divine angst

Maybe I just don’t get it, but people climbing Mount Everest have got to be the most insane people EVER.* Already this year (and the climbing season has just begun), two people have died, and major base camps have been swept away or covered by a recent avalanche. And most of the expeditions haven’t even gotten high enough up on the mountain to be in the real danger zone.

This quote from a Mt. Everest news website is just appalling to me:

Willi Prittie, senior guide for Alpine Ascents, put the avalanche into a poetic perspective: “After such an incident as yesterday, is when life feels the most precious, the most ‘alive’ if you will, and so it is. The scenery is never better, the air is never fresher, the mountains never clearer, our friends and family never dearer, and the beer never more refreshing than when we are reminded by a close call of our own mortality.”

Excuse me? Six people were injured in the event he refers to, one possibly with a broken spine. This in an area where you cannot drive out or get on an airplane; where your only options for leaving are hiking for a week or getting a helicopter to brave the altitude and winds and unpredictable weather around Everest and come pick you up.

I understand the thrill-seeking urge. I’ve gone rock climbing and rappelling, I’ve been caving, and I understand the tingle of putting yourself in danger. But to be so cavalier about it—to suggest that it is only at those risky-tingly moments that you feel most alive—well, it’s just tunnel vision! What about the tingle of childbirth or of falling in love? I guess those don’t count, not to these guys.

*I am well aware that, as high mountains go, Everest is not particularly dangerous. K2 is much more perilous. In fact, Mt. Everest is considered the cakewalk of high-risk mountaineering, especially considering the adventure companies will take just about anyone up the mountain.