Rewatching the series

It was the Sherpa documentary that re-excited my interest in this show. Sherpa features Russ Brice again, and oddly enough Tim Medvetz also makes an appearance in that as well.

I have a lot of respect for anyone who undertakes Everest. While I agree somewhat with John Krauker's assessment that Everest is becoming a rich person's mountain, anyone who trains hard and risks their life to earn the summit has my respect beyond what they pay to do so. That being said I wont' bad mouth any of the climbers featured on the show as other posters have done. As far as Tim Medvetz, people need to understand that he's a biker & that carries with it a lot of the attitude that he brings to the show. Anyone that tore up who decides they are climbing Everest is a pretty amazing human being.

I've read about the Daniel Sharp controversy although I need to refresh myself on the details. If Sharp was very near to the summit & already bad off there is not a lot that can be done. As others have put it you might as well be on the moon. One only needs to remember Rob Hall and how his legs had frozen and he was unable to move. At that point on the mountain people are barely functioning as it is and to attempt to rescue someone is to put your own life in much greater danger. That is also why bodies are left where they lay. A very sad fact is that now certain corpses are used as trail markers on certain routes.

Beyond the physical agony one must endure to climb Everest & of course the great expense, one of the main reasons I would never be interested in climbing Everest is the amount of people on the mountain. I cannot fathom waiting an hour and a half on the summit for people to descend so that I too can go down while my O2 steadily depletes. If you have what Brice in the show describes as incompetent climbers in your way, I wonder how many people would be tempted to push them out of the way or climb over top? If it's that or running out of O2 in the death zone and perhaps dying I wonder how many people would opt for the former? Just some thoughts as I rewatch this show.

Interesting tidbit I learned: did you know that the Everest film crew (second crew whatever that means) was present for the deadly 2014 ice fall avalanche? No one from the crew were hurt. That film, however IMHO was a joke.

“The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic.”