UKH

Our Friday Night Video this week takes us to the 6th highest mountain in the world. Emily Harrington and Adrian Ballinger make a fast ascent of Cho Oyu (8,188m) by preparing their bodies for higher altitudes at home. Both climb with oxygen and make a complete ski descent of the mountain in 14 days, door-to-door from their home in Lake Tahoe.Read more

In reply to UKC/UKH News:
They don't really do modest self deprecation, do they?
Not the kind of mountaineering I used to admire and not cutting edge either.
A sort of sponsored self absorption, oh dear, what a curmudgeon I've become.

In reply to UKC/UKH News:

"the warm, the richly coloured, the infinitely friendly world of soma-holiday. How kind, how good-looking, how delightfully amusing every one was! " Brave new world, Aldous Huxley.

To me it is cultural theft to try to spend as little time as possible in a least developed country and try to maximise the personal benefit - the tick, the publicity, the hyperbole. I genuinely find this deeply obnoxious. Must be getting old.

In reply to gavinj:

I admit this was my exact first reaction too. But then I felt a bit uneasy, because it is in fact a distilled version of all our mountain/climbing tourism with all that is rich and beautiful stripped away, leaving a distasteful but thought provoking residue. And they don't even have the excuse of ignorance which one might just about charitably ascribe to the queues of paying punters they are sharing the route with.

In reply to UKC/UKH News

Both look like they have good dental plans.

In reply to gavinj:


And the danger. I'm unclear - is this an idea to sell to clients? If so, seems a pretty good way to kill people.

In reply to Robert Durran:

I don't really get this reaction to their plans. As far as I know, in an 8000er expedition done the traditional way, you end up spending not much more than 10 days of climbing anyway. This way they just skip the "hang around in base camp to acclimatise" phase.

Not that I would do this myself of course, I'd rather be lounging about in Cho Oyu base camp than almost anywhere else. But to busy people it might be the only way to get there I guess.

However, I wonder if their clients know the risk they're taking by taking shortcuts with acclimatisation.

In reply to UKC/UKH News:

Isn't the logical extension of this that you just simulate the whole thing with an oxygen tent and a treadmill? That way you can do away with the pesky details like having to travel to a different country and culture. Maybe you put the treadmill and tent in a meat locker for the "summit push". You could easily live stream the whole thing on FB and everyone could monitor your vitals in real time and admire your fitness.

In reply to HakanT:

These vain glorious corn fed "pro athletes" go to all that trouble to acclimatise in thier bedroom ( i would find it quite claustrophobic having sex in an hyperbaric tent!) they then go on to use supplemental oxygen on summit day, fine but what is it they are trying to achieve, a new low in adventure tourism it seems.

In reply to Andy Clarke1965:

What is that mountain one catches a glimpse of at 6.-4 in the video? Mean looking face!

In reply to Avinash Aujayeb:

I digress.....Rum Doodle?

In reply to TheFasting:


I think what seemed to come across is that they didn't actually want to be there - just a race to get back to San Francisco and their Californian lifestyle as soon as possible. In which case, what's the point (I assume, as others suggest, to sell the idea to people with far more money than time). And all the ipad gazing and heart rate monitoring just came across as utterly soulless.

In reply to UKC/UKH News:

Another great one Nick.

In reply to UKC/UKH News:

My word what a tedious pair of bellends.

In reply to Robert Durran:

It think it's because it's part of their business strategy. Adrian owns Alpenglow, which is starting to offer fast track ascents of Cho Oyu and I think also Everest now.

In reply to UKC/UKH News:
You know what's infinitely more impressive than this and should be more widely known?

This:
http://www.uphillathlete.com/a-himalayan-odyssey/

This guy is not a guide or professional mountaineer, just a good old fashioned hard b*****d. He basically did the same thing as these two but with a few crucial and important differences:

-Didn't pre-acclimatise at home
-Didn't use oxygen
-Didn't feel the need to make a video about how awesome he was
-But did go straight to Everest immediately after Cho Oyu and also summited it without oxygen

He did not do any kind of acclimatisation rotations, just BC, rest, ABC, rest, C1, C2 - straight to the summit.

This is incredible and goes against accepted norms of how long the acclimatisation process takes. I would be really interested to see a video about how he managed this.

