Cojawfee posted:

No thanks, it was pretty trash.

Munin posted:

What is the world's most famous ladder?

Pablo Bluth posted:

Contender: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/immovable-ladder-church-holy-sepulchre
Or, although rarely talked about directly, the ladder on the Apollo 11 moonlander is now destined to be noticed subconsciously by a non-trival percentage of humankind until such time as society collapses.

PittTheElder posted:

Theoretically they could capture a large chunk of the same revenue and also thinning the crowd by issuing summit permits for specific days

Comrade Koba posted:

If you mean the insane polish guy who showed up without a permit and tried to summit with next to no gear other than a backpack full of vodka, that was on the south (Nepalese) side.

EDIT: Apparently there was also a polish guy in 2017 who summited from the north side but descended on the south side. Turns out he only had a permit for the Chinese side and now he’s banned from climbing in Nepal for a decade.

Outrail posted:

How much does it need to lose to become the second highest mountain, and what's the feasibility of blowing it up to achieve this?

Empty Sandwich posted:

I found this after reading the Geographic article:

https://malloryandirvine.com/2020/06/16/comments-on-2019-search/

well worth reading. the tl;dr is that a team had already investigated the area, and also that the ones who found Mallory's body should have checked his pockets for rocks, since that's how they celebrated/marked summiting

basically, the camera is a macguffin

quote:

In 2016, Txikon was part of a team that completed the first winter ascent of Nanga Parbat (8,126 meters), a mountain that had been attempted in winter more than 30 times before Txikon, Simone Moro of Italy, and Ali Sadpara of Pakistan succeeded.

“You cannot compare K2 with Nanga Parbat,” Txikon says. It would be as if, upon reaching Nanga Parbat's summit, another 1,600 vertical feet of terrain still remained. And that final section, according to the understated Txikon, “is quite complicated.”

Arsenic Lupin posted:

Unless you're a woman with high testerone, in which case you can't compete because ~science~.

Crazycryodude posted:

Not really, the actual mountain itself is a moderately challenging hike that anyone in decent shape can do, there's no technical challenge just "did you buy a coat warm enough to not freeze to death Y/N?". The hard part is having the money and connections to get to the rear end end of nowhere to begin with, if you can get to the foot of Mount Vinson getting to the top is no problem. Climbing it proves you're rich and connected, not that you're a good mountaineer.

Strategic Tea posted:

Crazycryodude posted:

I've played way too much Subnautica to ever go diving at night or anywhere not a sunny reef

Deptfordx posted:

I would imagine Wind Chill would be an issue, especially in the katabatic wind scenario.

crazy eyes mustafa posted:

Is this funny at all?

Jabor posted:

The obvious explanation seems pretty plausible - the take a wrong turn but don't realise it

Haifisch posted:

That'd be the search for Bill Ewasko, and he's more or less given up on it after looking for literal years, with his last search attempt being from 2018. He has provided resources for other people who might want to search, but as far as I know nobody else has had any luck either.

Azathoth posted:

It really makes me wonder how many bodies the search teams literally walk right past because of some quirk of geography or something else equally mundane.

hemale in pain posted:

I know it's not 100% reliable but i don't think there's any excuse not to bring a dedicated GPS unit with you if you go hiking or whatever. Even if you just keep it in the backpack for emergencies and never turn it on I'd think you'd be nuts to go out without one in 2021 when they're so readily available and not very expensive.

SpaceSDoorGunner posted:

It’s interesting, while I don’t know anything about the Bill guy I know that region a bit. If you’re not from the Western US or somewhere like South Florida, Australia, Brazil or South Africa where massive totally untamed tracts wilderness with hazards 10000+ foot mountains or nearly impassible swamps is smack up against very populated urban areas flanked by what perceived as very safe and controlled hiking trails it’s hard to grasp just how quickly things can go from “a nice place to walk your dog” to alone and unafraid and soon to be either getting lost, falling to death in the winter or getting heatstroke in the summer.

hemale in pain posted:

I was googling these like a year ago but they all seem to cost a crazy amount and require a subscription which costs as much as the device. Is there some sort of cheaper version I'm not aware of?

I'll probably suck up the cost if I ever do a trip which is 2-4 weeks long

quote:

I was in the Gila Wilderness and a convoy of us campers/fishers were making the drive on the dirt road from Mogollon to Snow Lake when we spotted a forest ranger guy pulled over looking in a ditch. Turns out some idiot tried to make a u-turn and didn't realize the loose rock makes it hard to stop - they went over the edge and high-centered.

