http://youtu.be/j1DDrMp3npM

I don't think you understand the point of climbing.

"WHY DO RACECAR DRIVERS GO ROUND AND ROUND THE SAME TRACK?!? THEY AIN'T GETTING NOWHERE!?!" - Poetv

because home depot, budwiser, and doritos is paying them a lot?

You're right, it took absolutely no skill whatsoever to drive like Ayrton Senna.

That's exactly what I'm implying.

this isn't an extremely sarcastic tone.

Governments are, and always will be, controlled by the rich, serving their interests and leading, at best, to the creation of a higher caste of politically-connected rich person. Mt Everest might be covered in trash (like the rest of the planet, rich or poor, government or no), but at least it's not wiretapped and covered in racist cops, indefinite detention centers, and the corpses of drone-striked children.

The only thing government regulation could possibly do for Mt Everest is to make it safer to climb, by nanny-stating the climbers and forbidding them to do anything risky. But what good would that do? FEWER rich people dying on Mt Everest?! How could you possibly want that?

Right. Collective political action in the interests of the common good is literally impossible and has never happened. Let's just give up.

Don't be absurd, ashtar. It's one thing to recognize the limitations of government, quite another to get rid of the state entirely. One needs rich people with guns almost as much as one needs rich people without guns; we must simply be aware the folly of embracing the state as a weapon to be used against the kulaks.

Besides, the whole "collective good" issue merely begs the question of what *is* in the collective good. Everyone, be they Ayn Rand, Ralph Nader, Deng Xiaoping, or Louis XIV, believes their own favoured vision of what collective political action should look like serves the interest of the common good.

I guess the fact that these bodies/trash piles are so remote that they aren't easily and quickly removed is gone way over your head.

But leave it to Poe to turn a video about people who die on a challenging mountain into a libertarian manifesto.

A second problem I have is with this subtextual idea that the daredevil pioneering spirit - the drive to do something both extremely dangerous and completely pointless - is somehow "wrong". I for one am glad that we live in a world in which people can have everything they could every possibly want, yet still choose to throw it all away in the most senseless manner possible. To paraphrase one of your favorite quotes: "if civilization had been left in purely pragmatic hands, we would still be living in grass huts."

I'm sort of with Homer here. I can sort of understand wanting to climb a mountain do experience something, or to prove something to yourself, but I'm just not the kind of guy to actually do that sort of thing, even if I didn't get around with a cane. I'll leave it to someone else. By the same token, lots of good books have already been written, but some assholes spend their entire lives trying to write more. Good for them.

HTPI; it's just a matter of cost to hire more Sherpas, and giving a shit about how your actions impact your surroundings.

"and the corpses of drone-striked children"
Yeah man those are just everywhere these days. Pressing problem on the level of global warming, nuclear arsenals, heart disease, etc.

Because really, what could be more courageous and personal than paying 100 grand to have a bunch of sherpas lead a congo line of you and the rest of your administrative staff up the side of a mountain?

I for one am thrilled that after all this time, the mountain is still able to kill people. Here's hoping for many more dead climbers soon.

As you might imagine, I'm pretty squarely in Sol's corner on this one. That thing is one of the most sacred spaces on the planet, and it's been trashed by the most craven form of tourism. Enough already. Must everything beautiful and wild be turned into another holding pen for domesticated humans?

Boy you guys are clueless. You won't get to the top of the mountain if you merely have 70,000 bucks. It does take quite a bit of strength and stamina - and even luck to make it to the top. Many people who haven't died were severely injured just trying. You guys act as if there's no point to doing extreme physical challenges - and Everest is.

and the k is to buy enough sherpas, equipment and oxygen tanks so that even a 70 year-old with a couple months working with his personal trainer can get hand-led up to the top.

SolRo, I suspect your mountaineering/outdoors experience to be very limited.

you don't have to be a pro to understand who's doing all the heavy and dangerous work to get the tourists up the mountain.

will you admit that the large majority of Everest climbers also have limited mountain climbing experience?

Generally anyone out of shape needs 2+ years of training to climb Everest. And ample training.

