Natural Wonders wrecking people

onesixsix said:
I hear that.

It's cliché, but the notion of "it's out there" and the craving for extreme experiences is powerful. Maybe not as intense as the 3 big climbs have you ever gone up Nate Harrison grade on Mt Palomar? It's a long day, but no risk of getting lost, stuck, snowed in, or altitude sick.
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i haven't, but maybe if i'm ever out there for a bit again. my brother and all my buddies pretty much all moved away from LA/OC now, so i haven't been in a good while, nobody to go see any more. there was a time where i was in grad school or an entry level job, it was easy for me to just get away for the cost of a flight, tons of people out there, i'd just go out for 2 weeks at a time like 3-4 times a year and always have a free place to stay and free transportation, now they're all gone, and i also can't be couch surfing on a whim any more. i'll try to remember though.

Mt. Baldy was funny. we did that first, on a whim, with tennis shoes and no poles or actual hiking gear. ran out of water, blisters so bad they were bleeding into my socks haha, but still not too bad. at the top, we saw a guy try to hit a golf ball off his backpack and he swatted his backpack off like a 2000 foot drop off and everyone was laughing. good times. the next two we came more prepared.
 
Got to respect that place. Been to the GC once, 1989. Stepped off a walking path near the edge and inched to get a better view of the drop…about 1000 ft +. Feet started sliding towards the edge, went a few feet then a something stopped me. Rock, tree root, the hand of God, I don’t know. I slowly eased my way back to the path, and never left it again.
 
onesixsix said:
Ahem, -40*K is roughly negative -532*F... for context, absolute zero, or 0*k is -273.15*F. So, I'm pretty sure you're pulling a penguin's leg with this -40*K business, aren't you?

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Yeah, it's the Germans bombing Pearl Harbour again...

Nerd Speak for today.
°F & °C are units expressed in degrees because they're not absolute. They're in reference (in the case of Celcius) to water different states at atmospheric pressure. (God fuck knows what Fahrenheit refer to and who really cares, it isn't really used anymore...)

Kelvin are absolutes, there is no minus Kelvin.

So a comfortable temperature is 293 K (no degrees required)
 
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Reading Touching The Void cured me of any mountain climbing bug I never had.

Into Thin Air was also useful....
 
...what Fahrenheit refer to and who really cares, it isn't really used anymore...
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(*C x 9/5) + 32 = F

I will literally never forget that equation... same with PV=nRT (where T is in Kelvin, always)
 
tzrider said:
Reading Touching The Void cured me of any mountain climbing bug I never had.

Into Thin Air was also useful....
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Same, I'd also suggest K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain. In the event that you feel a resurgence on the topic coming on.
 
Rdrace42 said:
You check out 14 Peaks yet?
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Ok, so watched it over the weekend. I'm old so I have to go to bed early and watch 90 minute movies in 30 minute segments after din din. Anyway, I digress...

At the end of the film, I was left with three thoughts (questions?):

1. How Nirmal Purja and his whole team are not front and center of every mountaineering magazine, brand, TED talk, etc. etc. is a confusing. This was an truly remarkable (albeit extremely selfish) achievement on a global scale and yet it feels like a whimper from a marketing and commercial reach perspective given the outsized accomplishment,
2. How is it that this group of climbers, with all due respect to all others to achieve the feat, completed a triple-header of Everest, Lhotse and Makalu in 2 days and 30 minutes while most western expeditions take two months to climb just Everest?
3. Why did this documentary need to be self-produced while Free Solo was a Nat Geo production? No disrespect to Alex Honhold, but someone taking on the challenge that Purja and his team took on should at least elicit interest from a major outdoor media group? Maybe it did and the deal feel apart, I don't know, but again given the outsized achievement the the film's reach comes off like a whisper without a great deal of interest from endemic media and sponsors.

Thank you for the recommendation!
 
onesixsix said:
Ok, so watched it over the weekend. I'm old so I have to go to bed early and watch 90 minute movies in 30 minute segments after din din. Anyway, I digress...

