Re:Everest is littered with dead, exposed bodies
by bmj on Tuesday December 07, 2010 @06:58AM
(#1978795)
Alpinism, mountaineering's crazy sibling, takes this a step further. Often, cutting edge alpinists (the people who do dangerous, high stuff with little more than a pack on their back) don't climb for the summit--they climb to plumb the depths of what they are capable of. Sometimes, the summit doesn't even matter.
Everest is a trophy, for sure, and it is hardly a purely difficult climb (that's not to underscore the objective dangers, however). Stevie Haston, a famous and accomplished British alpinist, has compared Everest to doing push-ups with a plastic bag over your head.
Re:Everest is littered with dead, exposed bodies
by Tichy on Tuesday December 07, 2010 @07:26AM
(#1978840)
I hope the risk of dieing is significantly lower than 1:10 with entrepreneurship.
Re:Everest is littered with dead, exposed bodies
by thaumaturgy on Tuesday December 07, 2010 @12:25PM
(#1979737)
Different people measure value in different ways. I can't speak for anyone else, but as for myself, I would be driven suicidal by a long, boring life. If the risks that I take in the pursuit of memorable experiences and exciting ventures results in a shorter life ... that's OK with me.
Also -- risk of accidental death aside -- climbing and mountaineering are probably the two singularly best ways to maintain great physical conditioning.
Anyway, that's enough HN for me for a while.
Re:Everest is littered with dead, exposed bodies
by Tichy on Tuesday December 07, 2010 @12:34PM
(#1979771)
I would agree, if I couldn't think of lots of other exciting activities with lower risk.
One of my hobbies used to be brutal enduro-hiking, and my little trip up Rainier years ago still stands out in my memory as the hardest thing I've ever done.
If HN readers really need that entrepreneur spin on this, then I'd suggest that there are a lot of parallels between summiting (and knowing when not to summit) and entrepreneurship.
Everest specifically is probably more because it's a trophy; there are a lot of mountains out there that would afford a pretty similar challenge.