I agree the Sherpas do the hard work and make it possible for most people who pay a tourist package to get up Everest. A lot of Sherpas die each year (I think 17 so far this year). That is extremely questionable morally and I would not pay for such a trip myself even if I had the money or cared.

That said, I am in very good physical shape and do a lot of mountaineering and some rock climbing among other things and I don't think it would be easy for me to get to the top of Everest nor would I think any old fool who pays could make it, nor would most tour operators even accept anybody unless they had good chances of making it.

That said, the Sherpas make a very good living off of it and without the climbers a lot of them would be out of a job. So, I don't want to cast judgment on those who choose to pay for such services.

Now if someone climbs K2, then I'm impressed. K2 will chew you up and shit you out.

In that last part, you're thinking of David Sharp, who had been mistaken for Paljor's body.

This just in: Powersauce Bars are AMAZING!!

They're fortified with nanotubes!

Every man and woman has a reason for doing what they do, i respect that, every human being is different, we all have different goals in life. Still, climbing this mountain, which can be a safe ticket to a horrible death, all in the name of...what?

Summiting Everest is expensive-ish, exploring the Ocean depths is ridiculously expensive.

Also, if you're a decent runner you'll probably want to run a Marathon. Talking to a decent runner and saying "OH YEAH, BUT WHY DON'T YOU LIFT SOMETHING VERY HEAVY INSTEAD?" is all kinds of idiotic.

Why instead of posting on poetv are you not out trying to free Eritrea?

That said, Everest has been way over-exploited and is incredibly over-rated, and climbing it is kind of the vanity project for relatively lightweight members of the summit community.

Bragging rights at the country club.

You can die any moment in your life. In fact, you WILL die. In the meanwhile, while you were watching the Friends marathon some people were testing their bodies to the limit, discovering amazing sources of strength inside their mind and spirit, and taking in some of the most amazing vistas this world has to offer. Vistas that seem like you are standing on the surface of an alien planet.

Some people risk death in the name of life. Suck it, nerd.

AN is right: Everest is basically the Disneyland of the climbing death circuit. All the real climbers die on K2.

There have been proposals to ban oxygen tanks so that only real climbers attempt it, to minimize unnecessary deaths by stupidity. Could work.

I doubt they will though, too many travel agents profiting on taking tourists up the mountain.

There's a lot of debate within the climbing community about this culture of "I'm going to throw my life away, don't you dare judge me" bullshit that has now become the norm. A lot of climbers, mostly the old-school seasoned ones, think that coming back from the mountain is the true sign of victory. Telling your family "fuck you" and just trying to make the ascent by spamming oxygen canisters and disregarding the advice of experts is generally disrespectful to the living, other climbers, and the mountain.

Thing is, what I don't understand is why they don't just send up a daily helicopter, let people pay the money to say they've been there, and let that be done with it.

My understanding is that choppers don't make it to the top.

The vast majority of people don't go to Everest saying "fuck you" and just trying to make the ascent. They intend to and expect to come back, and they do turn back if they can predict the weather changing, but the weather can sometimes change very suddenly and that is what has killed most people, even experienced summiters. I don't think the rate of people dying on Everest is extremely high, when you take into account the vast number of people that summit the mountain.

If you really want to get disgusted by senseless deaths result of the tourism of rich assholes, it's the Sherpas you need to think about. Those fuckers are dying at a much higher rate than the mountaineers.

Actually I just looked it up. Somebody did land on Mt Everest but it seems landing on it is probably more dangerous than climbing it.

Everyone is free to do with their lives whatever they want, but glamorizing these kinds of deaths feels wrong to me. It's similar to the same senseless sense of "honorable death" Japan has put on suicide for centuries, when there is really nothing honorable about killing yourself. It's democratic, sure, but not "beautiful" or something that should be consider an achievement.

mountains are generally shitty places to fly near, as wind turbulence is unpredictable and often severe.

BECAUSE IT'S THERE.


Fucking hell, you people.

Okay, let China build a funicular. It could be their moon landing.

No, they covered him up with stones and built a cairn and deposited a memorial. They brought in an Anglican priest.

Dude was quite the minx, actually. There are a ton of nudes of him on Google.