Rita Macneil soon to climb everest...

[scrambled_legs]

Give it a few years and it could become a reality...

Put away the crampons and oxygen bottles, you can reach the top of Mount Everest via Helicopter. On the morning of May 14, EUROCOPTER X-test pilot Didier Delsalle landed his Ecureuil/AStar AS350B3 helicopter on Mount Everest s summit. He held the chopper there for two minutes, thereby breaking the World Record for highest altitude landing and take-off.

Baffled mountaineers in the region for the peak mountaineering season of May, had sited the mystery copter hovering in the Everest area, but could only guess at the reasons for the heli activity. Desalle has flown rescue missions for the Nepalese Government and is very acquainted with the Himalayas. Experimental flight tests began over a year ago, with the idea of pushing the altimeter a little higher until Desalle sat on the top of the world. For more info check out www.eurocopter.com/everest

[chelle]

And your point is?

[scrambled_legs]

Imagine climbing to the top of everest only to be greated by some rich tubby who wasn't even dragged up the hill by sherpas but rented a chopper to lift his fat ass up there?

[thelawgoddess]

if you just want to stand on top of the world, then the means don't really matter. if you want to CLIMB the highest mountain in the world (perhaps using what you believe is the purest climbing style) ... well, you get the picture. to each his own, whether we agree with it or like it or not.

[Chaps]

Technically, isn't the top of the world the North Pole? Or is any cartesian measurement a form of bigotry?

[j_b]

but wouldn't the point be that to climbers the means do really matter?

[chelle]

Imagine climbing to the top of everest only to be greated by some rich tubby who wasn't even dragged up the hill by sherpas but rented a chopper to lift his fat ass up there?

 

Still not sure I see your point Legs... Your link is to the photos documenting the feat that was news a few weeks ago, not some press release or ad about flying to the roof of the world. And I had to google Rita Macneil and found out she is an overweight Canadian country singer. Fail again to see the relevance. If you're looking for a bunch of people to flame on about inexperienced or rich climbers going to big peaks, spray is a better location for your original post.

 

I've heard nothing about commercial heli trips up to the summit of Everest. If that happens, I think TLG makes some great points. It's all about doing something in the style you chose. Someone else's style should not detract from your accomplishment. In general I think people who climb Everest wouldn't be so troubled and threatened with other people's choices on how to get there. They probably have higher self esteem than that, or they already know that the main routes on Everest are a circus and were okay with that when they chose to go.

 

While you may see commercial potential because a helicopter can now fly that high, others may be thankful that there is a helicopter and a skilled pilot who can do resuce missions to get injured climbers off very high mountains in a way that may not risk as many lives as an in person attempt. Hell, maybe we'll be lucky enough here in the PNW to get one of those birds and we won't have such risky missions in our heavy helicopters that can't fly in anything other than perfect conditions.

[j_b]

If you're looking for a bunch of people to flame on about inexperienced or rich climbers going to big peaks, spray is a better location for your original post.

 

certainly not. if climbers ranting about gapers getting to top from the backside doesn't belong on a climbers' board, what does?

 

I've heard nothing about commercial heli trips up to the summit of Everest.

 

won't happen. it's just PR to increase visibility for their products.

 

It's all about doing something in the style you chose. Someone else's style should not detract from your accomplishment.

 

but the sense of accomplishment also comes from doing something that gapers can't/won't do.

[chelle]

j_b:

 

If the post had been about a real incident, fine discuss it here. However, scrambled_legs is just crying chicken little and that does not belong here. "Oh my, the sky is falling... fat people might get helicopter rides up moutains because they're rich."

 

Come on... don't real climbers have more to talk about?

[j_b]

real climbers have talked about esthetics of line, means, etc .. for a long time now, and perhaps none more so than wrt everest.

[scrambled_legs]

Chelle, sorry I didn't mean to offend you. I have nothing against the fat gene I just think that its sad that the highest most untouchable locations on the earth are slowly becoming common place to everyone through technology. Isn't it saying something when you know that the only way that you can stand where you are standing is by working your ass off through physical perserverence. It's almost like the last of the uncharted territory for explorers. Up until now only climbers or people who at least worked at it and put themselves at the mercy of the terrain could say they stood on top of Everest. You have to have cringed at least once when you heard about someone getting dragged up everest with no climbing experience. This is just taking it to that next level. Sure it will help with rescues but part of the whole idea of Alpine climbing is really being out there... not in the middle of swarm of choppers with gapers clicking pictures. There was something to be said about being able to go only where your will can take you and not your wallet. As for it being posted in the climbing section, I learned about it and quoted the article from a "climbing" magazine article. I guess I touched a raw nerve... not sure why your so against the post.

[JoshK]

Whatever, it is a perfectly fine topic. If I put in the effort (or, more importantly, the money) to climb Everest the last thing I want to see on the summit is a chopper, with our without a fatass. It has nothing to do with the fact that he "cheated" but the fact that the mountains are no place for that crap. I would no sooner want to arrive on the summit of a hard earned Cascade wilderness peak and have a chopper show up either.

 

Hopefully the Tibetan and Nepalese governments will do something about it. Technically (unless given clearance) this toolshed was not only violating their airspace but "trespassing". I wonder if he technically needs a permit?

 

On a totally unrelated note, what is the utility of a chopper that can fly that high? About the only use I can think of is to rescue climbers off Himalayan peaks. However, Obviously there is no business incentive for that. Then again, building something just to compete with the USA seems incentive enough for the Europeans to waste money on things.

[fear]

"I just think that its sad that the highest most untouchable locations on the earth are slowly becoming common place to everyone through technology"

 

Yeah, Anyone with $50,000 and months of free time. It'll be awhile before you've got your standard fatties anywhere near these places.

 

But realize that the "crowding" of so many of these peaks is BS. During a cloudless summer day on Rainier you can still find plenty of solitude on less traveled routes. And that's a tiny mountain near huge population centers.

 

If someone chooses to be in the crowds near massive mountainous ranges like the Himilaya or in Alaska then it's because they made that decision....

 

-Fear