By contrast a video about two pro climbers who go to Cho Oyu and use oxygen from 7000m, (which is lower than many clients use it) is nothing exceptional and certainly doesn't warrant a self-promoting video.

In reply to UKC/UKH News:
I have a question: I read an article once about a study in Spain of mid-life-crisis ascentionists of Aconcagua, who bought packages to run up it with no acclimatisation. They found significant brain scarring from the resulting cerebral oedema which resulted in long-term problems like memory loss. Would this kind of stunt not result in a lot of that sort of problem?

In reply to UKC/UKH News:
I don't really have enough experience of high altitude mountaineering to have a solid opinion about this video perhaps, although nothing about it sat well with me. It had no sense of adventure or any signs of respect for the mountain environment. Clearly it was about selling acclimation products/services.

I was about to say the video was about bringing the mountain challenge down the the aspirants level, but actually I do not see that this acclimatisation process is especially that in itself, though when coupled with fixed ropes, oxygen and I expect a whole load of background support, I can not see a great deal of adventure was left in this soulless undertaking. That said if the process had led to an exceptionally clean ascent, then the acclimation process in itself would be no more then running up hill in advance in order to achieve physical fitness.

In reply to UKC/UKH News:
For me this is a business promo aimed at cash rich, time short American potential high altitude tourists. My initial reaction is of further erosion of classic high altitude mountaineering experience.
On the other hand I cannot help consider my own bug bear of of trip to the Alps, frequently of 2 wks duration were I often don't get near what I really go for the higher 4000m peaks until week 2.
Have those like myself just been shown how to work the human biology of the low altitude native, to enable a major reduction in acclimatisation for Alpinism?
Personally I've never found the idea of jumaring up a fixed line put up by locals at such elivations that my brain or lungs fill with fluid appealing, but to potentially significantly cut my acclimatisation time for Alpinism...id be lying if I said I wasn't interested in the article.

In reply to Robert Durran:

A bit holier than thou? We all go on holidays and call them "climbing trips" as if that makes them some how special. I've just spent a week in Norway and probably spoke to only a dozen Norwegians, and some of them was just to say thanks in a shop.

I doubt many people will do this 'style' of ascent but I'm not sure what makes it much worse than traditional commercial expeditions. My friends who i was in Norway with had a spreadsheet for their upcoming Alaska trip. They have to fly in to a remote mountain in a small plane so have to be very particular on planning and weight. Is that any less soulless than monitoring your heart rate when training?

In reply to TobyA:


Yes, precisely. That is the point I was making in my first post where I said my initial reaction made me feel uneasy. This trip just seems to concentrate all that is distasteful about our "holidays" without any of the mitigating factors.

In reply to Removed User:


This, so this.

In reply to UKC/UKH News:

My god what a pile of commercial bullshite

In reply to UKC/UKH News:

Cracking product placement 1.10

That was utterly horrendous.

In reply to Ramon Marin:
Yeah, perish the thought that someone should produce a little video of themselves to help promote their sponsors......
https://www.ukclimbing.com/videos/play.php?i=3195
Or
https://www.ukclimbing.com/videos/play.php?i=1887

In reply to Avinash Aujayeb:


North face of Pasang Lamu Chuli (aka Jasamba) - 7315m.

In reply to Tyler:


It's not the fact that they are promoting their sponsors but what they are doing in order to do so that I think people are appalled at.

In reply to Tyler:

There's a big difference between these videos that I hope you can appreciate. But you are free to think that my videos are a pile of commercial bullshite, that's cool with me

In reply to Tyler:

Apparently that last video has been watched nearly 17 million times! Wtf? That must make it the most popular climbing video ever.

In reply to duncan b:

You might have misunderstood something because that video has 3400 views when I look at it

In reply to Damo:

Thanks

In reply to TheFasting:


When I clicked on the link it claimed "This video has been watched 16,777,215 times". Something odd maybe?

In reply to Scotch Bingington:

Oh yeah I see it now. Must be something on the site registering as hits on that video. On Youtube it has 3400 views, so any view here would register there.

By sorting a "climbing" search by views and picking the one with most views, this is the most popular: youtube.com/watch?v=5P5akoQ_eNI&

Interesting that this has 50 million views though https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ_IQS3VKjA&t=9s

In reply to UKC/UKH News:

I couldn't even watch this to the end, it's just like a video of what mountaineering shouldn't be.