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Hi C.D.,
I apologize for having listed so many athletes, but in my case it was people I most honestly and deeply admire for their capacities and accomplishments. If I started listing people whose work I like, it would include many artists (authors, musicians, painters, directors, actors, etc.).
Pertaining to mountaineering, nobody really believes that Mallory and his friends made the Everest summit. Everest, especially its South side (from Nepal) is not so much a technical or dangerous climb, apart from the Kumbu Icefall in the beginning and the last part of the climb, around the Hillary Step. Especially in the last 20 years, with the prepared, all roped route and all technical support/food carried up by the Sherpas, Everist has become a commercial business, for the rich tourists rather than the real mountaineers. The most authentically challenging mountains to climb are K2 (due to its pronounced conical shape and overexposure to storms, plus it's just a few hundred meters shorter than Everest, and very isolated, difficult to reach) and Annapurna (also notorious storm exposure). People agree that the most beautiful Himalayan 8.000er to climb is Cho Oyu.
I've got Jon Krakauer's Into thin air (very well-structured, well-researched, and clever in its analysis of the 1996 Everest tragedy, but also quite a bit manipulative in the way he portraits Rob Hall as a selfless mentor and Anatoli Boukreev as the villain), I also have Anatoli Boukreev's own book reporting on the event, and even the (pretty much puerile, but honest) report by Danish climber Lene Gammelgaard. The 1996 storm was not an unusual occurrence, “horrific“ in its dimensions or length of time, it just reached tragic consequences due to the fact that people stayed up on the mountain way too late (after 13.00 p.m.), due to the pressure imposed on competing commercial climbing expeditions (of Rob Hall's and Scott Fisher's) to bring as many clients to the summit as possible in order to continue to exist financially.
Truly horrific storms and avalanches happen regularly on K2 and Annapurna. There are some great books about climbing both these mountains if you're interested in reading about mountaineering in the Himalayans, C.D.. There's also an impressive death toll (of experienced climbers, not tourists) on both these mountains.
I've only climbed a little bit (glacier and ice in Chamonix, mixed terrain/rock over Grenoble) and adored it, but too expensive to pursue frequently (the travelling). But if I ever get a job in a place close to climbing terrain, definitely. In snowboarding I'm doing freestyle, not freeride/backcountry. Bakcountry requires more expensive travelling, and can't be easily sponsored. Hence I'm comfortable with jumps/crashes, light clothing, riding with an iPod and a tiny backpack, not riding down entire mountain faces with avalanche gear in a huge backpack, careful that not the entire face collapses and pursues me.
With many apologies for the excursion into mountain-talk.
I apologize for having listed so many athletes, but in my case it was people I most honestly and deeply admire for their capacities and accomplishments. If I started listing people whose work I like, it would include many artists (authors, musicians, painters, directors, actors, etc.).
Pertaining to mountaineering, nobody really believes that Mallory and his friends made the Everest summit. Everest, especially its South side (from Nepal) is not so much a technical or dangerous climb, apart from the Kumbu Icefall in the beginning and the last part of the climb, around the Hillary Step. Especially in the last 20 years, with the prepared, all roped route and all technical support/food carried up by the Sherpas, Everist has become a commercial business, for the rich tourists rather than the real mountaineers. The most authentically challenging mountains to climb are K2 (due to its pronounced conical shape and overexposure to storms, plus it's just a few hundred meters shorter than Everest, and very isolated, difficult to reach) and Annapurna (also notorious storm exposure). People agree that the most beautiful Himalayan 8.000er to climb is Cho Oyu.
I've got Jon Krakauer's Into thin air (very well-structured, well-researched, and clever in its analysis of the 1996 Everest tragedy, but also quite a bit manipulative in the way he portraits Rob Hall as a selfless mentor and Anatoli Boukreev as the villain), I also have Anatoli Boukreev's own book reporting on the event, and even the (pretty much puerile, but honest) report by Danish climber Lene Gammelgaard. The 1996 storm was not an unusual occurrence, “horrific“ in its dimensions or length of time, it just reached tragic consequences due to the fact that people stayed up on the mountain way too late (after 13.00 p.m.), due to the pressure imposed on competing commercial climbing expeditions (of Rob Hall's and Scott Fisher's) to bring as many clients to the summit as possible in order to continue to exist financially.
Truly horrific storms and avalanches happen regularly on K2 and Annapurna. There are some great books about climbing both these mountains if you're interested in reading about mountaineering in the Himalayans, C.D.. There's also an impressive death toll (of experienced climbers, not tourists) on both these mountains.
I've only climbed a little bit (glacier and ice in Chamonix, mixed terrain/rock over Grenoble) and adored it, but too expensive to pursue frequently (the travelling). But if I ever get a job in a place close to climbing terrain, definitely. In snowboarding I'm doing freestyle, not freeride/backcountry. Bakcountry requires more expensive travelling, and can't be easily sponsored. Hence I'm comfortable with jumps/crashes, light clothing, riding with an iPod and a tiny backpack, not riding down entire mountain faces with avalanche gear in a huge backpack, careful that not the entire face collapses and pursues me.
With many apologies for the excursion into mountain-talk.
Makes me wonder if there might be some interesting story/titillating detail in here about Agnetha Faltskong, but I'd hate to pry.
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