Insignificant Everest

 
In this photo made on May 22, 2019, a long queue of mountain climbers line a path on Mount Everest. NIRMAL PURJA/AP

When I utter the phrase “Climbing Mount Everest” what images spring to your mind? 

Do you picture accomplishing the unthinkable?

Maybe you imagine completing a strenuous task?

Possibly you think about it in the same vein as traveling into space?

You probably don’t picture it as routine as commuting to work or planning a vacation or booking a flight, right? 

Perhaps you should.

It used to be, getting to Nepal was a struggle in itself. Before you could even embark on the mountain, you had to find yourself at the foot of the Himalayas. Since 1953 when Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa of Nepal, and Edmund Hillary, a New Zealand mountaineer he assisted up the infamous mountain, first climbed to the precipice of the known world, times have drastically changed.

Nowadays, I could catch a flight from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport tomorrow and be in Nepal in less than a day. It’d also cost me less than I received from my first COVID stimulus check.

Did I have to use some wild travel website or booking agency to get that flight?

Nope.

A simple Google search and a click on Kayak later and I had my flight planned out, return trip and all. It even had a Honey discount code as an option.

Quite the deal!

So if getting there is no longer the exploration it once was, climbing the beast of a mountain itself must still be near impossible, right?

Not exactly.

Climbing tools and equipment have come a long way in the 68 years since that impressive Sherpa, and that bloke he helped, climbed to the peak of Everest.

Madison Mountaineering has a full webpage dedicated to what you need to pack to get from bottom to top and back. They’ll even help buy it for you. There are now synthetic, non-cotton, fabrics that are waterproof and weather resistant. Boots that are more advanced than those that graced the surface of the moon, designed to keep your toes nice and toasty from start to finish with gloves designed to do the same for all your digits. There are also polarized goggles that will keep the wind and sun away from your peepers.

Couple all that with things like tents and sleeping bags capable of withstanding sub-zero temperatures until the end of time, dry foods that cut the weight of your loadout, as well as extremely heavy-duty and equally lightweight trekking gear, the equipment you bring with you is essentially from another planet than what Tenzing Norgay had to work with.

On top of that, there are paths and routes to lead you to the summit too.

There are entire sites and blogs dedicated to comparing the route options. Want an easier climb? Take the South Col Route. Looking to make it more of a challenge? The Northeast Ridge Route is the route for you.

You can even virtual practice the climb thanks to Google.

Not to mention, you’ll have a personal guide from the base of the mountain to the crown of it and all the way back down.

That’s right. A Sherpa just like Tenzing.

These Sherpas have climbed this “unclimbable” mountain dozens of times. One Sherpa, Kami Rita, 52, climbed the mountain twice in one week in May 2018. This is their career. They suit up, ascend the mountain with their paying customers who are decked out in much more advanced equipment than them most of the time, and then descend back to their homes and families. Kami Rita has now climbed Everest 25 times. He just completed that 25th summit on May 7, 2021.

So if Sherpas do this climb as routinely as some people see their in-laws, what is the draw to the mountain?

That is the first difficult question to answer.

The simple response is the history.

Some people view climbing Mount Everest as equivalent to winning a World Series, hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy, or bringing home a World Cup. Others may have done it before you, they might have had a tougher time getting there, but that doesn’t take away the magnitude of this accomplishment from you. There is a sense of majesty and honor in those icy cliffs.

Another answer, because it’s a sign of wealth.

You can be in the most average shape of anyone on this blue sphere and if you’re affluent enough, get to the top of the world. To many, Everest is simply another mark to show just how opulent they are. They use its history as an excuse to buy their way to the top.

There is no challenge in that and nothing to be applauded.

These people also make the trek easier for those that follow by highlighting ways to get to the mountaintop with money rather than skill, effort, and talent. 

Instead of seeking out a roundtrip to Nepal, being the 100th person to complete the climb in that month, and posting it on your Instagram for clout, let’s seek out our next Everest.

Everest only became the legend it is today because it was such a challenge decades ago. We should be seeking out that new, impossible for humans to conquer, task and pushing our limits in advanced and exciting ways. To use sports as an analogy again, why win the 1923 World Series with the exact same roster, Babe Ruth and all, that the Yankees did when you can blaze your own trail and win a new World Series?

Climbing Mount Everest today is simply that. Winning a championship someone else already won a lifetime ago.