Man dies on Mount Everest during cryptocurrency promotional stunt
sfgate.com
sfgate.com
These were not four crypto nerds travelling with a Sherpa, it was a team of four experienced alpinists, accompanied by three Sherpas. The expedition was not planned by AskFM, they only decided to sponsor the expedition in exchange for the potential to make it into dumb promotional material. In all likelihood, the alpinists were going to make the trek with or without the sponsorship, but the sponsorship from AskFM did help cover financial costs. This is no different than Red Bull sponsoring dangerous stunts all the time. For what it's worth, the team apparently rescued a climber from a different expedition along the way down, who most certainly would have died otherwise.
That said, the CEO did not handle the situation well. On being accused of this, he called the whole thing a rumour. Later, he conceded how fucked up the whole thing was, but AskFM still hasn't removed the tasteless promotion.
This nonsense could be an absurd line from HBO's Silicon Valley, and people would have found it hilarious. Instead it's not only real, it's cost _a life_. I can't believe this.
Consider this: Somewhere in the world, someone is going to eat poison on camera to get some ad money on YouTube. Would you say "Well it was going to happen anyway, so I might as well pay them to tattoo my brandname on their forehead while they're at it"?
No, you'd probably say "Wow, that sounds like a risky thing to do, and maybe it would look really bad for my brand, especially if they actually did die". So you should take a moment and ask "Why am I blaming the sherpa for the death, but absolving the rich people who paid him to do it?". There is a world view where you can think that maybe people shouldn't pay people to do risky things for stupid reasons.
I'd encourage you to pitch that to the sherpas and see what their reaction would be to you wanting to take away pretty much their only source of income.
So there's legit no reason to pay someone to climb Mount Everest?
What about raising money? Is it still immoral? What about if that person was going to climb either way (which was also true in this situation)?
Having climbed the beast myself once, I can partly appreciate the fact that the feeling of accomplishment and reward is like no other, but practices like these when an inexperienced group of folks lead to loss of innocent lives is totally unacceptable. Despite our government trying our best to reduce such casualties by implementing strict rules & prohibitions, Sherpas are compelled to go for the climb because it's their only source of income at this remote part of the world.
1. Climbers must be accompanied by a guide at all times – no solo climbs.
2. Climbers must have summited a 7,000 meter peak prior to attempting Everest.
3. People over the age of 75 are banned from climbing.
4. People who are blind are banned from climbing.
5. Double amputees are banned from climbing.
6. Helicopter rides over EBC [ *Everest Base Camp* ] are to be heavily restricted.
7. Sherpas will also get a summit certificate after the climb.They were professional alpinists.
The trek, independent of the company, would have happened with or without crypto company's backing.
https://www.newsbtc.com/2018/06/04/whos-to-be-blamed-for-the...
But the crypto promotion does make the death feel extra cheapened, it'd be like having someone die doing a dangerous stunt while promoting, I don't know, Kim Kardashian perfume or something useless like that.
[0]https://www.amazon.com/Into-Thin-Air-Personal-Disaster/dp/03...
Still keeps me the creeps...
This line in the article feels really weird and sketchy. Especially given that I’d never heard of the site. I don’t see any indication this is true whatever it means. But the fact that they are pivoting to crypto doesn’t make me think they’ve been all that successful in the social media world.
Here's a page with a lot of statistics http://www.alanarnette.com/blog/2017/12/17/everest-by-the-nu.... It's primarily based on analysis of http://www.himalayandatabase.com/, plus some other history recounted by the blog author.
No, it wasn't "the mountain" that brought out the worst in these people. It was quite simply the obsessive pursuit of money, acclaim, and ideology.
It’s basically the achievement treadmill. Either you realize you eventually have to get off the treadmill or you die trying to make it to the end.
It seems like the very worst aspects of human nature have congealed on the coin industry. Every huckster and madmen wannabe is pushing their flavor of snake oil.