard manual labor, also. You may have climbed for 5 or 6 hours, but when you get to camp then you have to cut snow-blocks for two hours to erect wind barriers for the tents. You will also be hauling very heavy weight on your back (60-70 lbs) in conditions where the available O2 levels are 30 to 70% less than what they are at sea-level. Another thing is that above 17K, the human body has difficulty digesting food, so it becomes harder for some people to stay properly nourished & fueled at altitude. I climbed Denali in 2006. It took 15 days to summit and two days to descend. It was the hardest physical experience I've ever had, but immensely rewarding.
Of course I know that there have been thousands of people who have climbed Everest. I was wondering, more specifically, has anyone on this message board climbed Everest? I think most people got what I was saying. When I say I haven't done any mountain climbing, I mean I haven't scaled up a cliff. I have "climbed" half dome which was the equivalent if walking slightly up hill for a day, camping out, then walking back down. I guess my real question is: how much actual climbing is there? Or is it just a very long walk up hill dealing with lack of oxygen, cold, and avalanches?
luv2run wrote:
Cincy Runner wrote:My best running days are behind me and I am looking for greater challenges. I have never done any climbing, but consider myself a pretty good endurance athlete. I have run 2:33, 1:11, 31:12, and 15:09. I also finished a half iron man. I want to climb Everest, but don't even know how to start. Has anyone ever climbed it or considered it that can give me some advice?
Nope, no one ever has. It was all filmed on a sound stage.
Cincy Runner wrote:
I guess my real question is: how much actual climbing is there?
Cincy Runner wrote:.
You know, because I'm looking for as little real climbing as possible. I'm trying to put a dangerous accomplishment on my resume without taking any real risk.
not all the way... the story of my life
svbnm wrote:
bigtool05 wrote:This is a tremendous exaggeration. Everest is a huge challenge for anyone, regardless of their experience level. You're dealing with -20F temperatures, 80 mph winds, and killing altitude, for weeks on end. Anyone who does it is tough as nails regardless of whether they're being guided up the southeast ridge with an army of sherpas or soloing the pinnacles without oxygen.
There is exaggeration and sarcasm, but you know exactly what means so get out of your "applaud the effort" mode.
The douchbag is no different than the guy who wants to scratch a marathon off his bucket list, "runs" one in 6 hours and runs around showing off his finishers medal and you know it.
Everest is something you train for for years before you can even understand what makes it special and are truly physically and mentally ready to do it.
More ridiculous exaggeration. It is orders of magnitude more challenging than running a 6 hour marathon and YOU know it.
You guys are only looking at this through a competitive lense, treating mountain climbing as if it were some contest. And of course you're correct that it doesn't take any special mountain climbing ability to climb Everest nowadays, just as it doesn't take any special running ability to run a 4-hour marathon. But forget about that, take a step back, and think about the actual experience of climbing the highest mountain in the world. Think about what it's like to walk across a rickety ladder over a crevasse a hundred feet deep. Think about what it's like to shimmy across the exposed rock between the 1st and 2nd steps knowing that a thin rope is the only thing stopping you from plummeting 10,000 feet down the North Face. Think about what it's like to pass by the frozen corpses of those who came before you. Think about what it's like to see an avalanche swoop down and kill 16 people in the blink of an eye or see someone from your team get cerebral edema, collapse in the snow and never wake up. Think about what it's like to spend weeks wasting away as your body slowly digests itself.
So don't give me this hardo bullshit comparing climbing Everest to completing a marathon. I have the utmost respect for anyone who's climbed Everest no matter how much support they had.
I was in your situation about 15 yrs ago, with similar PR's. I am not an avid backwoods person but segued from running to hiking and (light) climbing and went up most of the Cascades no problem. I thought about Everest. After some debate I asked myself why I really wanted to do it. To say I'd done it(yes),have stories to tell(yes) "Next Challenge" mentality (Yes). I could afford it. However I thought long and hard and eventually looked at the benefits and decided that , even then (and even more so now) it's no big deal anymore. I have met people who have gone up the Sherpa route and I basically thought cool but...'meh'.
Everest now is where running a marathon was in the '70's. Still something of a wow factor but amongst active types - no big deal.
For the $ you can have many more satisfying experiences and collect more entertaining stories in other ways - after all, like photos, the interesting ones are about people not views.
and this is only the line for the porta john.
