savaster
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Climb Every Mountain? 2
🕑 Added 2023-07-13 12:59:01 +0000 UTCOne of the key enablers of the summit enthusiasm is the commercialism that has become very big in the world of climbing. We know that you can (or at least, can try to) summit Mt. Everest with a budget of about 50,000 US dollars, which includes the permit from the Nepalese government, fees towards your mountain guide and Sherpa's, and other logistical costs that come with the feat of climbing the world's highest peak.
I'm sure each of the participants means no harm, but as in aggregate you can't ignore the risks and diseconomy that result of cramming an unusual number of people atop high frozen peak that's well into the "death zone." It’s been reported that Nepal issued a record number of climb permits this year to help boost its tourism revenue - the situation looks grim, but let's just pray that we won't see the high altitude human congestions or the mass avalanche related deaths like we saw a couple of summers ago.
This mountain commercialism occurs in Japan as well, at a smaller scale, with it geographically being a country of mountaintops. But there are actually some unique complicating factors in play that give us e.g. the most deadly mountain in the world (Mt. Tanigawa)...but this may be a story for another day.
Comments
Didrik Svahn
Well with our social media culture that we have been living in for over a decade. Bragging has become a big part of a sort of “social mobility”. Like how to get recognized on and get many likes is to do something that you can brag about. So I think that social media platforms have played a big part in the massive increase of tourist in this tourist sector. Also when it comes to billionaires it feels like space trips and rockets are the thing in their “dick measurements” competition. Just how previously they did compete in who that had the biggest and fascist yacht IMAO
savaster
Wholeheartedly agree. And as already mentioned, one disturbing factor is there are really no favorable consequences of summiting the world’s top peak except maybe brag about it among your circle of friends. Here it differs from billionaires who want to go on Blue Origin because satellite orbit is at least a point en route to the garter universe, as opposed to a sheer dead end :-(
savaster
In the likes of Green Boots (do not google:-))
Didrik Svahn
Yeah and what is even more crazy is how those climbers are used as waypoints along the way •_•
thekill
this moutnain has so much tourism, but also , i feel it needs to be mentioned, many climbed... many are still up there... o7
Didrik Svahn
It’s interesting how our capitalist society have been combined with our desire to perform the most extreme adventures. Have created such a market where what that once was a once in a one lifetime experience. Into a commercial opportunity where this has turned such extreme adventures into just a tourist trap in many cases. Which could be argued take away a bit from what that original experience is supposed to give
