Climbing Everest these days just seems to be the quintessential activity for people that have lost site of what really matters in life. It's where you end up if you never grow out of the idea that life is a competition you can win.
https://nepalmonitor.com/2025/03/19/nepal-overtourism-everes...
Climb as much as you like but clean up the waste you create.
What about the Nepalese people?
They want to do something other than clean up the tourists' mess or even their bodies.
What about other climbers and their staff who get endangered.
Do you also care for allowing people driving drunk?
I suspect you are un-conflicted in the sense that you aren't simultaneously compelled to climb Everest but are holding back due to the environment impact. Staying home or going to the movies might be fine for you but not necessarily everyone else. If you do travel / do other things you probably don't worry about the environment impact much - because you are doing "valid" stuff that you happen to like.
Some special forces guys, record summit Everest time… let me guess, one is an SAS sniper with numerous recorded kills in Iraq or Afghanistan… but clearly he can’t talk much about it, he just needs you to know it… maybe some mi5 action in there… this is tailor made for a “bro-tube” channel.
Ive never done mountaineering but I become fascinated by these stories of people on the mountain and sometimes wonder if I could do it. I definately never will, theres lots of other things id rather invest my time in but I can definately see the allure and why people become obsessed with doing it.
Anyways, after all that I have zero desire to ever go near Everest or any other risky mountain climb.
Personally? I think it's a pretty cool achievement and is _the_ mountain to climb for a reason. I'm with the other commenter here. Chase your passions.
https://nepalmonitor.com/2025/03/19/nepal-overtourism-everes...
Is this the case in mountaineering circles, or are K2 and Annapurna the peaks to be respected?
Many of the neighbouring countries -- including Nepal, India, Tibet, Bangladesh -- are effectively open-air garbage dumps, where rivers and fields and cities are just awash with discards and garbage. In environmentally critical places where it massively impedes with the life of millions.
In a relative sense I just do not care about some infinitesimal amount of discarded air canisters on a lifeless rock at 10,000 feet. It seems like misdirected envy when people suddenly super care about that. In an ideal world they would leave only footprints, but in the grand scheme of things it just does not matter. Cue another "OMG look at these air canisters some rich guys left at 15,000 feet!" articles.
It's a bit like how the anti-AI cadre have taken to suddenly being incredibly concerned about the energy usage of AI. Despite everything else, it's AI that's going to heat the planet. They never cared about data centre power usage when it was serving their big tiddy goth anime GIFs, but if it's AI suddenly they lament this outrage.