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Comment by BurningFrog | Hacker News Reader

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BurningFrog·

You also need to factor in that Mars has 1/3 of Earth gravity.

I have no experience in low gravity climbing, but it has to be a substantial help!

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Interesting take! I feel like factoring that in:

- low gravity: -1 difficulty

- less traction because low gravity: +1 difficulty

- supply chain from earth: +1 difficulty

- full spacesuit in addition to supplies: +1 difficulty

So overall my pseudo math: +2 difficulty

It has a very low slope angle of about 5%, so it would be really more like a hike, esp in such low gravity.

Unlike Mt Everest, a mountain formed by a collision of tectonic plates, Olympic is a shield volcano and they are the opposite to mountains in terms of slope angles.

Considering it's a really old and wide shield volcano, the limiting factor can't be the 'climb' so to speak. Surely it's traction so perhaps lower gravity is worse? On the other hand you _can_ bound up it. Still, I can't help but think we'd be traction limited in some sense. Usain Bolt would probably be about the same time considering he can't push down enough, I imagine. Would be cool to estimate.

Are you saying the terrain is more gravel/sand than solid rock?

I was just thinking about the gravitational force providing traction to go forward.

Aha. I didn't even consider that could be a factor. You may well be right.

I do know, after having walked up many a high mountain, that a major pain point is the gained altitude. You're lifting your body weight several kilometers up! Distance walked is a much smaller factor.

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