October 8, 2000

2:05 PM

A 38-year-old Slovenianbecame the first person ever to ski non-stop down the world's highest mountain, Mount Everest, on Saturday. "I feel only absolute happiness and absolute fatigue," Davo Karnicar told Reuters by satellite phone after the descent
posted by Mars Saxman (10 comments total)

Am I the only person in the world who thinks that some places in the world should be off limits to 'extreme sports' bozos who's only reason for being is to get their names in the record books? Everest is already covered with garbage left by climbers. Now I fear it will be overun with skiing halfwits who think, 'hey if some Slovenian can do it, I can do it too!".
posted by Mr. skullhead at 7:57 PM on October 8, 2000

It just goes to show there are no true adventures left in the world. It's no longer enough to climb Everest - you have to ski down it to have accomplished something meaningful. It's no big deal to go to Peru - you have to "travel 2000 miles along the Inca Highway", as the subtitle of one travel book put it, to have done something worth writing about. The South Pole has already been reached by foot, plane, jeep, and ski; if you want to do something new, you'll have to go by bike, or maybe walking backwards the whole way carrying your pack on your head, or something.

-Mars
posted by Mars Saxman at 8:53 PM on October 8, 2000

Mass tourism is starting to reach even the remotest places, on a discussion board about trekking in Nepal recently I saw a question from someone planning to trek the Annapurna circuit, a 3 week trek in the Himalayas - she was asking if there would be anywhere to plug in her hairdryer.
Tourism like this causes many problems, not only does it spoil the beauty of the area but it places massive strain on the resources and infrastructure of a country like Nepal, and the ones to suffer are always the local people, never the tourism industry.
posted by Markb at 1:48 AM on October 9, 2000

Has anyone read Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer? It's about an expedition to Everest back in 1996. The author was there to write a piece about the commercialization of Everest. Unfortunately, that year 12 people died on the mountain in one of the worst Everest disasters ever. Mostly due to mistakes made because of the high pressure to get paying clients to the top of the mountain. Essentially, yeah, it sucks that there's such a massive amount of this kind of tourism, but it's the price we pay for having so much money available. And anyway, the people are still assuming the risks, even if they don't properly respect the place.
posted by daveadams at 9:12 AM on October 9, 2000

Who says there are no real adventures left in the world? Just because someone else did something doesn't mean it's not an adventure anymore. People today are all too concerned with fame and popularity. Say all my life, I wanted to ski down everest. If I looked at this thread today and saw that some schmuck got there first, why would I think "ah, someone got there first, I guess I'll never go because it won't be any fun." Just because this guy did it doesn't change the fact that I never did. Do things for yourself, not a fanbase.
posted by tomorama at 9:02 AM on October 10, 2000

Tomorama: It's not just fame and popularity. There's an accomplishment in having been the first to ski down Everest even if nobody remembers your name, because you proved it could be done. If skiing down Everest is an inherently pleasurable activity, then we'll certainly see more people trying it - but they won't have the thrill of vanishing into the unknown, pushing the limits, finding out by trial whether a human being can do a particular thing. They'll just be skiing down Everest.

It's not an adventure if you know you're going to get there.

-Mars
posted by Mars Saxman at 11:07 AM on October 10, 2000

Until they start marking trails from the peak to the Chalet at the bottom, everyone's trip down Everest is going to be unique.

That's not to take away from being the FIRST, which is pretty cool (first post!) but it's still an adventure for anyone stupi^H^H^H^H^H willing to do it.
posted by cCranium at 1:07 PM on October 10, 2000

^H^H^H^H^H <---- What does this string of characters mean? I have been seeing it a lot lately.
posted by thirteen at 1:25 PM on October 10, 2000

^H^H.. is what gets displayed when you use the backspace key in certain *NIX's (i think). it's meant to reveal what the author was going to say before giving it a second thought, often where the preceding was potentially inflammatory or politically incorrect. or something.

someone can probably explain it better than that, though - sheesh, i need more coffee!
posted by modge at 3:38 PM on October 10, 2000

different *nix shells, to be anal. Many handle the backspace destructively.

It's similar to when you cough*BLATANTLY*cough* hide something, with the intention of being funny.

I think it originates from when more users began using shells, shells they were new to, trying to erase something they wanted to cover up. A changed word, for meaning or mistake.
posted by cCranium at 5:45 PM on October 10, 2000