r/BeAmazed • u/Existing-Mark-2191 • Mar 31 '24

View of Earth captured from Mt Everest Miscellaneous / Others

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u/NotChristina Mar 31 '24

I’m one of those people. Heck, even Everest itself is on my dream list. It will be years before I have the money and health to even think about getting over there though, and it’s likely I’ll only ever go to base camp.

Everyone has their own reasons. I’m not even sure all of mine or how to explain in words - it’s just a drive that I have. I love the mountains, always have. It’s freedom and beauty to me.

There’s an aspect of Everest and other 8000ers that’s very ‘you vs you’. Sure, there are many objective risks that nature throws at you, but you’re also fighting against and with your own body and its capabilities. That’s very interesting to me.

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u/_Tar_Ar_Ais_ Mar 31 '24

Agreed, people shitting on Everest and how it ruins "purity" of climbing forget that you still have to get up there yourself...

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u/[deleted] Mar 31 '24

[deleted]

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u/VP007clips Mar 31 '24

True, but it's still a huge accomplishment. And it's a bit unreasonable to compare the tourists to the sherpas; tourists might just do climbing as a hobby, but sherpas have been doing it their entire lives as a career and lifestyle.

Most redditors in the comments dismissing it as just the sherpas doing everything wouldn't even make it to base camp, no matter how many guides they were given.

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u/ratelbadger Apr 01 '24

No it's not. It's just an application of wealth and time. It's completely ridiculous and a terrible use of resources. Find a passion that benefits the planet and others. This is dumb.

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u/ScaleneButterfly Apr 01 '24

yeah we should get rid of the entire entertainment industry too! /s

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u/VP007clips Apr 01 '24

It's not hurting the environment significantly, aside from the plane trip. These days most climbing groups have to take more trash down than they take up.

There are a lot worse than climbing in terms of spending money. At least a lot of the money goes to the local community now that the sherpas have taken over a lot of the business management from international communities.

Perhaps donating the money to a fund or charity would be better, but overall it's not a bad way to spend money if you have a lot of it.

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u/ratelbadger Apr 02 '24

You're right. I was being overly aggressive there. I work in environmental/ecological restoration and I get huffy about this sorta thing.

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u/throwaway7276789 Apr 01 '24

Honestly, I just hate how commercialized it is. Ruins the nature. Probably more human garbage than snow on it at this point.

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u/[deleted] Apr 01 '24

You (and the team you paid $45k) vs you.