Thursday 17 February 2011

The Madness of Everest

I have always been fascinated by mountains, they look so grandiose, they stand in majestic magnificence, and some just look beautiful and spectacular. The lord of all mountains and the highest and greatest mountain is of course Mount Everest; it stands at over 29,000 ft, nearly 9,000 metres. It is the most climbed of all the death zone mountains (mountains over 8,000 metres), and because of this, it has had the most deaths, nearly double the next largest I think.


One of the reasons Everest is the most climbed, is because it is classified as an easy mountain, as far as mountains go, to climb. Since it is easier than other mountains to climb, it leads to more people wanting to attempt to climb it, thinking it will be easy. That is definitely not the case, it is the king of death, and as it is nearly 9,000 metres high, and well into the death zone, as the name suggests once you enter the last 1,000 metres your chances of death increase exponentially, with every step you take towards the summit.

So why do people do it?

Well they say that you are most alive when you are closest to death, you feel an amazing sense of joy, achievement, and the thrill of life envelopes you. I would love to get the chance to climb Mount Everest; it would be an amazing thrill. I doubt it will ever happen since you need large amounts of money, plus you need to gain experience on other mountains. Nicking a quote from a film I have just watched; “Good judgement comes from experience and a lot of that comes from bad judgement.” Which I think is very apt when talking about climbing Mount Everest.

Even experienced climbers with years of climbing high mountains can concede defeat to its might. I have watched many documentaries about the great mountain, and it fascinates me how when the hypoxia starts to kick in from lack of Oxygen, how uncooperative people become as if they want to die. It reminds me of the irrational mania I feel sometimes.

I suppose I will just have to dream about climbing the great mountain as it is too expensive, maybe I can one day take a journey to Base Camp, and have a trek across the Himalayas that would be cool also.

Climbing Mount Everest, and seeing Planet Earth from space are two things I would love to achieve before I die, it is likely I will not achieve either, but it does not stop me dreaming, hoping that one day I will. My other dream is to write a book worthy of being published, which seems quite a bit easier compared to my other two.

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