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Big Piton
Trad climber
Ventura
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Dec 30, 2009 - 06:28pm PT
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This may have been covered here. I didn't read every word posted on this topic. How much different is this type of guiding from, hauling a customer up El Cap. Which I know some of the SP posters have. This guide sevice should be given award, for finding one more way to make a buck off climbing. And they don't have to leave base camp. OH Man what a job.
BTW: -Bump- it's on again tonight.
I just like watching the "Car Wreck on Everest"
MMM
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Reilly
Mountain climber
Monrovia, CA
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Dec 31, 2009 - 12:23am PT
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Walmart Mountaineering aka $60K for a klusterphuk.
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Lambone
Ice climber
Ashland, Or
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 31, 2009 - 12:38am PT
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holy crowded mountain batman...
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hossjulia
Trad climber
Eastside
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Dec 31, 2009 - 12:45am PT
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I didn't even last a full minute.
watching the show that is (insert puking and gagging noises here)
Wow, that really, really sucked.
(Anyone know how to turn the DC on to this thread???? )
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Srbphoto
Trad climber
Kennewick wa
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Dec 31, 2009 - 12:55am PT
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Some of the scenes of everyone on the route looks like the cables on Half Dome.
Just one long line!
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GDavis
Social climber
SOL CAL
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Dec 31, 2009 - 12:58am PT
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"I didn't even last a full minute.
watching the show that is (insert puking and gagging noises here)"
Well, I'm not THAT pretentious...
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Lambone
Ice climber
Ashland, Or
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 31, 2009 - 03:05am PT
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i guess I enjoy watching noobs try to walk in crampons...
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Dec 31, 2009 - 04:20am PT
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Even Hillary got guided up Everest. Was Tenzing not paid?
And the trash and fixed ropes were there a long time before guiding became more than Sherpas guiding real mountaineers up there.
Theoretically they pay big bucks to clean up the trash up there but it probably goes in the pocket of corrupt Nepalese officials.
These clients...They could easily die up there it's not all fluff. It's got to be a pain in the ass to get up that thing still. I think there is a lot of hating on this board about the clients because they represent things we have in ourselves, things we fear about our own motives and egos.
Reily wrote
" I have now met many amazing people who are like me; because I travelled alone and found and know myself like never before, because things happened to my mind that I don't even understand.
I am the same but so different - cliches all over, and I hate that, but it is true.
It is really awesome and really special to have an entire world opened up to you at 40 - I never ever thought it would happen to me - but it did.."
It's totally beautiful and true how beautiful those folks are and how they affect you. Sadly, there is a flip side like fatty said... Most of those Sherpa dudes would jump at the chance to come live in America. It's also true that many, if not most, don't give a crap about the beauty of the mountains nor about climbing. They climb for the money.
and I'm not exactly blaming them for it either. Per capita income in Nepal is $500 to $1000 per year. Folk without money seek it. Folks with it look for something else when it doesn't fulfill.
Peace
Karl
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Bill Mc Kirgan
Trad climber
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
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Dec 31, 2009 - 07:50am PT
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Yeah, that lineup makes me laugh. Folks will pay 60K++ for the chance of getting in line.
And the few who make it to the top seem to have nothing original to say...
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JoeSimo
Trad climber
New York
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Dec 31, 2009 - 09:56am PT
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It's too bad the tallest mountain in the world isn't in the middle of Antarctica.
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philo
Trad climber
Somewhere halfway over the rainbow
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Dec 31, 2009 - 10:54am PT
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The scenery has been fantastic. What creates the stench for me is the overbearing hype and absurd pseudo drama that he producers seem unable to avoid. That and the obscene conga line of cramponing cretins.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Dec 31, 2009 - 12:07pm PT
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Karl,
I think you overstate when claiming there's a lot of hating on this board.
Seems to me that there is a lot of resentment over the shortcutting of the process that the "clients" are able to buy.
It doesn't seem just that so many here pay their dues to acquire skills and sound judgement yet are unable to avail themselves of such an extraordinary experience only to see themselves preempted by those that they see as unlikely to fully appreciate the opportunity.
As a trained and experienced guide I see the relationship between guide and client as a sort of specialized partnership; the client's contribution comes from having other valuable skills that earn the needed financial resources to enable the guided ascent while the guide's responsibility is to have the requisite additional skill to make a competent attempt of the climb.
Both must be climbers, but skill differential produces a sort of symbiosis if you will.
I probably resent the punters on Everest for personal reasons as well.
I argued with my friend of twenty years when he told me he would be guiding Everest in '96. I felt it was not an appropriate objective for inexperienced mountaineers, but he was confident of building a "yellow brick road" of oxygen and ropes etc.
I just shook my head and said, "Scott, its a really BIG hill."
Months later and two days after I was certain Scott was dead I found a letter from him in my PO box that had been run out from base camp weeks earlier telling me he was starting to agree with me.
People do far more foolish things with more tragic results, but I still think that clients should be real climbers not rich wannabes that are willing to spend $60K and a couple of months just in order to tell people at cocktail parties that they have done the "ultimate" climb.
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elcap-pics
climber
Crestline CA
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Dec 31, 2009 - 12:43pm PT
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I have been reading about Mt Everest since I was a kid of 12 years and that was 52 years ago. I liked the programs.... I got to see the many places I had always read about but some how it ruined the old desire and lament that I had having never made it out there to give it a go.
I found it interesting that the clients were just barely able to move much less do what we climbers would call "climb". Imagine if they had to set belays, front point, cut steps, fix lines, manage protection and carry loads to high camps. It is not the same sport as was done by the English and Swiss pre 1960s. I guess if you really want to actually "climb" the mountain you would have to do the west ridge or the east face.... otherwise you are in an endless conga line to hell. I think these clients are taking huge risks and would never want to do it in that way. But I guess that is the only way it can be done these days on the South and North ridges. Sad really but that is the way it is these days.
Still it pretty much blew me away that people are willing to climb like that and that guides have so little regard for the mountain that they are willing to keep this system in place. Is the $$$ that good?... must be!!
But all that said.... it looked pretty bad up there and my hat is off to the people on that mountain. They pushed their efforts right to the limit and were lucky to get away with it!! Many more deaths await ....
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Footloose
Trad climber
Lake Tahoe
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Radical,
I've had a question the last few years,
maybe you could answer it.
What about the off-season months like july, aug,
sept? What keeps climbers from summiting these months?
Is it really the weather entirely? As all the shows seem to suggest.
Or are there other factors, e.g., the authorities and licensing, too?
Or maybe they do but I just haven't heard about it. Or
maybe the Sherpas (e.g., the "Khumbu Doctors" ) leave
which leaves others SOL?
Thanks for what you might know in this regard
and the inspiring notes.
P.S. So if one had strong traveling skills already
didn't need to be pampered, REALLY did his homework,
put in due diligence, you think he could get in there
and get back for $30K or less?
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cintune
climber
the Moon and Antarctica
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Footloose, yep, it's all about the weather, or more specifically the unconsolidated snowpack that makes the off-season off-limits.
A really good read that provides many examples of this problem and its consequences is Walt Unsworth's Everest: The Mountaineering History
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Footloose
Trad climber
Lake Tahoe
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Thanks for the info, guys.
A way around the crowd would be nice.
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