MovieChat Forums > Everest (2015) Discussion > Hard to feel sympathy for rich people da...

Hard to feel sympathy for rich people daring Life

posted 9 years ago by thecure-1
19 replies | jump to latest

I am an avid skier and get how much fun it is to push yourself etc ...
But I also know my limits and have to be responsible ...
It seems many of these guys had too much money, vanity and too much need for self-adoration and I found it hard to feel sorry for them risking their lives just to say "I did it" ... Specifically the one guy who asked the leader to go back to the top when it was way past the agreed time...
Am I alone in not feeling bad for them???

[–] ElphieDefyingGravity 8 years ago

I remember reading that the woman journalist (sorry..can't remember her name) was virtually carried up Everest by her Sherpa and thinking how little respect I have for some of these rich people who honestly had no business climbing Everest, looking for little more than another way to show off. I also found it exasperating that Hall was climbing with a baby on the way.

However I can't fault anyone for following a dream. Like the OP, I had a dangerous hobby (show jumping horses) that I truly loved, until I got too old and brittle to take the falls that went with it. What bothers me is the for-profit business attached to claiming Everest. This tragedy was the direct result of taking people who were not fit climbers up the mountain for money. Hall took Doug to the summit because he felt obligated to do so...Doug had paid (three times). Were he just another climber, Hall would never have said yes, and would probably have survived to see his daughter.

No matter what, I still feel terrible about the tragedy that took place on that fateful climb.

Et lux perpetua luceat eis

[–] bakerstreetdozen 8 years ago

When you're doing something for the simple idea of glory, no, I really don't understand or empathise with that sort of thing. At the end of the day, though, these were people who had families, and there lives are no less important.

--
Why don't you take a pill, bake a cake, go read the encyclopaedia.

[–] DeepFriedJello 8 years ago

I wonder what the children of these dead climbers think. How daddy is such a hero for for his selfish act to fulfill a dream? Daddy died doing what he loved? How daddy left them without a father? It's one thing when you have no family depending on you, and another when you impact the rest of their lives with your decision. Plus think of all the garbage and crap (literally) left on the mountain. I think they really need to start limiting the climbers, make them pay more for clean up efforts and to help the local people. And heck, the way they have ropes and oxygen all over the mountain, they might as well build a chairlift to the top.

[–] leader (2103) 7 years ago

They were idiots.

[–] Otter (24464) 7 years ago

Every year on Everest, there are more rich idiots queueing up the mountain in a line that reaches from base camp to the summit. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but not by much!

It's all wrong, and its extremely dangerous. One if these years there will be a storm or an avalanche, and the next time there will be dozens or hundreds dead.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

While they may have been foolish it also seems that you created a bit of narrative to justify why you feel the way you do. Everyone has their own things to work out in life. Hopes, fears. Would simply being rich good enough for you? Wouldn't you want to do more? What would keep you questioning if you did what life had to offer?