Tempting death has apparently always been a kick for some folks, but climbing up a 29k feet tall rock on the other side of the world seems extreme to me.?ÿ I'm not so sure there's enough air up there to even light a match...and a fire might be a good thing to have; it's apparently cold too.?ÿ And there's a long line up there now of crazy people seeing how long they can hold their breath.?ÿ?ÿToo many Marlboros in my youth I guess, I can't imagine trying to survive at that altitude without a pressurized cabin around me.?ÿ I got dizzy the last time I went over Trailridge into the RMNP...and drinking beer in Leadville, CO almost required medical attention.?ÿ (BTW..I did finish the pitcher....my brother Holden drove us back. )
I've done crazy things in my life.?ÿ At the age of 16 (on a dare) I took a junky Triumph motorsickle to 100 mph to prove it could be do it.?ÿ The crazier thing was the speedo didn't work so a buddy of mine drove along side me in his 1968 Camaro to document the affair.?ÿ While decelerating (I was doing about 50) after my accomplishment the front tire went flat.?ÿ I had "spun" tire off the rim.?ÿ I kept the bike upright and avoided any scrapes.?ÿ We put the bike in the back of the Camaro to get it home.?ÿ I watch the bike races nowadays at the Isle of Man with horror.?ÿ
I guess about the only thing I can compare to climbing Everest was exploring the Alpine Tunnel around timberline up above St. Elmo in 1962 or 1963.?ÿ?ÿIt was an old railroad tunnel over the Divide in Colorado.?ÿ Even though there had been rock slides at each end it was still "explorable" back then.?ÿ I think they blasted one end shut in '65 to keep people out of there...and God took care of the other end...probably for the better.
For some humans tempting death will always be a thrill I guess.?ÿ I'm just waiting for the first climber to fall to an untimely death while attempting a selfie at the summit.
As seen on social media (offered without comment or endorsement):
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"Hordes of narcissistic middle aged tech bros paying $100K to die as a douche-sicle on Mt Everest might be a problem, but like most problems it eventually solves itself. "
There are bodies on the mountain that have not been recovered and that will probably be their final resting place.
Think this is better way to go.
The really odd thing is apparently almost everybody that has died is still there, and several are able to be seen.?ÿ You literally have to climb or hike past dead bodies on your trek (several visible):
More than 300 people have died on Everest since 1932.
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I got dizzy the last time I went over Trailridge into the RMNP...and drinking beer in Leadville, CO almost required medical attention.
"12,183 feet - the highest point on Trail Ridge Road"
You did better than me.?ÿ I wasn't functional, barely enough energy to sit up, riding at 9400 ft, and that was after two days at 6000-7000 to acclimate and where I was doing fine.
Paden,
Nearly 20 years ago I spent a beautiful fall day at and above 13,000 ft.?ÿ My task for the day was to set and tie out accessories to several stone monuments I had found earlier. So, I fitted out my backpack with the accessories (18" long steel "T" fence posts), my instrument (my trusty T-2), tripod and tools and began traipsing around the mountainside.?ÿ Eleven hours later I was finished with the work (also finished mentally and physically).?ÿ I spent a lot of the time retracing my steps looking for my Brunton, hammer, cloth tape, field book, etc.
The anoxia was such that I was forgetting my equipment and scattering it across the tundra grass!?ÿ After that initial experience with anoxia stealing my memory at 13,000 (well below Mt. Everest's base camp) I added "mental checklist" to my field procedures.?ÿ I went through a mental check list to make sure ALL of my equipment had made it into the backpack before taking off to the next corner.?ÿ That worked for the most part....as long as I remembered to do the check list!?ÿ ?????ÿ
I cannot imagine spending any time in Everest's Death Zone!?ÿ Those guys and gals are flat out nuts!?ÿ Back in the late 1970s when I was a strapping young lad, I recall reading that the impossible happened on Mt. Everest, a successful ascent without supplemental oxygen!
On 8 May 1978, Reinhold Messner stood with Peter Habeler on the summit of Mount Everest; the first men known to climb Everest without the use of supplemental oxygen.
As seen on social media (offered without comment or endorsement):
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"Hordes of narcissistic middle aged tech bros paying $100K to die as a douche-sicle on Mt Everest might be a problem, but like most problems it eventually solves itself. "
hmm...Maybe the base camp would be a good location for a Starbucks.?ÿ
Gene,
I can relate. Last September on Monarch Pass (it's only about 11.5k I think) I ran all over the parking lot and up the side of the hill snapping pictures.?ÿ A half hour later I wound up back at the car and could hardly find the keys in my pocket.?ÿ I spent 10 minutes looking for my camera and it was hanging around my neck.?ÿ
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" I spent 10 minutes looking for my camera and it was hanging around my neck."
I've done that too, except it was at a Rock Concert (Marshall Tucker - lynyrd skynyrd). ?????ÿ
Paden,
I committed the mortal sin of surveyors at 11,350 ft.?ÿ I was working inside the mine.?ÿ The owner had drilled and blasted a stope above the main drift.?ÿ The vein was not very straight as as he worked his way up it corkscrewed around and deviated from vertical.?ÿ He finally got worried that the stope might be approaching the land surface, which was a scree slope.?ÿ I got the joyful task of scampering up and down the ladders and landings to measure the vertical height of the stope.?ÿ The top was approx. 150 feet above the sill of the drift and the last landing left me standing in an area about the size of a closet.
