Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 24
DON'T STOP ME NOW
The higher the mountain, the more the risks there are, and as you spend more and
more time at altitude, the dangers are compounded. It is fair to say that high-alti-
tude mountaineering is among the most dangerous of all pastimes. Those who take
part inevitably become accessories to death. With the exception of a few other
activities -cave diving, BASE jumping and wing-suit proximity flying - it is unlike
other sports in that respect.
There is no shortage of misconceptions about high-altitude mountaineering
today. One says it has now become relatively safe. In 2010, a stripped-down
French AS350 B3 helicopter (the same type as landed on the summit of Everest)
succeeded in rescuing three alpinists from almost 7,000 metres on Annapurna I,
one at a time - the highest such rescue yet achieved. Large commercial expedi-
tions that place fixed ropes more or less from the bottom to the top of the world's
highest peaks provide their clients with a sense of safety, an experience similar to
climbing a via ferrata in the Alps, except that in the Alps there are no Sherpas to
help put up tents and cook food. Bottled oxygen keeps the altitude well below
8,000 metres.
It is simple enough to distinguish between adventure climbing and mountain
tourism. High-altitude mountaineering in the 1970s and 1980s cannot be com-
pared to the commercial adventure tourism that the public understand as moun-
taineering today: paying to climb Everest, or joining the numbers race on the
eight-thousanders or the quest to climb the seven highest summits on the seven
continents. There are dozens of websites where you can sign up with a credit card
to go on these trips. When Alex visited Shisha Pangma in the pre-monsoon season
of 1982, it had been climbed only a handful of times, and no one had yet been to
today, you'll come up with pages of offers from various companies to take you to
the summit.
No doubt there are adventures to be had on commercial trips. But what is the
true personal value of buying a summit in the way you might buy a ticket to fly to
Hong Kong? And what are the underlying risks, both in terms of the risk to per-
sonal health and safety and also the risk that the experience will be diminished be-
cause individuals don't take full responsibility for themselves?
