Well spotted. And if they are on MY lawn they will likely exit as if pursued by a bear, pustuled knaves that they are.
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Sherpa is not actually a job title, it’s an ethnic group.
Does someone actually think this? I mean, I know some people aren’t experts in geography but come on!
How much would it cost to bore a helical tunnel up the inside of Everest? I have visions of half-dead climbers making that final push over the Hillary Step … only to find a Women’s Auxillary group from Melbourne having tea and cake at the summit.
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It was only a noun in the 1919 OED.
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[several replies skipped for humour]
Assuming you manage to tether your space elevator to Mt. Everest you will still need to be careful about total weight. The robotic exoskeleton needed to rapidly descend the lhotse face will likely weigh tons and every ounce put in orbit will come at a steep price.
The New York Times did a great piece on retrieving the bodies of several Indian climbers from the mountain, which I gather is rarely done: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/18/sports/everest-deaths.html
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“What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen bar-headed goose?”:
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African or European?
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I don’t know that!
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Lawn o’Goshen!
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I just scythed the grass this morning!
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So you think we can look forward to bumper stickers saying “THIS CAR CLIMBED MOUNT EVEREST”? Actually, as far as I know, the Mt Washington road was built to service the weather station on top. It has recorded a windspeed of 231 miles per hour, a world record for non cyclonic wind.
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Henceforth all mountaineers who summit Everest should be required do so as did Göran Kropp, who rode his bicycle from Sweden 8,000 miles to the Everest base camp, where he proceeded to reach the summit alone without oxygen.
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I used to. Reading about Everest as a kid, fifty years ago, I thought it was a job title. Of course, the books in the school library were probably old even then.
Maybe thirty years aho I wax reading something, and suddenly realized that “Sherpa”, wasn’t a role, “the people who carry the equipment up Mt. Everest”, but describes a people.
Even now, I can’t say I’ve ever seen that much talk about Sherpas other than when they help people climb the mountain.
I haven’t read a lot, but probably have read more than most people about the region, so I suspect it’s not an uncommon error.
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It’s also come to mean a certain type of diplomatic envoy…
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And the rail line? Or the funicular up the Eiger?Or …
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Yeah, yeah I get it! I guess I’m just a hopeless romantic. I’d like to think that any billionaire today would be too embarrassed to catch a ride to the top of Everest, but obviously there is an, umm, slippery slope between there and it being a tourist destination. I haven’t heard of many billionaires joyriding to the South Pole. Unlike many previous life-risking adventures that are now “adventure travel”, the poles and Everest are really unpleasant, there’s not much reward except the adventure of getting there.
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And how about that dickhead helicopter pilot mentioned in the video. Did he have a plan for removing the wreckage should his landing attempt fail?
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I like adventures and doing interesting stuff but if someone told me they paid $60k to climb Mount Everest in a line with 50 other dummies looking like they were waiting in line for a buffet table I’d have to think they were kinda dumb.
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Oh, I mostly agree with you: it’d be great if people expended effort to experience amazing things. And some folks do. But most folks don’t; most folks just want the goodies, and don’t view physical effort and personal accomplishment as a goodie in itself.
Then there’s the folks who can’t. Should a paraplegic be denied sunrise over an active volcano because their wheelchair can’t get up there? I don’t really have a good answer to that. Parts of my country have been cut off from all development, including helicopters (no overflights, and no landings). They are incredible places, and the only way to get there is to drag your own ass up the valleys and over the mountains, navigating cross country because there aren’t any trails to follow. Is that good?
I think so.
I think so.
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