EVEREST FOR EVERYONE
January 8, 2008 on 6:49 pm | In Surfing, Uncategorized |
OK, this has absolutely nothing to do with surfing or watersports, but I couldn’t help but comment on the following…
French outdoor gear manufacturers Millet are running a competition with the first prize being the chance to summit Everest.There will be requirements of the winner that they do possess the potential to get to the top of the world (one wonders what these may be - getting to the top of your stairs without a tea break, perhaps?) but egad, how the mighty have fallen (by which I mean Everest).
Who could have imagined that one day the summit of the world’s highest mountain would become the prize in a competition? Whatever shine was left on this once great prize in mountaineering has now, surely, faded and died.
What next? Big Brother on Denali? Xtreme-Factor on K2?
God almighty, I wish I’d been born in the days of Whymper and co. - at least the mountains had some mystery and dignity about them then…
Alf Alderson
http://www.alfalderson.co.uk
Multi-award-winning freelance journalist and author of Surf UK - the definitive guide to surfing in Britain.
January 10th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Alf, you couldn’t be more right, I guess it started with the Chay Blyth and his Global Challenge. It does devalue the summit but then if you read Joe Simpson’s books the commercialisation of Himalayan climbing has already taken dragging clients up mountains to ‘new heights’.
How about these ridiculous races to Mongolia etc all in the name of charity?