I only respect people who risk their lives and welfare for arbitrary goals entirely unrelated to the welfare of their loved ones.
People who drink rat poison for fun, who drive with brake lines they severed themselves, who swim the English channel while drunk -- these men are heroes.
English channel swims are usually done by fat people who can float right across with the current. Drunk wouldn't stop them. They could fall asleep and still get there
Update: I spoke live to Adrian Hayes. He is fine and in Kathmandu. He didn't have altitude sickness as originally reported, but was bumped off a high ridge by another climber and suffered a severely bruised arm, which impaire...
Wow witty did you come up with the thanks Karen yourself? You have to be a stand-up comedian or something because I literally can't stop laughing at your comment, I mean you should write for SNL or something!
Sherpa refers to the ethnicity, I don’t think Smith is an ethnicity.
Traditionally Sherpas have just one or more given names, family names are not common. If the need arises through contact with other cultures, many Sherpas use the term Sherpa as a surname.
In more interesting Everest news, there was a recent unsuccessful FKT attempt by Tyler Andrews (another former DIII runner), who was on pace to break the speed record but turned around 6,000 ft from the top because of gear issues and weather. He will be making another attempt in the near future.
Mountaineer and endurance athlete, Tyler Andrews, took off yesterday from Mt. Everest base camp in an attempt to break the round-trip speed record to the summit
Well in 2024 a total of 860 people climbed Everest and 9 people died trying to do so (which was lower than most years). So around 1 in 90 died trying to climb it. Therefore, I wouldn't describe it as an 'easy' accomplishment.
Though it would be funny if Nick got within a couple of meters of the summit and found Mohammed Aman out of his head on drugs, blocking his path, lol.
Without sherpas, oxygen, or a well-defined route with fixed ropes, climbing Everest is harder than running a sub 4 mile.
But if you have all that, it's easier than running a 5:30 mile provided that you have the money and vacation time. Heck, an 80 year old man and a 73 year old woman have summited Everest, and there are no 80 year old men or 73 year old women who've run a 5:30 mile or its 1500 equivalent.
I think Ed Whitlock ran 3:55 at like 80 years of age or something.
In more interesting Everest news, there was a recent unsuccessful FKT attempt by Tyler Andrews (another former DIII runner), who was on pace to break the speed record but turned around 6,000 ft from the top because of gear issues and weather. He will be making another attempt in the near future.
The Sherpas use O2. I would hardly call them tourists. Many great western climbers have used O2. Hall, Fischer, Venables, etc.
The point was that summiting Everest with supplemental O2 doesn’t represent a great athletic or mountaineering achievement.
Stephen Venables is an elite mountaineer with many first ascents, who among other achievements summited Everest without O2 partly via a new route on the East face.
Scott Fischer, also not counting among the top elite climbers of his era, does have an impressive track record at high altitude climbing with both Everest and K2 without supplemental O2.
Rob Hall never counted among the “great western climbers” and is more known as a ver skilled and successful commercial outfitter having lead many clients to the top of Everest. All his own summits on Everest and K2 were done with supplemental O2.
Most Sherpas indeed use supplemental O2 on Everest, which does clearly not represent an extraordinary athletic achievement. Most Sherpas do however use less O2 than their guided clients and carry a heavier load, so their performance is somehow stronger but not extraordinary either. Likewise, a 3h Kenyan marathon runner is a good runner but not an exceptional athlete. A few Sherpas do however belong to the elite mountaineers community.
In technical terms, climbing Everest via the normal route on both Nepalese and Tibetan side doesn’t require exceptional skills. Being ok at jumaring is usually sufficient.
The Sherpas use O2. I would hardly call them tourists. Many great western climbers have used O2. Hall, Fischer, Venables, etc.
The point was that summiting Everest with supplemental O2 doesn’t represent a great athletic or mountaineering achievement.
Stephen Venables is an elite mountaineer with many first ascents, who among other achievements summited Everest without O2 partly via a new route on the East face.
Scott Fischer, also not counting among the top elite climbers of his era, does have an impressive track record at high altitude climbing with both Everest and K2 without supplemental O2.
Rob Hall never counted among the “great western climbers” and is more known as a ver skilled and successful commercial outfitter having lead many clients to the top of Everest. All his own summits on Everest and K2 were done with supplemental O2.
Most Sherpas indeed use supplemental O2 on Everest, which does clearly not represent an extraordinary athletic achievement. Most Sherpas do however use less O2 than their guided clients and carry a heavier load, so their performance is somehow stronger but not extraordinary either. Likewise, a 3h Kenyan marathon runner is a good runner but not an exceptional athlete. A few Sherpas do however belong to the elite mountaineers community.
In technical terms, climbing Everest via the normal route on both Nepalese and Tibetan side doesn’t require exceptional skills. Being ok at jumaring is usually sufficient.
The sherpas that, using supp. O2, open the route set the fixed lines on the South Col route yearly are doing something more impressive in terms "athletic or mountaineering" performance than anyone that follows regardless of O2 use.
