Stupidity on Mount Everest

Two more foolhardy people die on Mount Everest. One of them was one of these vegan cultists trying to prove she wasn't so weak from her crappy diet that she couldn't survive Everest. So much for that theory.


I am of the belief the mountain should have been closed to further mountaineering after Sir Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norgay successfully climbed it in 1953. Unfortunately, the Nepal economy heavily relies on these idiot mountaineers, many of whom have a ton of money and not a lot of experience, so the damage has been done.

More is here:

What must he have felt then, when he finally reached the pinnacle of the world Friday?

We may never know the answer, because Arnold died while experiencing altitude-related symptoms on his way back down the mountain, the first of two climbers killed on Everest this year.

Arnold had enough bottled oxygen with him, but he complained of weakness and died before he was able to reach lower altitude, Pasang Phurba, a representative of Arnold's Nepali guide company, told the Associated Press. A second climber from that team, Austalian Maria Strydom, died Saturday. More than 250 people have died climbing Mount Everest since 1953, many from altitude related illnesses.

It is really foolhardy shit, and worse still is the fact that people climb right over the top of the dead in order to pursue this insane quest.

The mountain is littered with the bodies of the dead. Many who die have to be left on the mountain because there is no way to successfully get them down from that altitude without risking the lives of others.

More about this "litter" is here. More than 200 corpses are up there for people to stare at and step over. All of these people are a lot less notable than George Mallory, who is featured at the link, whose ascent is still debated today nearly a century after his fatal climb.

And still more about these "adventurers'" open graves.

And still more trying to explain why these idiots do it even though the climbing should have been barred after 1953:

Many of the climbers Barlow and his colleagues included in their study – especially professional ones – also exhibited what psychologists refer to as counterphobia. Rather than avoid the things they fear, they feel compelled to face-off with those elements. “It’s a misnomer that climbers are fearless,” Barlow says. “Instead, as a climber, I know I will be afraid, but the key bit is that I approach that fear and try to overcome it.”

Like a junkie who’s got his fix, mountaineers usually report a transfer effect from their experience – a feeling of satiation immediately after returning from a peak. “For me, coming back from a climb physically exhausted but mentally relaxed is the dream,” says Mark Jenkins, a journalist, author and adventurer in Wyoming.

To continue to sate that desire, mountaineers thus set their sights on increasingly challenging peaks, routes or circumstances, and as the world’s highest mountain, Everest has a natural place in that progression. “You have to up the ante, which over time leads to greater and greater risk taking,” Barlow says. “If the transfer effect is never enough for you to stop, then ultimately you likely die.”

It is one of the worst forms of narcissism. This is a prime example of it, without regard to family or to those who have to make recovery on Everest:

One particular story of a body’s recovery illustrates both the human cost, and the lengths that it can take to show the dead the proper respect.

Francys Distefano-Arsentiev died on Everest in 1998, and came to be known as “Sleeping Beauty”. Her son, Paul Distefano recalls just how distressing it was seeing photographs of his mother’s body online. “It’s like being really embarrassed, like being called on by your teacher but not knowing how to read. It’s horrible.”

When he was 11, Paul’s mother, a world-class climber, had set her sights on becoming the first American woman to climb Everest without bottled oxygen. “I don’t know why she decided she had to do it without oxygen, but I think she felt like she needed to prove something,” Paul says. “I think she also felt invincible because she was with Sergei, my stepdad. His nickname was ‘the snow leopard’ because he was so agile.”

Unfortunately, her son doesn't harbor any ill will towards her and her outrageous selfishness. He felt she "died doing what she loved."

I just hate that shit phrase. There is no regard for others in that statement.