We're miles from the nearest "official campground" and it's early spring and the night time gets pretty drat cold. We get a jeep with a winch in position and start to pull the guy out of the ditch. Off a hill comes a white dude in a purple velvet sweatsuit. He's got a walking stick, fanny pack and the purple velvet sweatsuit - that's it. He's a blond dude and pretty skinny. He comes up to us and he tells us he's German and having a great time. We could not get over the purple velvet suit - it was like a real pimp sweatsuit.

The ranger is immediately suspicious - wants to know where's he staying and where he came from. It was around 9:00 in the morning and the only way he could have gotten where he came from was to hike for hours. The German guys is a goofy gently caress and just points off toward the other mountain when asked where he's staying/going.

We all think it's funny, but also question how the guy is getting along with no water and no food (the sun is intense above 5,000 feet even if it's only 75 degrees). The German guy refuses water or any other help and just crosses the road goes off into the woods. The ranger told us he can't really keep the guy from doing that since he seemed okay. He said he'd check a few campsites in that direction later to see if he made it.

We get to Snow Lake and commence drinking like fish in order to better catch fish. That evening the ranger pops by to tell us that nobody at any other camp had seen the dude. He radioed around and no other rangers had abandoned camps or missing campers and they surely hadn't seen a German dude in purple pimp sweatsuit.

That range rolled off duty the next day and his replacement came by to make sure the other ranger was smoking something we gave him. We assured him it all happened. Never heard another word about the German in the purple pimp sweatsuit, but makes for a good story.

Update: Thanks for all the interest! I texted my buddy that was with me that day to reminisce about the German and he reminded me that the Purple Pimp German looked a lot like the actor Rhys Ifans who played "Nigel" the kicker in the Keanu Reeves classic The Replacements. Hope that helps with the mental image. The movie came out like three years after the camping trip, but we remember seeing the moving and thinking Nigel looked just like the crazy German. My friend reiterated how absolutely happy the German was.

quote:

German tourists are....different.

I was doing some stuff in Death Valley NP a couple of summers ago and left via the opposite direction of the construction crew, so this is a second-hand story:

As we were all leaving after a very long night of pouring concrete (they should have been done at around sunrise, but things didn't finish up until like 1pm or so) the archeologist (Let's call him Art) saw a faint glimmer of silver in a bush. Thinking that it was an old balloon (a huge problem - don't release balloons, they always come down somewhere and end up as litter), he turned around to retrieve it. Instead he found a German man sitting there under car windshield sunscreen thing with a piece of rolling luggage by his side. This was an area that was closed off to the public until the road was repaired and nobody would be back through until the next day, so he stopped to talk to the man.

Apparently, the German Man (Claus is a good German name, let's use that) had been dropped off by his wife and mother-in-law the afternoon before and was in the middle of a long hike (like 20-30 miles or so). He had been hiking all night and was taking a break to rest during the day. There were plans to meet up in a day or two, but the women were in Vegas at the casinos.

After some discussion, Art learned that Claus had no food or supplies and had only drank a few sips from one of his three 1/2 liter water bottles since he began the trek (he thought rationing it would be best since he only had a small amount of water). The temperature was already in the 120F range and Art had to explain that the guy could not stay there or he would very literally die. Claus said that he would be fine because he trained by sitting in a sauna a number of times before he left Germany, plus, how would his wife know where to pick him up if they left? After explaining the difference between sitting in a sauna and hiking with no food in a dry desert, Art proceeded to question what would happen if his wife's car broke down or if she got delayed for some reason. There is no phone service in that part of the park and nobody was supposed to be in the area to begin with, so Claus would be SOL if his wife didn't arrive. Claus finally agreed to jump into Art's truck and drive to the nearby town >20 miles away.

As soon as he got into the A/C of the truck and took a few sips of cool water, Claus realized how hot his body actually was and that he was actually in pretty bad shape. When they got to the town they actually Claus' wife and mother-in-law in the parking lot of the only gas station. It turns out that they had broken down there and never made it to Vegas.

After talking a little, Art had to get off to sleep (he had been up all night) and reminded Claus to grab his roller suitcase from the back of the truck. Art casually asked what was inside and Claus opened it to reveal a suitcase full of water bottles. Claus was so delirious from heat that he forgot the heavy bag that he had somehow been rolling across the desert was full of water. Delirium like that is a sign of sunstroke - Claus probably wouldn't have made it through the rest of the day had Art not insisted on him getting into the truck.

TL/DR: German goes hiking in Death Valley and would have died if not for an archeologist who was on his way to a hotel for a nap.

Jr. posted:

This being the Everest thread and not Post Your Hiking Loadout, it sounded like someone was clowning OP for not having a PLB which while great, is very expensive, and shouldn't keep you from going out and actually learning to be a smart and proficient outdoorsperson (ie, avoid situations that require you to need a PLB). Just smacked of that gross hobby gatekeeping where if you don't have expensive gear you shouldn't bother. We all know gear does not a good adventurer make.