This picture was taken ten days ago on Hillary Step leading to the summit of Mount Everest. When I first saw it, I assumed that it had been cleverly photo-shopped. But no - this is reality. A hundred climbers are queuing to get to the top, like bargain hunters outside an electrical store on New Year's Day waiting for the sale to begin.
Waiting around up there on the world's tallest peak cannot be a good thing. The air is so thin and it is awfully cold. Being up there can do funny things to your mind. Surely the climbers need to keep moving, get to the summit and then turn back, heading down, hopefully, to safety. There should be no queuing.
Other thoughts cross my mind about that picture. Firstly, the climbers all appear to be wearing state-of-the-art climbing apparel - lightweight and well-insulated. It's very different from the gear that Norgay Tenzing and Edmund Hillary were wearing when they made the first successful ascent on May 29th, 1953. There were certainly no queues that day.
Most modern climbers approach Everest from the Nepalese side. They will have flown to Nepal from faraway countries with yet more money in their banks and a burning desire to stand on top of the world's tallest mountain (8,848 m 29,029 ft). Later, if they survive, they will be able to tell their friends and families that they have crossed Everest off their bucket lists -"It was awesome!"
To secure permission to scale the mountain a climber has to buy a pass from the Nepalese government. It costs around £8000 or US$10,000. Then there are local mountain guides and carriers to pay along with insurance, food supplies, tents, sleeping bags etcetera. Getting to the top of Everest does not come cheap.
I will probably never see Everest - let alone stand on its lofty peak - but it has a place in my heart. Back in 1943 my father visited Everest base camp while walking and climbing in the high Himalayas. Ten years later I was born - in the very same year that Tenzing and Hillary reached the top. Subsequently - in the spring of 1970 - I met Lord Hunt at a reception in St James's Palace, London. John Hunt was the leader of the 1953 expedition.
There's something quite distasteful about the top picture but that distaste is hard to pinpoint. Perhaps it's to do with human urges to conquer all that the natural world has to offer. Perhaps it's to do with western affluence and having funds to squander on such a selfish enterprise. Perhaps it's the recognition that there are many other high peaks in The Himalayas - maybe not quite as tall but much quieter, just as challenging but rarely climbed.
Another thing about that mountain is that it can so easily take your life. Eleven climbers have died on Everest this season. What about the loved ones left behind? What are they supposed to think?
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| Chrisopher Kulish (62) - an American lawyer and now Everest's latest fatality |
From "The Denver Post" - yesterday:-
I just can't comprehend why people would risk their lives to do this, they are like a bunch of lemmings. I remember watching the Everest film and wondering at the futility of it all. Not to mention all the rubbish they leave behind. Crazy.
ReplyDeleteWolds Top near Normanby le Wold is the tallest point in Lincolnshire at 551 feet. I wonder if you and Paul would be able to scale that dizzy height.
DeleteI shan't bother if there's a queue.
DeleteI echo your sentiments. A self-indulgent exercise to tick off another item on the "bucket list". If there are queues to reach the summit I don't understand how climbing Everest even feels like a special experience. On the other hand I hope some of the funds climbers are paying to the local government and the economy are making a difference to local people.
ReplyDeleteYes. Let's hope so. It is a kind of modern day imperialism in miniature.
DeleteAnd there's plane loads of the arriving each day!
ReplyDeleteDesire to achieve a goal is great but......more money than sense I think.
Also from reports I heard today, the guides are part of the problem, not having the proper training...and experience.
Where profit is involved, safety will often go on the back burner.
DeleteYes, YP, that image a dispiriting sight. Nose on tail.
ReplyDeleteOne of my uncles, a pilot, (my mother's brothers all hell raisers in their different ways) climbed mountains. By himself or with, max, one or two friends - most certainly not a herd.
Second, as you ask: What about those you, potentially, leave behind? It is why I have such disdain for women journalists (not that I don't mourn their demise) who put themselves at the forefront of investigative journalism in war zones, leaving their little ones behind. Women, once mothers, can't "have it all". Do one, reporting, footloose and fancy free; do the other, procreate and minimize risk of orphaning your children unnecessarily.
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Should we applaud foolhardiness that masquerades as bravery?
DeleteGoodness, it is utterly ridiculous. Get to the top of the queue, take a selfie, then move on!
ReplyDeleteI've read there are corporate teams who attempt the climb as an extreme form of a team-building exercise. They must surely be giving no thought to the sherpas (and thus their families) who imperil their own lives looking after such self-indulgent Western thrillseekers. Perhaps they believe that the fees they pay are adequate compensation, and isn't it wonderful for the communities, etc. It is said that the litter is appalling now and I've also read that the dead have to just lay where they fall when the conditions are adverse.
