Climbing Mount Everest has always been touted in media and common talk as being the most arduous task one can undertake. True? You be the judge. Not so for some adrenaline seeking junkies out there. Some people just cannot live any other life but at the edge of death by trying out such feats. I for one cannot attempt such an undertaking let alone contemplate doing it! My perception of it is that the odds of surviving or getting back unscathed are too steeped against me. May be it’s only my fear driving me.Recently social media was flooded by news of a Mount Everest morgue up the mountain. That dead bodies, of climbers, had overwhelmed the snow capped ranges. Figuratively of course, but high enough numbers not to go unnoticed. Everyone must have been saddened but wondering what anyone in their right mind was doing up there. This goes to show how climbing Everest can turn deadly.
If you’ve been following news like I do you might have seen the story about the worst Mount Everest climbing disaster in 1996 in the media. 15 people dead in one year, eight of them on 11th may alone! Read it in Newsweek, my uncle was a subscriber, I was still in primary school then. Always loved nature and adventure that’s why I got interested and captivated by the article. And I loved the glossy pages! Years later I’m watching Discovery World’s Beyond the Limit documentary on “mount everest tours” by “dare devils”. Unsurprisingly it’s the same script, the emotional roller coaster of danger and death lurking!
The journey begins at the Mount Everest base camp, a month’s stay to acclimatize to the thinner air. Later actually found out, if you’ve been wondering like me where is Mount Everest located, it traverses Nepal and china. I cannot fully lay out the details of the climb as it covers a whopping six episodes. You only have to watch it to comprehend the extremes of the journey and human spirit.
So you’d probably be wondering why anyone would attempt to climb Mount Everest. Well I’m not a shrink to decipher what goes on in the human mind but I noticed a common characteristic to most of the climbers in the documentary. They have a flaw within them or with their past. An asthmatic, a double amputee, a firefighter who lost colleagues in 9/11, a bronchitis sufferer etc. They have a point to prove to the world, that despite their shortcomings they can still conquer the world. That’s my take on it, what’s yours? Would you attempt a Mount Everest hike?
