How did you get to 100s? I watched the movie, a doc and read Into Thin Air in a week. What else did you learn in the extra 90+ hours?
My main take away was there’s no fucking way I’m climbing Everest. It’s just pure misery and you’re so fucked when you get to the top you can’t wait to go back down.
Date: April 19th, 2026 9:38 PM Author: Metaphysics is Gay
if you're looking for additional materials you can study the books written by other climbers, several docs besides the PBS one, listen to interviews and podcasts, the argument between krakauer and tracy on youtube, etc. You can also study the history of the mountain, read into messner etc, and you've got to read and reread/rewatch everything multiple times.
Date: April 19th, 2026 10:12 PM Author: Cobalt field
It really is crazy just how fucking dangerous high-altitude mountaineering is. The story for like everyone who's a professional climber (sherpa or honkey) who survived everest 1996 is "later died on [other mountain]."
Date: April 19th, 2026 10:15 PM Author: pale impressive university
cr
yet 1/2 of xo tough guys who played some college ball seem to genuinely think that they could easily summit everest; 1/2 of it is schtick, but 1/2 of it is genuinely retarded xo tough guys
Date: April 19th, 2026 10:19 PM Author: Cobalt field
Tbf, a good portion of the danger is clearly not avertable through enhanced skills or natural talent (and I'm including physiological tolerance for high-altitude exertion as "natural talent," even though HAPE is incredibly random and strikes super-experienced climbers).
Date: April 19th, 2026 10:16 PM Author: Metaphysics is Gay
yeah it's fucking nuts and another crazy part is the other major peaks like K2 and Annapurna, while essentially as tall, are significantly worse odds in terms of getting hit with an avalanche or falling the fuck off.
Date: April 19th, 2026 9:41 PM Author: Vibrant degenerate crackhouse
I read into the climb many years. Realized at that point that Americans like Krakauer are scum. They always hang out at the periphery of misery and looking to benefit. He actually made millions from his own book where he basically described that he's a faggot.
Date: April 19th, 2026 9:48 PM Author: Metaphysics is Gay
some theories say that his presence, and the presence of Pittman which was a reaction the Krakauer's last minute team change, was the cause of the event.
Date: April 19th, 2026 10:05 PM Author: Metaphysics is Gay
The theory is the presence of the journalist from Outside magazine (Krakauer) caused more than the usual competition between Adventure Consultants (Rob's team) and Mountain Madness (Scott's team). Krakuer's magazine was paying Rob with ad space ($55k worth; they only paid $10k in cash), and those ads would include things like the % of clients that summitted. Krakuer was also writing about the commercialization of Everest in general, so there was motivation to get as many climbers to the top as possible. But whether that influenced the late summit push (after the fixed rope delay of 2+ hours), the decision to ignore the pre-arranged turn-around time, and Rob's decision to escort Doug, isn't certain.
Maybe more directly, Pittman -- the weakest climber who the lead sherpa had to essentially drag to the top with a rope, causing him not to place the aforementioned fixed ropes and delaying both teams -- was added to Mountain Madness's team at the last minute as their journalist after Krakauer and Outside left the MM team for the AC team.
So taken together the presence of journalists, especially JK, can reasonably be seen to have changed the motivations and dynamics of the teams, and may have been a contributing cause to the tragedy, rather than a coincidence.
Date: April 19th, 2026 10:15 PM Author: Cobalt field
IIRC, almost every third-party account (not krakauer or boukreev, although you could include boukreev in this) says that krakauer was bizarrely hard on sandy pittman, who no one else seems to think played any kind of noteworthily deleterious role. She was short-roped for an hour tops, and she was a paying client; she's probably a stronger climber than krakauer, but krakauer benefitted from summitting way before her.
Date: April 19th, 2026 9:45 PM Author: controlling a virtual character on a computer
"Rowell criticized Krakauer's account, citing numerous inconsistencies in his narrative, and observed that Krakauer had been asleep in his tent while Boukreev was rescuing other climbers. Rowell argued that not only were Boukreev's actions heroic but his judgment was also prescient: “[Boukreev] foresaw problems with clients nearing camp, noted five other guides on the peak [Everest], and positioned himself to be rested and hydrated enough to respond to an emergency. His heroism was not a fluke."[5]"
lmfao at this literal kike sleeping in his tent while the heroic chad is out there saving lives, and then publishing a book where he jewishly sneers at and nitpicks the heroic dude
Date: April 19th, 2026 9:49 PM Author: Metaphysics is Gay
Boukreev could and did literally climb mount everest without oxygen and it was his professional responsibility to guide and save people. Some people say his selfishness in not using oxygen caused more harm than he later salvaged.
Date: April 19th, 2026 10:10 PM Author: Metaphysics is Gay
Some people say that without supplemental O's, Boukreev had to descend in front of the clients at more rapid pace, rather than assist them in the descent. Had he been in the mix with the clients, he may have saved more lives.
