Abandoned on Everest

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by AustinChief

Olympic Sprinters are competing against each other and world records...

If people want to RACE to the top of Everest.. more power to them... just don't expect me to care... oh yeah, I also don't follow Olympic sprinting.. do you? does ANYONE?

So what are the rules? You can't wear a suit that provides temperature control? no oxygen? No clothes at all? no clothes manufactured after 1950? Only ropes hand woven in Paraguay? It's all so ****ing silly and arbitrary...

the difference is pretty simple. Yes, we have had advances in oxygen supplements and thermal clothing. Fine, so what. There is a seperate (very small) list maintained of people who ascended without oxygen help. Temperature is not the primary obstacle, and is still very difficult to deal with, so that doesn't really matter as much.

Climbing Everest should be respected because it is still often fatal, even today. It is still often fatal because despite all the advances, it still requires that you be in really good shape, and not make a major mistake, with a major mistake being very easy with a few seconds of carelessness, and the penalty of a major mistake being death.

I don't think anyone is suggesting we view these people with the same kind of awe as climbers from the 30's and 40's, but it is still incredibly dangerous and very impressive.

Old-school football players who wore leather helmets were arguably tougher and had to deal with more pain when playing, but that doesn't stop us from respecting the highly-protected athletes we have today.