UKH

Steve Plain and Jon Gupta have broken the '7 Summits' speed record by completing their final peak, Mount Everest, after 117 days - a full 9 days ahead of the previous world record.

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In reply to UKC/UKH News:

Is that map sponsored by Pepsi or something? :-P

In reply to UKC/UKH News:

I'm sure they had great fun and pushed really hard at times but I just can't get excited about this sort of thing. Too much down to money and logistics.

In reply to DaveHK:

I can see your point, but for me its a lack of any frame of reference (from the point of view of a non-mountaineer) in the reporting  that makes the achievement sound a little hollow. I'm not saying that it isn't a very  impressive achievement, but that it's hard to visualise and understand how impressive the achievement is.

117 days seems like quite a long time to someone with no knowledge of mountaineering. It's hard to visualise what such an undertaking involves and understand why 117 days is an impressive time do it in.

It would be very interesting to read a more in depth account of the expedition(s) to get a real sense of the challenges involved (both physical and logistical); how much time was spent on each climb, vs waiting for weather windows vs traveling between the various peaks; what went well/not so well etc.

In reply to UKC/UKH News:

Precisely zero f*cks given here

In reply to SuperLee1985:

Click on the link and you can read the guy's diary from each leg of the trip. There is a lot of sitting in camp waiting for weather to improve and long haul travel.

From a brief peruse of the website I'm mainly amazed at how much it must have all cost! It was quite some feat of fund raising. Supposedly the expedition has raised money for lifeguards in Australia, but it would be interesting to know - beyond the press releases - how much money went to the charity in comparison to how much the whole thing cost.

Didn't know there were fixed lines that you jumared on Carstenz Pyramid. Seems a bit sad.

In reply to UKC/UKH News:

Cool, this must mean they are the best mountaineers in the world, yeah?

In reply to SuperLee1985:

Is the challenge harder than 3 peak challenge? Sounds like 2.333 times harder.

In reply to UKC/UKH News:

Having read that report, I’m looking forward to them doing the Three Peaks, so that I can read the report about how they conquered Mt Snowdon, Mt Scafell Pike, and Mt Ben Nevis...

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

I'm sure the guy is a highly competent mountaineer, it's easy to sneer but for me at least it's not the supposed easy nature of any of the climbs that makes me sceptical. I know 'normal' people do all these routes but still banging them out with all the travel between is pretty impressive.

In reply to TobyA:

I wasn’t sneering at the climbers- more commenting on the way the mountains were named in the ukc article. 

Mt Denali...? Really...?

(apologies if I’ve misunderstood your reply...)

 

edit: looking again at the article, the offending ‘Mt’ that preceded the names in the list of summits have all mysteriously vanished...

 

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

 

and "Mt Vincent Massif" on the Montane map. Really, Montane? :-/

There are a few articles on it here this morning in the Australian media but none of them mention Jon, the guide. Funny that...

A successfully executed and well-funded logistical exercise. Have jumar will travel.

 

 

In reply to UKC/UKH News:

IMO this is an amazing physical, psychological, and logistical achievement. The punishment dealt out by such activities is considerable and to keep going as they have is a tribute to both their fitness and determination. The cold weather ascent of Denali is particularly striking.

Having said that, I agree with Damo. "Have Jumar will travel."

In reply to SuperLee1985:

Montane logo.

In reply to DaveHK:

Agreed and I feel the same way about Nose/anybig wall records

In reply to UKC/UKH News:

Moving quickly on big mountains can often mean enhanced safety. Beyond that why bother to rush something that should be enjoyable. 

 

Bit like saying I'm getting better at sex, I've got it down to 30 seconds now

In reply to UKC/UKH News:

I don't doubt that these two gents are top blokes with the best of intentions but to me it seems a little hollow, a lot of aviation fuel just to say they did it. I'm much more impressed by people who do big things under their own steam.

In reply to UKC/UKH News:

They've probably also broken the record for the average daily fossil fuel consumption of any seven summits trip. Congratulations guys!

In reply to Damo:

Not exactly your point, but Montane make some questionable decisions about what and who they sponsor in the climbing.

In reply to UKC/UKH News:

Did they fly the planes themselves? And don't get me started on that fecking map...

In reply to Deadeye:

Reading this post, I've noticed for the very first time that "zero" is considered plural even though it is less than one! Why is this?

In reply to Robert Durran:

The answer to that is probably "because it is". In general anything other than one takes the plural, so 0.5 f*cks or -1 f*cks. 

The best explanation I've seen is from JBH towards the end of this thread. Though "best" here is defined as "sounds plausible and contains some long words". 

https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/38293/why-is-zero-followed-by-a...

In reply to Simon Caldwell:

 

It’s not just zero, is it, but also ‘no’, as in for example ‘no regrets’.

 

It seems normal to me; there are multiple regrets which aren’t there. Compare ‘none’ (as in ‘not one’), which would denote a singular.

 

jcm

 

In reply 

Montane should be seriously ashamed of themselves sponsoring this shit.

Why didn't they get some sponsorship from a company more directly involved in their endevour, like Lufthansa or Esso perhaps.

In reply to UKC/UKH News:

It would be more interesting to see who took the longest to climb the 7 summits.

I am currently working on a 70 year gap between first and last munro.

 

In reply to UKC/UKH News:

Climbed the 7 summits was a life time achievement itself, well done ! Records are there to be broken, so won’t be surprised someone will beat it in the future ! Now I started my training , dreaming !.

 

In reply to Damo:

I think that's his porn star name.