metalblue
Well-Known Member
Everest is littered with the bodies of the motivated.
Makes me glad to be unmotivated.
Makes me glad to be unmotivated.
Or people with more money than sense who think there invincibleEverest is littered with the bodies of the motivated.
Makes me glad to be unmotivated.
Maybe now, but not back then in 1924.Or people with more money than sense who think there invincible
I concur that Viesturs' books are excellent.I have no experience of mountain climbing, although I'm quite fascinated by people who do the high peaks, and above 8000m it seems to me that you want to take a walk with death and see if you survive. By the way, Ed Viesturs' book on K2 is excellent. Viesturs is one of that handful of people who have summitted all the 8000ers. But he is most definitely not a man who wants to leave his life there. He has turned back, many times, when the summit seemed within reach. Strongly recommended book.
But what I'm pretty sure of is this. The mountain, and the ocean, are two places where, no matter how experienced you are, no matter how cautious, if you just get unlucky, if it just isn't your day, then you leave yourself there. They take you, just like that. You can die from falling the wrong way from ten feet up, never mind 10,000m. You can also drown pretty easily in two metres of sea or ocean (which takes most people out of their depth) if it's rough, you're not a particularly strong swimmer, and the currents are taking you away from where you want to go. (Something like that happened to me about twenty-five years ago. I won't go into the details, but I was swimming by myself, there was no-one either in the sea or on the beach, and darkness was falling. It was only weeks later that I realised that through sheer pig-headedness I had been risking my life. I am not a good swimmer).
By the way, there's an excellent documentary on Youtube called “Near Misses” which convened a number of very experienced mountaineers, along with Sir Ranulph Fiennes. It is extremely instructive, and I've watched it a number of times. It is also, believe it or not, quite funny. Fiennes in particular is very funny in a dry, po-faced, English way. They all came quite close to losing their lives. Bad luck, a moment's inattention, also, one person in the party not thinking straight — things of that kind. I can't recommend it highly enough.
Mind you, the other night I found myself on two motorways that were merging — four lanes — heavy traffic — and people bombing up on my right in order to get over to my left. I needed to get over to the two lanes on my right, to get onto the motorway that I needed to be on. Had my indicator on for a good 45 seconds, I'd say. Nobody taking blind bit of notice of it. Oh, and some fucker driving an artic who was in effect bullying me by driving right up close to my bumper because he didn't consider I was going fast enough. I had not intended to be in that particular place, and I shall make very, very sure I shall not do it again. I'm still prepared to night drive (I know plenty of people of my age who won't do it any more) but not in heavy traffic, and not at about 100 kph — it's much more difficult to judge distances and speeds.
So it just shows, eh?
That's the trouble with the French, driving on the wrong side of the road. (Yanks too of course.)Mind you, the other night I found myself on two motorways that were merging — four lanes — heavy traffic — and people bombing up on my right in order to get over to my left. I needed to get over to the two lanes on my right, to get onto the motorway that I needed to be on. Had my indicator on for a good 45 seconds, I'd say. Nobody taking blind bit of notice of it. Oh, and some fucker driving an artic who was in effect bullying me by driving right up close to my bumper because he didn't consider I was going fast enough.
I do remember reading, years ago, an expert surmising that Irvine's remains would eventually emerge from a glacier.Melting ice, a gift of global warming.
Think the Yeti has the rest of him.
Ranulph fiennes is an incredible person.I have no experience of mountain climbing, although I'm quite fascinated by people who do the high peaks, and above 8000m it seems to me that you want to take a walk with death and see if you survive. By the way, Ed Viesturs' book on K2 is excellent. Viesturs is one of that handful of people who have summitted all the 8000ers. But he is most definitely not a man who wants to leave his life there. He has turned back, many times, when the summit seemed within reach. Strongly recommended book.
But what I'm pretty sure of is this. The mountain, and the ocean, are two places where, no matter how experienced you are, no matter how cautious, if you just get unlucky, if it just isn't your day, then you leave yourself there. They take you, just like that. You can die from falling the wrong way from ten feet up, never mind 10,000m. You can also drown pretty easily in two metres of sea or ocean (which takes most people out of their depth) if it's rough, you're not a particularly strong swimmer, and the currents are taking you away from where you want to go. (Something like that happened to me about twenty-five years ago. I won't go into the details, but I was swimming by myself, there was no-one either in the sea or on the beach, and darkness was falling. It was only weeks later that I realised that through sheer pig-headedness I had been risking my life. I am not a good swimmer).
By the way, there's an excellent documentary on Youtube called “Near Misses” which convened a number of very experienced mountaineers, along with Sir Ranulph Fiennes. It is extremely instructive, and I've watched it a number of times. It is also, believe it or not, quite funny. Fiennes in particular is very funny in a dry, po-faced, English way. They all came quite close to losing their lives. Bad luck, a moment's inattention, also, one person in the party not thinking straight — things of that kind. I can't recommend it highly enough.
Mind you, the other night I found myself on two motorways that were merging — four lanes — heavy traffic — and people bombing up on my right in order to get over to my left. I needed to get over to the two lanes on my right, to get onto the motorway that I needed to be on. Had my indicator on for a good 45 seconds, I'd say. Nobody taking blind bit of notice of it. Oh, and some fucker driving an artic who was in effect bullying me by driving right up close to my bumper because he didn't consider I was going fast enough. I had not intended to be in that particular place, and I shall make very, very sure I shall not do it again. I'm still prepared to night drive (I know plenty of people of my age who won't do it any more) but not in heavy traffic, and not at about 100 kph — it's much more difficult to judge distances and speeds.
So it just shows, eh?