Virgin Strive Challenge Matterhorn helivac

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 Bootsy 05 Sep 2014
Seems that the Virgin Strive challenge ended in dramatic fashion for Sam Branson, Kenton Cool & Co on top of the Matterhorn!

youtube.com/watch?v=Da67JITMExI&

 Simon4 05 Sep 2014
In reply to Bootsy:

Hard to sympathise with that.

If he was showing signs of severe AMS at least 250m below the summit, they should have stopped and turned around. People do NOT recover or even stay on a level if they are that bad.

Kenton "I could not as a mountain guide safely take him down"

Actually that is what you are supposed to do, but you should never have taken him up that far with those clear warnings. Really, really wanting to climb a mountain is not an excuse, I have recently really, really wanted to climb a 4000m peak, but my partner was not well and was clearly not going to recover at altitude. So I promptly turned around and took them down.
In reply to Bootsy:

Mixed feelings about this.

Why did they push him to continue when he was feeling so bad? Seems to me that the job of a guide in this type of endeavor includes monitoring team members for altitude issues? Pushing until the only way down is helicopter seems reckless and misguided. If it was a case of him only feeling so bad once already at the summit then no problem, but he says in the video he was already feeling awful.
In reply to Bootsy:

Also "I was so happy that we made the summit" trivializes the key point that it isn't a success unless everyone gets down safely. Which I suppose they did, but only through rescue, which to me dampens the joys of a summit day somewhat...
 Simon4 05 Sep 2014
In reply to Bob_the_Builder:

I was once asked by a journalist "what did you feel and think when you got to the summit?" (of an, as far as we knew, unclimbed Himalayan peak).

Me : "I felt I had to maintain all of my concentration for the very serious descent that still had to be done to get us down in one piece"

Journalist : (miffed, expected some gushing enthusiasm)
In reply to Simon4:

I guess the reason journos like Kenton Cool is 1) because he has "cool" in his name and 2) because he doesn't give rubbishy quotes like you! =P
 Simon4 05 Sep 2014
In reply to Bob_the_Builder:
Possibly, though we did actually have a very small amount of commercial sponsorship for that trip (I opposed the idea, but was outvoted).

There may also be the factor that I have never been anything more than a middling Alpinist at best, so not much of a wow factor for the sponsors (amazingly I have never been a pretty girl either, or even a cute boy, so no photogenic moments). Whatever other reservations one might have about Kenton, I think he is in an entirely different league in terms of ability to me, even then, when I was young, enthusiastic and foolish (I am now just old, enthusiastic and foolish).
Post edited at 17:39
 Albert Tatlock 05 Sep 2014
In reply to Bootsy:

I suspect that the helicopter was already pre booked and on standby, suppose it can be when your dad is Sir Richard.

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