Climbing Mt. Everest No Big Deal

There was a story in the news a week or so ago about a double amputee that reached the summit of Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain in the world. This climber was a former mountaineer rescuer who lost his legs in a climbing accident. He kept active in the sport with the use of prosthetic legs, and has now become the first double amputee to summit Everest.

Before 1953, no one in, I don't know, 1 million or so years had climbed to the top of Mt. Everest. Since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climbed it in 1953, nearly 2000 people have done the same. (Conversely, K2, the world's second tallest mountain, a mere 700 feet shorter than Everest, has been summited by fewer than 200.) Apparently, climbing a mountain that's five and a half miles tall is not the feat it used to be.

Climbing Everest used to be something special, and something only the bravest and most skilled climbers could accomplish. Before Hillary, numerous climbers tried unsuccessfully to reach the summit. Famed mountaineer George Mallory made numerous attempts to the top, and eventually, died up there. (His body is still there today.) After Hillary reached the top, he was promptly knighted by Queen Elizabeth. This used to be a big deal.

Now, you don't even have to be that skilled of a climber to go up there. All you need is a lot of money (to pay the astronomical fee Tibet charges climbers) and a pretty good guide, and they'll drag your ass right up that mountain. Sure, you might die (like the eight people that died on a single day in 1996), but they'll get you to the top. You have people summiting multiple times. Filmmaker David Breashears, who directed the movie Everest, has been to the top four times, including twice in one year, and another time dragging a 70mm IMAX camera with him.

But Breashears is able-bodied; he has all his limbs and vital functions. But it seems you don't need any of that, because a guy with no legs just did it. I read another story about a blind man who reached the summit. A blind man. How the fuck does a blind person climb the world's tallest mountain?!?

I guess all you need nowadays to accomplish what was once the world's most daunting feat is have a heartbeat and at least two limbs. If that's the case, sign me up; I'll kill that fucking molehill.