Why people climb mountains (an into thin air essay)

“The fight for survival is the strongest human instinct that we have, but when climbing a mountain that looms just bellow thirty thousand feet human survival is not an instinct it’s the only thing on your mind.”

In this essay I will answer the question: why do people climb mountains? There are many reasons why people would want to climb mountains such as everest and stand on the roof of the world. The main ones I found were, for research, personal accomplishment and personal gain. The urge to climb Everest has been tugging at minds of people since their childhood (like Jon Krakauer) and some of those people decide to pursue their dream to conquer the third pole.

Personal accomplishment is something that we all feel the need to achieve because… science. There is something about telling someone who says “I did the grouse grind.” “Well suck it I climbed Everest” that’s appealing to everybody. So it is no surprise that people like Krakauer take the opportunity to climb the great mountain when they get it. “[Jon] quickly came to understand that climbing Everest was primarily about enduring pain. And in subjecting [themselves] to week after week of toil, tedium, and suffering, it struck [him] that most of [them] were probably seeking, above all else, something like a state of grace. Of course for some climbers other, less virtuous motives came into play as well: minor celebrity, career advancement, ego massage, ordinary bragging rights, filthy lucre.” (chapter 10) This is something that Jon said while climbing the Lhotse face. This really reflects on the motives for most of the team he is working with. Witch is self accomplishment. “Managing Risks: “Because I can”, Learning Life Lessons: “Because it’s good for me” or Conquering the Challenge: “Because it’s there” ” (Bill Fink) These are the three main reasons people climb mountains for self accomplishment according to Bill. I think the one that was originally said by George Mallory is the most powerful because it really goes back to the roots of climbing. Now of course if I decided I wanted to climb Everest because it’s there with out any knowledge of mountaineering I would die so I would need to pay someone too take me up. Those people I would pay are the ones who go up for personal gain.

There is a big profit in climbing mountains such as everest with large commercial company’s charging “$65,000″ (alpine ascents) for the pleasure too help you risk your life. These people may well have started off by climbing for fun and realized as they got better that if your good at something don’t do it for free. Everest has been made a lot easier since into thin air was written because they know that the easier it is the more people will pay them money to climb. The encouraging websites some of these expeditions have are really shoving down your throat the fact that it is über safe and they boast about their safety record. This has been going on for years. “Taking note of Rob Hall’s success in guiding Everest—and the large fees he was able to command as a consequence—Fischer decided it was time for him to enter the Everest market. If he could emulate Hall, it would quickly catapult Mountain Madness to profitability.” (Chapter five). This shows how easy it is to make money doing this considering and it’s no surprise that people would see this as motivation to climb. Of course for the Sherpas it is know the main reason they climb instead of their old motivation witch was for spiritual reasons like being closer to their God’s. There a plenty of people who run commercial mountaineering expeditions for none profitable reasons like research.

“Headed by the award-winning filmmaker and expert climber David Brea-shears, who’d guided Dick Bass up Everest in 1985, the IMAX team was shooting a $5.5 million giant-screen movie about climbing the mountain.” (Chapter eight). The expedition up everest by the Imax team was to make a movie about everest for research purposes and to document the climb by the team and David Brea-shears. There are lots of reasons someone would want climb for research such as letting others know how to prepare for high altitudes. There tons of physics experiments that you can do such as so how thin air (pardon the pun) affects things like aerodynamics and turbulence. “Mount Everest is losing its snow and ice at an alarming rate, researchers have found. A major new study of Everest and the national park that surrounds it concluded the area has been warming since the early 1960s – with many small glaciers having already disappeared. The researchers said Everest itself was ‘shedding its frozen cloak’ and revealed the snow line on the mountain has risen by 180 metres.” (Mark Prigs). This scary as at is this was all funded and discovered by researchers. Thanks to them we can do something about it.

In conclusion whether it’s for personal gain, personal accomplishment/ fulfillment or research people will always want to conquer the challenge of mountaineering. There are many people who do get the admiration, glory and bragging rights that come with it but some die on these great pillars that hold up the heavens. Some it will always be a mystery to some why people decide to ascend the steps toward God only to face the likely hood of not coming down. Hopefully in your mind I did a good job describing why people climb mountains, with the help of the following links and the book into thin air. And now you don’t have to be one of those people who wonder why those crazy few of us climb mountains.

Alpine Ascents:
http://www.alpineascents.com/everest-price-date.asp

Mark Prigs:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2324936/Mount-Everest-LOSING-snow-ice-researchers-glaciers-region-shrunk-15-50-years.html#ixzz3MJ9RfOSe

Bill Fink:
https://www.yahoo.com/travel/deadliest-sport-ever-why-people-risk-their-lives-87909897077.html