Quote:
Originally Posted by Groves
People want the ego boost that reaching the summit gives them, without all that nastiness of kindness getting in the way.
I hope they go through life haunted by the horrible trade-off they made.
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Your long rambling attempt to explain what you meant does not change the fact that your opinion was really dumb.
You apparently have this presumption that climbing everest is this foolishly reckless form of russian roulette, as if you are saying "well what the hell you fool, you already threw your own life away by climbing the mountain, so you might as well try to rescue that person and figure out a way to save both your own life and the other person"
Your presumption is wrong. Yes, unprepared people are suicidal for trying, but climbers who have a lot of experience, training, and preparation in good weather can climb this mountain relatively safely. The only problem is they can not make a single mistake. (and sometimes "making a mistake" means continuing up when you obviously have to give up due to weather or equipment problems and you need to start going back down) If they do everything correctly, careful every step of the way, they have an extremely good chance of making it just fine. The most skilled and most careful climbers have climbed this and similar mountains a dozen or more times.
On other lesser mountains, making a mistake with equipment, movements, etc could result in death or could result in injury, or could result in a frightening close call. On everest near the top, a mistake basically means you die, 99%+.
Trying to get someone, close to the very top, who is severely hurt and cant do much climbing anymore, qualifies as a fatal mistake. Climbing everest is not a foolish suicide mission if done correctly, and no one should be ashamed or haunted for not needlessly throwing their own life away in a doomed attempt to save someone else who cant be saved.