Y Ddraig Goch

May 10 2025 - Stay Safe, Stay Lazy

Prompt: Eight climbers die on Mount Everest during a storm on May 10, 1996. It was the worst loss of life ever on the mountain on a single day. Author Jon Krakauer, who himself attempted to climb the peak that year, wrote a best-selling book about the incident, Into Thin Air, which was published in 1997.

Every year despite the book about the deaths that occur each year climbing people pay thousands of dollars to climb Mt. Everest. If you had the money would you try or not? What do you think the fascination is with climbing?

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I wouldn't climb Mount Everest even if I was paid $,$$$,$$$ to. I know my limitation. I either wouldn't make the submit or I'd never make it back - at least with all my toes. I have no interest in proving myself to a mountain. The mountain wins!! It's the same with free diving. Not for me.

I've had my adrenaline - make me feel alive - moments in my late teens and earlier twenty with bungee jumping and skydiving. My body is not the same. It no longer bounces back. It takes longer to recover. I'd much prefer to go on adventures from the comfort of my sofa, in my PJs, with a hot cup of tea in hand.

"Everest is littered with the bodies of fit, ambitious people - stay safe, stay lazy..."

As for others and their fascination, I can only think it is for the sense of achievement. Of completing something that so few human beings get to do. To be in that select group. And good for them. No one should or can take that away from them. But, I'd still rather a mug of hot chocolate and a documentary on the climb.