But the pioneering mountaineers were a class of their own. Primitive climbing equipment notwithstanding, it seemed then a bit more "genuine", to my mind, to be conquering the elements than what your photo suggests.
Interesting reflections Pip. Thank you.
DeleteI remember looking down on Everest from an aircraft window and thinking why would people want to do that? It looked so forbidding, even from my comfortable seat with glass of bubbles to hand.
ReplyDeleteYou were drinking a can of Tizer?
DeleteIrn Bru....
DeleteI read that same article. I don't get the enthusiasm for climbing Everest (or going to other "extreme" places, for that matter). It's dangerous and a ridiculous waste of resources, and how could it possibly be worth it if you're up there with 100 other people?!
ReplyDeleteHave you ever climbed Britton Hill? Florida's highest point at 345 feet. You won't need oxygen for that one.
DeleteThere are even queues here now in Snowdon, Nevis, Helvellyn ... I'm lucky to have enjoyed these places a long time ago. Now, why bother when there are so many alternatives? It wasn't queues that I went for.
ReplyDeleteWere there women up there Tasker?
DeleteOh dear! Do you need oxygen while blogging?
DeleteNo, whisky...or better still whiskey.
DeleteYou (and all your commenters) have put words to what I feel but couldn't be bothered writing about! I'm not really sure there is even any adrenaline rush for Everest climbers these days. Why would there be?
ReplyDeleteThe highest point in Nova Scotia is at White Hill Lake in Victoria County, and is part of the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. It stands 530 metres above sea level and is 17 kilometres west of Ingonish. Have you been up there Jenny?
DeleteNo, but we have to drive over a peak that makes your ears pop whenever we visit our provincial capital city :)
DeleteYou should suck on a mint.
DeleteI've been up in the Austrian alps on a tourist bus once. Quite enough adventure for me!
ReplyDeleteWow! That's really scary... like crossing Antarctica with one dog and a sled.
DeleteI read an article about this yesterday, what saddened me is all the bodies from the past that are being trampled over by others hoping to conquer this mountain.
ReplyDeleteThat's so horrible.
DeleteIt's become a cash grab. People will pat big bucks for the chance to climb.
ReplyDeleteAfter patting the big bucks I guess they pay them.
DeleteSome will think I am as cold-hearted - as cold as the peak of Mt. Everest...but I am not.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I can find little sympathy...if any...for those who lose their lives when climbing the mountain - and similar escapades (probably not the correct description...foolhardy behaviour, maybe).
I may be dumb (I don't believe I am - in many things, anyway)...but I can see no point, no charm, no fun in physically trying to reach such heights. They make the decision to do so...the risks are theirs.
Those who do good work for charities...for those in need...on the ground...they will get my sympathy..and admiration. Not those who climb Everest - I shed no tears for them!
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/dedicated-mum-and-bubbly-kids-killed-in-highway-horror-remembered-20190528-p51s1r.html
DeleteThis is what saddens me greatly....the loss of four innocent little children....their mother and her four children...all under 10 years of age, killed in a head-on crash.
I also feel sorry for the 47 year old truck driver. He must live with the horror of that horrible collision for evermore.
DeleteI mourn for the father of the four children, the husband of their deceased mother, as well...for both truck drivers...for all involved, including the police and medicos who attended the horrific scene. What occurred is so distressing...heartbreaking beyond description.
DeleteIt looks more like a line up at Disneyland. Ride the Matterhorn!
ReplyDeleteI think the Disney Corporation now own Everest and they are planning a cable car ride up there with a restaurant and gift shop at the top. You will be able to get your photo taken on the summit with Mickey Mouse.
DeleteToo funny!
DeleteI suppose it just boils down to ego. There is a similar fetish for 'Munro Bagging' hills in Scotland.
ReplyDelete"When you’ve bagged all 282 Munros, you’re considered a Munroist. And that’s when you start getting a lot of knowing nods, kudos and respect."
Not from me, treat nature with respect and forget selfies.
Bagging Munros doesn't usually involve risking one's life and it could be seen as an excuse for hillwalking and keeping fit. I have bagged one Munro - Ben Nevis. Just another 281 to go.
DeleteIt's beyond my understanding but then a lot of things come into that category. By the way there are a great many eastern people with untold wealth these days: affluence is no longer just western. The weirdest, to my mind, statement in the whole post comes from the Facebook message quoted in the Denver Post. I wonder if the writer actually believed the first sentence.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point you make about affluence. An increasing number of Everest adventurers come from Japan, South Korea and China.
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