Date: April 19th, 2026 10:15 PM Author: controlling a virtual character on a computer
but it says he deliberately went down ahead of the clients, by himself, so he could get help
sounds like the "supplemental oxygen" complaint is just literal jews trying to unjustly pin blame on the only chad who was actually saving lives instead of jewishly sitting around "taking notes" so he could jewishly publish a book criticizing everyone else
Date: April 19th, 2026 10:21 PM Author: Metaphysics is Gay
yeah and the corroborating witness is dead. im not saying he didn't save people, but the idea that a guide is better off at camp than guiding clients is a bit retarded
Date: April 19th, 2026 10:26 PM Author: Cobalt field
My (very rusty) recollection after reading both books is that krakauer is indeed a disingenuous little piece of shit, but his criticisms of boukreev are probably correct. Literally not a single person, dead or alive, doubted that he was the strongest climber on the mountain, but his abilities as a guide specifically were questionable. Boukreev says that Fischer's displeasure with his performance was customer-service/BizDev-based, but he's fucking dead so who's to know.
Date: April 19th, 2026 10:33 PM Author: Metaphysics is Gay
yeah i think he was probably selfish and scott had to work around that fact so they came up with compromises that didn't really make sense for a guide but he wanted him up there
Date: April 19th, 2026 10:22 PM Author: Excitant center giraffe
Nah he didn't go down for help, he went down before any of the issues began. He went back out to help later after hearing people were in trouble.
I don't think Bookreev did anything particularly wrong though. He was against using oxygen because he thought it was dangerous to rely on it. You're extra fucked if you run out of it etc
Date: April 19th, 2026 10:35 PM Author: Metaphysics is Gay
yeah and i mean that kinda makes sense, but also not really. if you have oxygen you are better off than without. you might run out of oxygen and you're fucked immediately, which is not the case without it, but you can definitely stay up longer with it.
Date: April 19th, 2026 10:36 PM Author: Metaphysics is Gay
the mousy japanese lady had summited the tallest mountains on the 6 other continents before the everest expedition in 1996. in general yes you are mostly spoon fed with fixed ropes, ladders, etc, but its still difficult and you have to be in pretty good shape, and you also generally have to test your body in high altitude on other mountains first.
Date: April 20th, 2026 9:18 AM Author: Zippy trip toaster
she was 90lbs, prob irresponsible regardless of experience when you consider they have to carry a bunch of shit
Namba died from exhaustion and exposure. Jon Krakauer's book, Into Thin Air, describes the anguish of Neal Beidleman, who felt guilty that he was unable to do anything more to save Namba. Boukreev's book, The Climb, expressed profound regret at her lonely death, saying that she was just a little 90-pound woman and that someone should have dragged her back to camp so she could at least die among her companions.
Date: April 19th, 2026 10:51 PM Author: disgusting deep party of the first part
After watching that stuff does it make you want to climb anything or no never?
I thought this TV documentary on Reinhold Messner was one of the 180 things Werner Herzog directed. Lots of great footage. Also to the point above - all the sherpas and mountaineers died - one of the big moments is when Reinhold talks about his brother dying
Date: April 19th, 2026 10:55 PM Author: Metaphysics is Gay
Messner makes me want to climb something more than the everest stuff or honnold or anyone else. His whole point is he wanted to discover himself and it just so happens everest helped him do that. I dont have any desire to climb for the accomplishment, not that I could either way
Is it safer today? It's it (the safety, the experience) even worse than 30 years ago given the huge crowds waiting in line to summit? That aspect of it looks miserable.
I've thought about going for one of the relatively easier very high altitude climbs line Cho Oyu.
Date: April 20th, 2026 9:15 AM Author: disgusting deep party of the first part
In-house at a corp, I worked with a dude who told everyone that his hobby was mountain climbing and he would pay up to do all those. His desktop background was climbing pics. Lean wiry guy, seemed pretty good shape, maybe mid 50s. Anyway, even after doing a lot of other tall mountains, he had some kind of altitude sickness climbing Everest, turned blue, maybe had a collapsed lung, got airlifted down, and had to stay in a Nepalese hospital for a month. Was already lean and he lost maybe 25% of his bodyweight. He was out of work for a few months - and when he came back, he was like yeah OK I'm done with climbing now
Date: April 20th, 2026 8:25 PM Author: disgusting deep party of the first part
wonderful post-moniker synergy. yeah this dude wore 3 piece suits to the office, was a very smooth older man, and would manage to drop in conversation "oh yes, i'm going back to nepal next month for another mountain climb." great shtick, but he lived it
Date: April 20th, 2026 4:47 PM Author: Metaphysics is Gay
Yes you have to progressively acclimatize and end up climbing the equivalent of the height of the mountain twice given multiple ascents and descents between camps.
Date: April 21st, 2026 8:39 AM Author: Startled wine circlehead
Everest is flame. You fly or drive over halfway to the top.
On the Tibet (North) side, you can drive via jeep to North Base Camp, which sits around 16,900 to 17,100 feet (5,200m) above sea level. On the Nepal (South) side, you typically fly into Lukla and trek for several days to Base Camp, which is at roughly 17,598 feet (5,364m).
Date: April 21st, 2026 9:12 AM Author: Metaphysics is Gay
Yes the Everest climb is not the longest climb you can do. Denali is a taller climb from base to peak. But everest is the tallest peak above sea level and the thinnest air.
Its also not the closest point on earth to space. Thats a peak in Ecuador, which is closer to space due to the bulge of the earth at the equator.
Date: April 21st, 2026 9:15 AM Author: pale impressive university
Kili is the most prominent peak in the world I think. There’s nothing else around it. Looks alpha as fuck. Everest is surrounded by other big mountains and doesn’t look so impressive.