"What's the point of climbing Everest?" AKA "why do anything?"

[Micael]

While I agree that the all "what is the point of climbing Everest" is a dumb way of looking at it, putting the blame mainly on Nepal for what is happening there is the hottest of hot takes.

We are talking about a country whose GDP per capita is about 800$, the amount of money that an expedition brings in makes things like consent of Sherpas to do what they do far less consensual, as is the case with most situations where there is an absolutely insane power difference dynamics at play.

So I am sorry, while there is certainly more things that Nepal could be doing, I am still going to think the people doing this are assholes (regardless of them being rich or not), because they are essentially putting peoples lives at very real risk for something that is entirely self serving.

 

[SlickShoes]

There is a huge disconnect between what climbing it is actually like and what people think it's like. The photos of the queues make this worse.

Nepal is issuing too many permits, however the queues you see recently are because the weather has been terrible, so instead of the expeditions being spread over weeks they are all pushing for the summit on the same 3 days while they can.

There are some people who really shouldn't be there but until the Nepalese government really make an effort to regulate it all there is nothing you can do other than rely on the expedition companies to vet everyone. More and more of these are now local to Nepal and other countries in they region, so when some rich foreigner comes along with 50k dollars and has only ever walked up Kilimanjaro, they won't turn them away because that 50k could change their life.

Everest is deadly mostly because of the altitude but the percentage of people climbing it to those dying is low, their are way more dangerous mountains like Nanga Parbat, K2 and Annapurna, should we stop people going to climb them too?

 

[Daysean]

In this thread people with anime avatars see no point in traveling anywhere besides going to Akihabara. DUDE THEY HAVE SO MANY OLD GAMES !!!!

Click to shrink...

At me next time coward, how did you know I love the Sega CD????

 

[Saganator]

Climbing Everest lost its luster. Pretty much any rich person in good health can do it if they wanted. To me it's just another thing a rich person can buy.

 

[Dusk Golem]

Thread has been locked on request of the OP.