At the end of the film, I was left with three thoughts (questions?):

1. How Nirmal Purja and his whole team are not front and center of every mountaineering magazine, brand, TED talk, etc. etc. is a confusing. This was an truly remarkable (albeit extremely selfish) achievement on a global scale and yet it feels like a whimper from a marketing and commercial reach perspective given the outsized accomplishment,
2. How is it that this group of climbers, with all due respect to all others to achieve the feat, completed a triple-header of Everest, Lhotse and Makalu in 2 days and 30 minutes while most western expeditions take two months to climb just Everest?
3. Why did this documentary need to be self-produced while Free Solo was a Nat Geo production? No disrespect to Alex Honhold, but someone taking on the challenge that Purja and his team took on should at least elicit interest from a major outdoor media group? Maybe it did and the deal feel apart, I don't know, but again given the outsized achievement the the film's reach comes off like a whisper without a great deal of interest from endemic media and sponsors.

Thank you for the recommendation!
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Like you, I was pretty mind-blown that this wasn't promoted on a global scale and known by pretty much everybody. I don't recall seeing any news stories about it, and only stumbled on the movie by accident. Nobody that I know has seen it, unless through my recommendation. I had the same questions in my mind. Why? In the little bit of research I did, it seems that there are some negative attitudes towards the way Purja promoted himself supposedly over the efforts of his team. I didn't really see it that way, but let's say that's true. Nearly every explorer that has accomplished a great feat, could be accused of the same thing. There appear to be all sorts of naysayers ready to criticize for the fact that he used oxygen, or didn't take the right safety precautions, or blah blah blah... In the end, the question is whether he actually accomplished what he says he did. Nobody seems to be disputing that, and for me I think that's all I'm interested in. Whatever means it took to accomplish this challenge, he still did it. Does the guy have an ego? Who cares. Did the guy not give enough credit to his supporting team? Who cares. When I was younger, I used to revel in opportunities to push my body past where it wanted to go. Grand canyon rim to rim in a day? Yeah baby, let's suffer. This whole thing is on such a different level that I can't even comprehend it.
 
There's an 18 year old who is currently awaiting Chinese authorization to climb his 14th 8K+ peak. I saw him on the news last week but I forgot to go back and make a note of his name. I believe he's Nepalese. There's another kid slightly older also racing to his 14th. White kid. Can't remember which country. If he gets there first, he will be the youngest until the Nepalese kid takes it back.
 
Rdrace42 said:
Like you, I was pretty mind-blown that this wasn't promoted on a global scale and known by pretty much everybody. I don't recall seeing any news stories about it, and only stumbled on the movie by accident. Nobody that I know has seen it, unless through my recommendation. I had the same questions in my mind. Why? In the little bit of research I did, it seems that there are some negative attitudes towards the way Purja promoted himself supposedly over the efforts of his team. I didn't really see it that way, but let's say that's true. Nearly every explorer that has accomplished a great feat, could be accused of the same thing. There appear to be all sorts of naysayers ready to criticize for the fact that he used oxygen, or didn't take the right safety precautions, or blah blah blah... In the end, the question is whether he actually accomplished what he says he did. Nobody seems to be disputing that, and for me I think that's all I'm interested in. Whatever means it took to accomplish this challenge, he still did it. Does the guy have an ego? Who cares. Did the guy not give enough credit to his supporting team? Who cares. When I was younger, I used to revel in opportunities to push my body past where it wanted to go. Grand canyon rim to rim in a day? Yeah baby, let's suffer. This whole thing is on such a different level that I can't even comprehend it.
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Totally agree on all accounts... and especially on the grand achievements. Was Steve Jobs an excellent family man? How about Columbus? Maybe Lance Armstrong got all buddy buddy with the peloton when no one was looking? Like I said, an achievement of this scale is a) utterly amazing and b) entirely self-promoting and selfish. To reach a peak of performance, in any realm, is difficult to do with perfect harmony and balance. With that said, I didn't see anything in the film where he did not at least attempt to embrace his team, their role in his success, and their own climbing prowess.

Going back to the attention, or lack thereof, that the film got. As I watched it, I thought that the deus ex machina was that he faked the whole thing. Yet, lo and behold, it's real and yet one of the greatest mountaineering achievements of the 21st century (and maybe all mountaineering) is one that no one has heard of. Wild.
 
Sadly, it may be as simple as very little (relatively) western interest in Sherpa achievements. They’ve always been wrongly portrayed as “just the helpers” in the popular press.

Absolutely astonishing feat, physically and logistically. Made a lot of people start to imagine new possibilities
 
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