I Do Not Want To Climb Mt. Everest

I fancy myself an adventurous person.  Novelty and the pursuit of new experiences tend to be a main motivator for my recreational choices.  However, my 'adventurous spirit' rapidly diminishes when it comes to heights and extreme sports.  Maybe I can blame this on understanding my physical limitations (hello, klutzville!!) but honestly- I'm just chicken shit when it comes to things involving heights or mountains.  Snowboarding begs for concussions, Mountain Biking would be suicide, and Mountain Climbing is completely unfathomable. 

Readers of this fine blog- I can't even walk upright at Disneyland.

Thing is, I totally get the adventure-seeker mindset.  I understand the whole concept of 'I feel a need to climb it/slide down it/ jump out of it because it is there.'  But I am hyper-aware of the fact that my body cannot do extreme things and will most likely break in the trial.  Since I don't have a need to seek out mountaineering information (well, until now), I haven't ever been privy to the ethical questions of mountaineering while in a death zone.

Gizmodo linking to this blog post fucked. my. shit. up. 

Its a graphic account (pics of decaying bodies) of Mount Everest's 'death zone' - or part of the mtn. that exceeds 8,000 miles in altitude.  According to the post, being above 8,000 miles does crazy shit to your mind and body.  Stratosphere, yo!  You use your oxygen before your body can replenish its supply- so you have roughly 48 hours to get to the top and back to camp before you meet your end.
I think the 48 hour window is only possible through the use of oxygen canisters, so you have even less time if there's an oxygen mishap.  Lots of people (157, I think) died up there in plain view- and nobody is willing to risk dragging their corpses back down the mountain.  In the case of a female mountaineer that died in 1979- a Sherpa and a Nepalese police officer died trying to bring her remains back down.  So...to climb up, you step over and around well-preserved bodies. 

This article was rough for many reasons, first and foremost being the story of David Sharp (a mountaineer who died on his ascent of Everest in 2006).  A group of 40 climbers (headed by Mark Inglis) walked right past him, completely ignoring him even though he was clearly in distress.  Nobody wanted to risk turning around and possibly losing their own chance at the summit.   According to video footage of the event, the climbers actually had to step AROUND him to keep going upwards.  These dudes gave interviews after the fact, and everyone had some bullshit answer about going crazy from the altitude, or not being able to successfully rescue Sharp.  Inglis even made up lies about radioing (word?) base camp to ask for help.  Base camp had no calls from Inglis recorded.

Well, after reading around, it seems like old skool pro mountaineers like Sir Edmond Hillary and Juan Oiarzabal were disgusted by Inglis and the rest.  A rescue would have been perilous, but totally possible - as evidenced by a rescue in almost the same situation only three days after Sharp died.  So many comments on these blog posts offer being 'in the zone' and 'in a fight for survival' as valid excuses to let their fellow climbers die.  It seems like such skewed priorities.  I mean, nobody is forcing you up the mountain.  Its a fucking hobby.  You aren't advancing science or human discovery at this point.  Woo! You made it up there, great job!  Now someone's dead.  Anyway, climbing Mt. Everest is totally uncool if you're a serious mountaineer now.  Its like the Dave Matthews Band of mountains.  If you want the Aphex Twin- climb this.

According to here, you can pay $75,000 to climb Everest with little to no training.  Sherpas will hoist you up on the permanent ropes installed to guide climbers to the summit.  As a result, people with no chops are crawling all up in Mount Everest and leaving garbage and gear and their own corpses in a nasty tourist trail.  This blows my mind almost as much as people leaving a man to die.  Why are people allowed to buy their way up??  Its seems like a senseless risk of Sherpa life!   Sherpas have to carry you up when your legs fall down from exhaustion.  In the case of Inglis' group - nobody was willing to let their Sherpas go help Sharp.  I mean, lend a dying man a Sherpa.. jeez. 

So, if there was a moral question to punctuate my ramblings, it would be- "Should you be ready to die before attempting to summit Everest? And is it even worth it to climb Mount Everest if you knew that your actions resulted in another climber dying? and How much does your hobby mean to you?

And the other crazy thing I learned today- there's SO MUCH garbage on top of Everest.

All the white people climb with plastic bottles, and gore-tex, and oxygen tanks- and pitch the stuff as its no longer needed.  Apparently, a bad-ass Sherpa and an apologetic Swede are leading a group up the mountain to try and clear out the trash.  Bodies aren't on the agenda unless they are in the direct climbing path.

Spooky.