When I got back to the truck, I did the unthinkable.?ÿ I "temporarily" wedged the field book between the bumper and pickup box.?ÿ Of course, after I finished packing up everything else I forgot the field book.?ÿ Somewhere between Alma and Denver, it "unwedged" itself never to be seen again.?ÿ I enjoyed the next day redoing my work.
Anoxia is sneaky.?ÿ The longer you are there, the more it affects you and the less you are able to comprehend its effects.?ÿ Sorta like the problem of stupid folks not having the mental wherewithal to comprehend they're stupid.
I've done that too, except it was at a Rock Concert (Marshall Tucker - lynyrd skynyrd). ?????ÿ
I saw Marshall Tucker, The Allman Brothers (less Duane) and (I think) Joe Walsh at Texas Stadium in the summer of '74.?ÿ My hypoxia, probably like yours, was self-induced and had absolutely nothing to do with the altitude.?ÿ The next morning I woke up in the back of my friend's van on northbound I-35 at Lewisville.?ÿ
I was married at the time and forgot to tell the missus where I was going...she damn near cut off my yahoos after that.?ÿ She was a mean woman if you scorned her.?ÿ She use to go bear hunting with a fly swatter..
Paden,
I committed the mortal sin of surveyors at 11,350 ft.?ÿ I was working inside the mine.?ÿ The owner had drilled and blasted a stope above the main drift.?ÿ The vein was not very straight as as he worked his way up it corkscrewed around and deviated from vertical.?ÿ He finally got worried that the stope might be approaching the land surface, which was a scree slope.?ÿ I got the joyful task of scampering up and down the ladders and landings to measure the vertical height of the stope.?ÿ The top was approx. 150 feet above the sill of the drift and the last landing left me standing in an area about the size of a closet.
When I got back to the truck, I did the unthinkable.?ÿ I "temporarily" wedged the field book between the bumper and pickup box.?ÿ Of course, after I finished packing up everything else I forgot the field book.?ÿ Somewhere between Alma and Denver, it "unwedged" itself never to be seen again.?ÿ I enjoyed the next day redoing my work.
Anoxia is sneaky.?ÿ The longer you are there, the more it affects you and the less you are able to comprehend its effects.?ÿ Sorta like the problem of stupid folks not having the mental wherewithal to comprehend they're stupid.
Stupid folks are still stupid no matter how much oxygen you give them. 😉
When I was a young'n we use to scamper in and out of a lot of horizontal shafts we would find up in mountains, stayed away from the vertical shafts.?ÿ Some were short due to cave-ins, some still had mine cars rusted to the tracks.?ÿ Somewhere in the garage I've got an old porcelain sign from the Colorado Department of Mines and Highways (or something like that?) stating something along the lines of "CAUTION: DYNAMITE - STAY CLEAR - Operation of two-way radios in the 49 to 52 megacycle (kilocycle?) range is discouraged."
We stayed out of those holes..
I've done crazy things in my life.?ÿ At the age of 16 (on a dare) I took a junky Triumph motorsickle to 100 mph to prove it could be do it.?ÿ The crazier thing was the speedo didn't work so a buddy of mine drove along side me in his 1968 Camaro to document the affair.?ÿ
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Just after I got out of high school two of my friends bought Mopar muscle cars.?ÿ One was a Charger like the one in Bullitt and the other was a 440 GTX.?ÿ The friend with the Charger knew it would go at least 120 because that was all the speedometer showed.?ÿ The GTX showed 160 on it so he agreed to follow the Charger and see how fast it WOULD go.?ÿ Just as they passed 130 the right rear tire blew out on the Charger. It started yawing back and forth across the road and spun at least two 180s before it slid to a stop.?ÿ The only damage was a destroyed tire, wheel, brake drum and a pretty good scratch down the quarter panel.
I do believe he had to change his underwear though.
The Good Lord looks after fools or I'd have been dead long ago.
Andy
"Douche-sicle" is now part of my lexicon.
Thank you.
My wife made the trek to Everest base camp on the Nepali side about 10 years ago.?ÿ After hearing all the stories about sleeping in huts that never got above 20?øF, I was glad I wasn't able to go on the trip.
"I saw Marshall Tucker, The Allman Brothers (less Duane) and (I think) Joe Walsh at Texas Stadium in the summer of '74."
I grew up in Daytona Beach and a friend of mine knew Duane and Greg. He played treble guitar as a fill in when they were the "Almond Joys", (they played at teenage dance joints and adult bars around town) I met them once when I dropped my friend off at their house to practice. I felt fortunate to have grown up there (it was small then) especially laying claim to having seen the last Daytona "beach race" and the first race at Dayton International Speedway.?ÿ 1958 and 1959 respectfully, I was 8 and 9.
The concert I mentioned was at the Jacksonville Coliseum. By the time LS came on the place was so smoke filled you could barely see the stage. There is no way everybody wasn't stoned, cops and EMT's included, although the EMT's did have to stretcher a few lightweights out of the place. It was a blast and that's one concert I'll remember even after I croak the bucket. (thank you Jerry Mathers).
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my signature line for in-house email....
not quite as motivational as Maya Angelou or trendy with the cause celeb logo that all the high speed-low drag cube-hopping yes-men sport, but hey.....
the things jaded curmudgeons can do when 30 year longevity is in the rearview mirror....?ÿ
I grew up in Daytona Beach and a friend of mine knew Duane and Greg. He played treble guitar as a fill in when they were the "Almond Joys", (they played at teenage dance joints and adult bars around town) I met them once when I dropped my friend off at their house to practice.?ÿ
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Did you know Allison Miner? Wonderful woman with a beautiful soul that left life much too soon.
Beerlegger on Everest Peak a year from today!!
See y'all there.
