Why do People Risk Their Lives to Climb a Mountain?
“People ask me, ‘What is the use of climbing Mount Everest?’ and my answer must at once be, ‘It is of no use.’ There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever.” – George Mallory
Mount Everest, the highest point on the planet, was in the news again for all the wrong reasons recently after an Irish university professor’s assistant named Shay Lawless was killed while descending from its 29,029-foot summit.
In some even more disturbing news, another Irishman – Kevin Hynes – died on the mountain just a few days after I wrote this post. The cause was severe overcrowding near the summit of Everest.
Being from Ireland myself, this story caught my interest to the point that I went and bought two books about Everest expeditions and watched a ton of Everest documentaries.
The uncomfortable background to this tragic death is that Shay’s wife was pregnant when he summited the mountain that local Nepalese people call “Goddess of The Sky”.
But Shay is not an enigma in this regard; each year, hundreds of people with loving husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, siblings, and children attempt to scale dangerous mountains like Everest and K2. Quite often, these ambitious thrill-seekers have minimal climbing experience.
There seems to be an innate drive in certain people to climb the most treacherous mountains that causes them to recklessly discard reason or logic.
So, where does the desire to climb to almost the altitude of a cruising commercial jet come from?
This question gives much food for thought to a naturally quite cautious person like myself. Trying to answer it reveals much about the human condition and the way to live life.
People Climb Dangerous Mountains Because They Can
The opening quote to this article was written by George Mallory, a famous English mountaineer who almost summited Everest back in 1924. Mallory’s corpse was discovered on the mountain almost 75 years later. The quote seems to give no good reason for any person to put their worldly duties on hold and risk their lives to climb a mountain.
However, Mallory did elaborate further on what draws mountaineers, both inexperienced and masters, to places like Mount Everest. When asked during a 1923 New York Times interview why he wanted to climb Everest, Mallory quipped, “Because it’s there”.
I believe that deep down, many climbers would agree with Mallory’s attitude to extreme mountaineering and to life in general. There is no good reason to do it except for the mere enjoyment of the activity. This is quite a Zen-like outlook that we could all apply to our hobbies.
Many people who go to the gym, for example, do so in pursuit of validation or a better body. However, the people who stick with it are those who actually enjoy the pain and challenges of exercise; those other nice things are byproducts of the activity.
Conquering Internal Challenges
Not everyone has the same outlook and inspiration, of course. In his excellent and thrilling book about the 1996 Everest disaster, Into Thin Air, journalist Jon Krakauer provides valuable insight into the motivations of a person who wants desperately to get the best of one of Earth’s eight-thousanders.
“I quickly came to understand that climbing Everest was primarily about enduring pain. And in subjecting ourselves to week after week of toil, tedium, and suffering, it struck me that most of us were probably seeking, above else, something like a state of grace.”
Above 8,000 metres, climbers enter into the aptly named Death Zone. At this altitude, there isn’t enough oxygen in the air to support human life. The conditions on the Death Zone are so extreme that if you or I were transported from sea level directly to this altitude, we would collapse and lose consciousness within two to three minutes of exposure to the air. Hence the need for oxygen masks on airplanes.
Even those acclimatized to high altitude find it a struggle to navigate this terrain. Each step is exhausting, your thoughts slow down, your heart thuds rapidly. Expeditions to Everest typically take two months to complete, most of which is spent teaching your body not to die at high altitudes.
There is not a person on Earth to whom the Death Zone doesn’t sound fucking terrifying. It is a place beyond the limits of humans to survive for much longer than a day. It is the pinnacle of mental and physical stress.
Mountains like Everest act as an external objectification of our greatest internal challenges. When certain personalities confront Everest, they vividly see their fears and limitations in front of them, transformed from the inner secrecy of the complex mind to raw, brutal physical objects they can conquer.
Getting to the top of the mountain is getting to the top of yourself, and it is easy to see why it’s so alluring in this light.
Egoic Delusion
It’s impossible to answer this question without reference to those who are deluded into thinking it will satisfy their ego to say they’ve climbed Everest or any huge mountain. As Jon Krakauer describes in Into Thin Air, “Everest has always been a magnet for kooks, publicity seekers, hopeless romantics, and others with a shaky hold on reality.”
It’s an undeniable truth that a significant proportion of Everest climbers want to do it because of their egos, particularly those people who know deep down they don’t have the skills or the experience. It is often the default position of the cynic to tar inexperienced mountaineers with the same brush as deluded reckless and selfish people but not everybody is in it for the Instagram likes and the congratulatory messages.
Summiting Everest is no mean feat, but it is also nothing novel. Over 4,000 people have gone to the top of the world since Sir Edmund Hillary first arrived there back in 1953 alongside Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. One has to ask how much can it satisfy your ego to be the 4,131st person to reach the peak of a mountain? The much more technically demanding K2 has been summited by well over 300 people at this point so while it is an excellent feat, it is no longer ground-breaking.
I believe it’s important for more people to show humility when considering climbing any big mountain. People need to take a long, hard look at themselves and be honest with their shortcomings as climbers. People need to look outside themselves; to their families, to others who may experience the ripple effects of something going wrong. It’s not only the climber who suffers.
This is particularly pertinent considering inexperienced climbers endanger not only themselves; they also endanger other climbers and their guides. The Nepalese ethnic Sherpa group have suffered most as a result of the commercialization of climbing Everest; one-third of deaths on the mountain were Sherpa climbers.
Lessons Learned
It’s easy for me or anyone else behind a keyboard to castigate people who seemingly abandon their families and risk their lives just to climb a mountain. The common critic of extreme mountaineering tends to conclude that those who fall victim on their expeditions got what they asked for.
However, delving further into this topic, I have learned valuable life lessons from these risk-taking climbers. There is much more nuance involved than attributing it as mere reckless thrill-seeking. Reading extensively about Everest served as a thumping reminder of how crucial it is that we all try to find activities and hobbies in life that bring us joy merely from the act of doing them.
That doesn’t mean you or I need to go to Nepal and climb to almost 30,000-feet, but it might be a good idea to reconsider how we use our leisure time. For me, that means less social media use or pointless Internet browsing and more guitar, more recreational soccer; two activities I enjoy doing for the sake of doing them.
I was also reminded of how powerful the human ego can be to the point that one person’s desire for recognition or fame can destroy many lives. It’s always good to keep our egos in check. Seeking recognition or validation is the polar opposite motivation to doing something for the joy, for the sake of it.
Lastly, we all have things in life we fear, both mental and physical obstacles, whether they be heights, public speaking, flying, or spiders. Some people fear discomfort—they avoid doing anything outside of their own comfortable bubbles.
I believe we can draw much inspiration from people who climb dangerous mountains in terms of beating our inner demons. I’m not saying it is necessary to go to such extremes, but join a local Toastmasters, learn a martial art, take a short flight. Never forget the importance of actively seeking out discomfort if you want to experience true personal growth.
As Mallory put it after he summited Mont Blanc in 1918, “have we vanquished an enemy? None but ourselves.”