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Comment by thesis | Hacker News Reader

There are far deadlier mountains out there than Everest. I think the current death rate is around 5%. Annapurna has killed about 35% of the climbers that attempted.

It has gotten to the point where there are basically proven (about as much as you can for something so dangerous) methods of getting to the top.

"Into Thin Air" is a great book on the journey (the very bad , and the good) to the top.

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I always thought about doing Everest if I could ever afford it. You know, one those idle "I'll do that someday thoughts" we all have.

Once I hit the "I could afford this" point I started researching Everest...read Into Thin Air, Dark Summit, No Shortcuts to the Top, etc., watched every documentary I could get my hands on, even talked with one of the climbers featured on the Discovery series that featured Russel Brice's company.

I've concluded that I'm not interested. I'm not interested in standing in line at the Second Step for hours while my body consumes itself and I burn through the scant amount of oxygen I have. I'm not interested in the very real risk that I may arrive back at Camp IV after a summit attempt to find my O2 and supplies stolen. I'm not interested in seeing the corpses, oxygen bottles, tents, and other detritus cluttering up the mountain.

I'm not condemning those who chose to go or those who help them get there, but I'm out: human behavior has made the idea of summiting Everest unappealing.

Mountaineering is a great time, but I agree with you about Everest. If you want to do something fun, challenging, and not quite so dangerous or commercialized check out climbing 14ers. Climbing all the ones in the state is a common past time in Colorado. They all have varying degrees of difficulty and depending the peak and time of year you may have a beautiful day climb completely alone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Colorado_fourteeners

The couple years I lived in CO I managed to get a few done and really enjoyed the experience.

My favorite moment while at the top of a 14er in CO: heard a helicopter, looked around for it, then realized it was below us.

I had no idea that stealing supplies was so common! I really only heard on it -- and was shocked -- while listening to this talk (about K2): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zkC9IMQmYA

That's an mazing story. He starts to talk about their supplies being stolen around 45:00 but it's worth it to watch the entire video.

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