Barb and I like to hike. Mountains are far more interesting that deserts, forests, and lowland trails. Mount Rainer, Yosemite, and Glacier National Parks are at the top of the list for us.
I stumbled across this and immediately eliminated any and all desire to try the big one. Even if I were to be rejuvenated to a state several decades younger and I had excess money to spend on the adventure the answer to an invitation would be a very firm, “No thank you.”:
Back before adventure tourism, to be invited to join an Everest expedition was truly a big deal, requiring an extensive mountaineering resume and recognition by expedition leaders. Now all it takes is a credit card and a few months of working out. Sherpas practically carry the average tourist up like a sack of potatoes. People died in the Himalayas before ultra-tourism, but not because they were unqualified, entitled, and out of shape. I wouldn’t climb now either, because it’s now a circus bearing zero resemblance to mountaineering.
Agreed that climbing Everest is absurd these days. If you see the pictures, lots of places that are tricky passes that can only accommodate one person at a time and only during good weather have literal lines of people waiting to cross. Hundreds of people whose only skill is writing a big check to sherpas crowd everything and cause issues with needing to be rescued. Especially when they discover that getting back down from the summit is just as much danger and work as going up, but without the insane drive of needing to reach the top.
And in a few hundred years if the discover their bodies, they will be like the Ötzi, also called the Iceman. A frozen mummy.
They don’t bring down the bodies or the trash, place must look like Chicago.
What you said. The place is a dump.
There was one trek I wanted to do. Never got to. A friend and his father made when we were all a lot younger.
Was from the bottom of Death valley to the top of Mt. Whitney. Both the lowest and the highest points in the lower 48.
But it’s not for those that don’t like deserts. Or the semi-faint of heart.
But alas, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
The book “Into Thin Air” is damn good and illustrates the madness of Everest. The author was part of a doomed summiting team.
Two other disasters worth mentioning are “The Hall of the Mountain King” about McKinley and “Storm and Sorrow in the High Pamirs”.
Me, I like deserts.
My favorite book about mountaineering for over 50 years is _Annapurna_. This expedition of extremely able and experienced climbers reached the peak of a mountain a little shorter than Everest over a more difficult route. It wasn’t a disaster, thanks to a little luck, extreme persistence, and some heroism in an unworthy cause. IIRC, the worst of it was that at least one man lost so many fingers and toes to frostbite that he could never climb again – nor even work an office job.
To hit the just high point: After weeks struggling up the mountain, they were two short day’s climbs below the summit when their weatherman radioed and told them to start down NOW, the monsoon was starting and soon they’d be trapped on the slopes. Instead, a picked group made the two day’s climb in one day, took a few photos to prove they’d reached the summit, and began scrambling down the mountain – while the sun set, the wind went wild and the air filled with snow. It seems remarkable that no one fell off the mountain and died, because they could not see the trail, but they had to keep going. They never found their tents, and the only reason they didn’t freeze to death was that they fell into a crevice for shelter.
I have modest mountain goals. I have one mountain I want to summit. A little 8500 footer in southern Washington State. Blew its top in 1980. I just want to climb it to say I did it and saw it with my own eyes. That I will pay for a guided climb on and I’m pretty sure I’ll come back assuming not getting attacked by a cougar.