Comment on Literally a shitpost.

• Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  What makes it fake is presenting it as the work of an individual, as those egotistical peak selfies and tedious biographies frequently do. (General) you didn’t make it to the peak, you were helped along by underpaid locals dragging around all the shit that is keeping you alive, who frequently lose their lives in an effort to support their families so some tech bro can get a selfie. It’s a gross way to spend $30k+.

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  • Holyginz@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    And 30k is on the cheap end. I think the average is like 50-60k now. Over 100k if you go with the really high end companies. Its crazy.

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  • auzy1@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    You’re being upvoted, but, what experience do you have mountaineering training? Any? Have you even got hiking experience

    It feels like you’re just saying stuff that sounds good.

    1. A good company costs 60K minimum, and another 20K if you want 4L of oxygen.
    2. No, you cant just spend 60K and climb either.
    3. You MUST have 7000m experience, which eliminates mountains like Island Peak and Mera (which was the FULL intention), and it means you have experience staying overnight at altitude.
    4. Don’t speak on behalf of the locals. I personally knew 2 different Sherpas who want to climb Everest. One did, the other wanted to (and hopefully has already).
    5. Preparing the camps is a matter of time primarily.
    6. You carry your own gear at 8000m+ which is basically 30% Oxygen, and you cannot acclimatise.
    7. Clients still do many acclimatisation climbs. Getting the camps prepared is basically a matter of time (months).
    8. Whilst I agree a lot of it is just rich people trying to get attention, don’t underestimate the level of fitness it takes. Based on my experience a huge number of people can’t even get to base camp (which is only 5400m). People doing Everest don’t simply wake up and do acclimatisation walks. Even at 6000M, you’re at 40% Oxygen, and its already a bit hard to breath… Every step feels a lot harder
    9. Don’t forget, that a lot of summit guides live at 4000m+, so, they can set up the camps a lot quicker.
    10. Good companies still pay sherpas the FULL amount even if summit/climbing is completely cancelled
    11. I haven’t climbed Everest, but, don’t underestimate the fear of being dropped off in a glacier for the first time, and being told you’ll fall into a crevasse at some point during training. It takes courage too.

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    • YawningNostalgia@thelemmy.club ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Re: point 6, oxygen content of air is usually 21%. Did you mean it’s 30% of that normal 21%?

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      • auzy1@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Yeah… In terms of a percentage of normal o2 percentage I think… I’m not a medical expert (so, i only know the basics)

        mtnath.com/altitude/ shows both ways though (and the way I used).

        So, I was actually wrong Island peak was approximately 45% percent. Everest is approximately 33% (they were off the top of my head). I just find that calculating this way is easier to understand.

        It also goes into AMS, HAPE and HACE, which I actually forgot to mention at all. But basically, you either feel sick with AMS (I saw someone turn 20 years older, and go completely grey at 4500m), your brain can swell in your skull (HACE), or HAPE is when your lungs start filling with fluid.

        Money can’t buy immunity from these conditions, and, whether anyone helps, doesn’t make easier for clients either (in fact, it makes it worse, if the help keeps pushing you). The reason the person I saw turned gray, was precisely because only myself and Sherpas were saying to go down. The rest of the group was encouraging him to push on.

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    • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      A good company costs 60K minimum

      You get how that’s even grosser, right?

      Don’t speak on behalf of the locals. I personally knew 2 different Sherpas

      ‘Don’t speak on behalf of the locals, allow me, who knew two dudes, to do so instead’? No, I think I’ll listen to reporting by the BBC, who talked to people whose livelihoods didn’t depend on telling them what they wanted to hear. Obviously some locals do want to climb, but you are delusional if you believe nobody is doing it for money to support their family.

      Everything else you’re saying here is irrelevant, I never said it wasn’t physically challenging. It’s just immoral to climb Everest due to the local exploitation and environmental degradation inherent to climbing it. Outside of the nearly 20 lbs of waste each person creates climbing the mountain (the majority of which doesn’t get removed), there are also deforestation issues from locals over harvesting wood to meet tourist demand.

      There is not an amount of explanation that is going to move me beyond those facts.

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      • auzy1@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        What’s gross at this point, is that watching a bbc documentary doesn’t make you a professional lol .You know no dudes, so, I know more dudes than you.

        You’re not even getting some of the basics right.

        1. On both my trips they only burnt dried yak dung and even the hot water either uses massive reflector solar mirrors or gas . Nobody is carrying wood to any of the camps. Do you think at camp 4 they’re sitting oxygen deprived around a nice fire which produces more co2?
        2. Are you running on full renewables at home? Any renewables? Or, is there a double standard? Its ok for you to burn wood at home?
        3. When you go hiking, or pull over on a long drive, do you use a wag bag? If not, you’re not any better than them…
        4. The climbing permit has now changed and people have to carry down some garbage, and there is a lot of work going into cleanup. Yes it’s a problem, but it doesn’t make climbing any easier.
        5. At kala pattar actually (5500m), I actually saw a mouse which was likely eating scraps. If anything, ironically there is actually more life due to tourists because it’s barren even at that altitude
        6. I’m not sure what you do with your free time, but it better be a lot of volunteering…
        7. Your phone was produced by someone who didn’t want to work but had to

        At this point you’re throwing random things you heard from the documentary, saying “it’s relevant” at the wall and hoping something sticks whilst trying to portray yourself as superior.

        Go do a mountaineering course, and then report back at how little of an accomplishment even 8000m is, let alone an altitude where your body is dying, and you have limited time to summit and return before it does.

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    • auzy1@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Also, one other fact that people don’t realise, is that using oxygen makes it sound like a cakewalk, but its not.

      Your breath has water vapour in it that freezes and accumulates. So, you’re even competing with your oxygen mask getting frozen shut apparently at high altitude. At 8000m+ you need it, and to sleep at 8000m, you apparently still need some oxygen, or you gag.

      Apparently oxygen bottle theft is also common.

      Once you’re at 8000m (camp 4), you’re basically on your own… Yes, its a bigger accomplishment to set up camps and carry everything up, but, it doesn’t mean that even getting to 7000M isn’t a huge achievement (Everest is 8900m).

      I am planning to do a 700km walk hopefully within the next year, and, I don’t think anyone is going to downplay it simply because I have done food drops (and had others helping with food drops).

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• prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Even Hillary’s team used sherpas to assist

  Nothing says “fake accomplishment” like claiming to be the first to reach the top of a mountain while using the help of people who had presumably been doing it for hundreds of years.

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  • auzy1@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Nobody was climbing Everest before then for hundreds of years. Absolutely 0% fucking chance that happened lol… especially from the Nepalese side (I seriously doubt from tibet either).

    The ice fall on the Nepal side is literally moving 1m every day and constantly changes for starters, and by the time you set up the camps, they’d be buried. Glacier travel you have a team of 2-3 people because of things like ice bridges and crevasses too and it would be impossible to summit without ladders

    It can’t be done without a large team, just like you can’t captain a submarine without a team who built it, and helps maintain it. It is a group effort

    You do realize that Tenzing was Nepalese too right? He was there with Edmund. Nims purja also had both a small team of climbers who were highly experienced and a much larger team helping. He is Nepalese. Is it exploitation by him too?

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    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      So Sherpas just knew exactly how to do it through cultural osmosis?

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