Ultra Runner Kilian Jornet is Trying to Climb Mount Everest

His Aconcagua FKT has been smashed with an 8% margin... being amongst the best trail runners is one thing, high altitude mountaineering is another shite.

bbc wrote:

Thank you. September is post-monsoon. Above 8000m can bring issues, but he'll be in and out of the death zone before HACE or HAPE will set in. My guess is he'll acclimate by ascending and descending before he moves back to base camp to try for the record.

You are so wrong. Oxygen deprivation doesn't work that way above 8000 m. This isn't something where you can just dip in and out like a track run.

Spotter of Dumb Dumb wrote:

Flounder wrote:

The effects of oxygen deprivation become exponentially worse given a linear amount of elevation gain. That's how nature works.

But you can continue calling people names if you disagree with them. It illustrated your level of intelligence.

It's pretty obvious that you heard the words "linear" and "exponential" at one time, perhaps in school, and tried to apply it blindly to this case. You can disagree with science all you want, it doesn't make you correct. I'm not the one that made up physics.

Are you Jon Orange? I ask based on your inability to think outside of something you might have read online.

I am an engineer so it is easier for me to explain in graphs than words. Maybe you would understand the concept better if I said it is a decay function. Whether growth or decay is still an exponential change.

The tables on this page give the specific numbers regarding the reduction in effective O2 as elevation increases and if graphed illustrate what I am trying to say.

If you are so smart, why don't you explain it to us rather than call someone dumb?

balls mcgee wrote:

If you are so smart, why don't you explain it to us rather than call someone dumb?

Because he is full of BS.

It's funny, the chart he linked to shows that the effective oxygen levels remain somewhat linear, all the way up past the summit of Everest. I doubt he is really an engineer. There is nothing exponential about oxygen levels like he tried to speculate.

If he really is an engineer (highly doubtful) I'd hate for him to be working on any kind of project that requires basic mathematics. Scary.

Superior Intellect wrote:

He is not acclimatized for 8000+ m and he has no experience at those altitudes. Going above that is not the same as going above other elevations. Your body begins to die and you lose a lot of ability to think clearly and frostbite and hypothermia are a lot easier to get because your body can't generate enough heat due to lack of oxygen. He is just another white privileged tourist that think they are bigger than Jesus.

What are you talking about? Plenty of people have summited Everest without oxygen. KJ has been doing massive amounts of acclimatisation prior to even getting to the mountain, far more than many successful Everest summiters, and he's currently doing a lot more before he goes for the summit - again, more so than a great many other people who have successfully summited Everest without his level of preparation.

There are a number of factors working in his favour and a lot of it has to do with excessive preparation. This isn't even the first time they have gone to the Himalayas preparing for this project. He not only has his own immense physical ability (and that 100% does make a difference), but all of his mountaineering training (do you think Denali is easy?) and altitude training to date. Maybe most importantly, in his favor is the huge amount of money behind this project, far more than any typical mountaineering effort. There are a lot of people who have been working on the logistics of this and who are very geared to making sure will be successful. Included in that is assembling a hell of an expert team. Just Google Jordi Tosas and read about all of his experiences and accomplishments on K2, Lhotse, etc. crazy difficult climbs without oxygen in alpine style. If you truly believe you know better than Jordi, please give us your climbing resume.

Yes, there is always an element of risk no matter how good any climber is, but, if you were going to bet on a team of people to pull off what they are attempting to do, this is today probably pretty close to the ideal team. If there is a hint of things going bad (and they have the experience to know), you can bet they will just turn around. They still draw attention and profit with the effort, just more profit with success. KJ dying doesn't help anybody's financial bottom line - and that, maybe more than any other reason, should give you confidence that nobody is going up there without being prepared and as certain as they can be for success. They aren't spending this kind of money to have KJ die.

Kilian ain't no pvssyfooter pavement runner.

Are you Jon Orange? I ask based on your inability to think outside of something you might have read online.

I am an engineer so it is easier for me to explain in graphs than words. Maybe you would understand the concept better if I said it is a decay function. Whether growth or decay is still an exponential change.

The tables on this page give the specific numbers regarding the reduction in effective O2 as elevation increases and if graphed illustrate what I am trying to say.

http://www.higherpeak.com/altitudechart.html

Hold up. Also an engineer here, but I'm not following you. Not saying you're wrong, just not following.

Based on the data you provided, climbing from 0 to 4,000 ft. has a greater impact on effective oxygen % than climbing from 25,000 ft. to 29,000 ft.

Between 4,000 and 0 ft.

17.9 - 20.9 = -3.0

Between 29,000 and 25,000 ft.

6.9 - 8.1 = -1.2

So wouldn't the opposite of what you're saying be true? Because it's a decay function, wouldn't the effective oxygen % be affected LESS as you go higher?

This has nothing to do with what Dumb Dumb was posting (these ARE exponential changes vs. linear changes), but I just wanted to clarify the point that you're making.

Either way, I think KJ is in over his head. The guy is unreal in the mountains, but 29,000 ft. is a whole different beast. Hoping he will be smart enough to turn back before the muddled thinking of 28,000+ ft. and/or HAPE/HACE sets in. Would hate to see something happen to such an amazing trail runner and mountaineer.

Emelie wrote:

Kilian ain't no pvssyfooter pavement runner.

Zing!!!!!!!

I remember when KJ dunked over Hakeem!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kidpegzfFc

"That was good, little man!"

Flounder wrote:

I am an engineer so it is easier for me to explain in graphs than words.

Is that what you use for birth control.

Yes you are correct. That is exactly what a decay function shows. The amount of O2 decays toward zero. Some of the data in the table seems a bit questionable but it wasn't enough to effect the curve.

I plotted it in excel and the curve came out exponential as expected. It could appear to be linear at first glance because the curve doesn't decay toward zero very quickly. Think of putting the O2 on the Y axis and elevation on the X-axis.

Because there are fewer 02 molecules left after each elevation step change, the total amount lost is less but the percentage reduction is the same.

I hope Kílian Jornet and his team break the record and return safely.

That is so exciting not wrote:

Flounder wrote:

I am an engineer so it is easier for me to explain in graphs than words.

Is that what you use for birth control.

Hi Coach! Been waiting to use that one for a while haven't you!

No actual climbers consider Everest a "technical" mountain. It is the altitude (which he has been there acclimating to for over a month) and the weather that make it hard, not the required "climbing" skills.

with a name like Killian he won't make it

The altitude is a killer there for sure, but the real killer mountains are K2, Annapurna, & Kanchenjunga.

maybe he'll get snow blindness. or frostbite and lose some digits. or pulmonary edema. or fall down the 3000m icy col

those are just some of the risks

what an arrogant idiot. it often times doesn't matter how fit you are. some bodies can handle the altitude, others cannot and don't make it past 25,000'

i hope he survives but is terribly humbled.

Isn't the reason no one does the Great Couloir/Norton Couloir is because it requires perfect conditions like fresh snowfall to be passable?

Wouldn't expecting Killian to attempt that be unreasonable?

asdfasdf wrote:

with a name like Killian he won't make it

Fortunately, his name isn't spelled that way assface.