Thanks to everyone who joined in the discussion around my latest post, about faking an Everest summit.
For those of you who didn’t read my blog yesterday, here’s the link.
Actually, even those of you who read it yesterday will enjoy the comments, especially those of my friend Kuntal Joisher, a double Everest summiteer, and a very calm, thoughtful man. He brings a professional’s input to the issue.
So, “a day after HT reported” the suspicions about Mr. Yadav, it looks as though the gentleman in question will not be receiving the Tenzing Norgay Adventure Award after all.
If indeed he faked his summit – good.
And of course, if he didn’t fake it, despite the missing oxygen pipe, then there’s always another year.
And kudos to all the true mountaineers out there.
If there were 14 people on the expedition in 2016, let alone subsequent expeditions, lots of people have reached the summit, so why should one be picked out for this award – even if he did do it?
Dunno Beverly. There must be a selection process. One imagines.
Also it was heartening to see the entire mountaineering community unite and raise a collective voice about this award selection. Thats what eventually worked. This is not an online trial or justice or some personal enmity against a certain individual. Rather, everyone is looking at the data on hand, the eyewitness testimonies, the summit photo etc and just calling for authorities to possibly launch an investigation into this matter. We are no one to dole out justice or judgement. Also everyone is raising a question about the basis and selection of these awards – as some very remarkable and strong mountaineers have been repeatedly overlooked in last few years. Why?
At the same time, I have repeatedly mentioned in my posts, comments and even in news articles since many years now – that rules and regulations serve as deterrents to prevent fake summits. But these have clearly not helped. We have now had multitude of such instances in last few years. The change has to come from within the mountaineering community and it has to be a culture and a mindset shift – especially how we train, build skills, get the necessary experience, go climbing and enjoying our time, and summit or not – doesn’t matter – what matters is we grow as a person and a mountaineer. And so we can debate all about style of climbing, 8000m, fixed lines, alpine style – but the focus has to be the whys and hows of mountaineering itself whichever style one chooses. Bringing excellence and integrity into whatever we do – that is the message and shift that needs to happen at the end of the day.
I hope that is what we all collectively learn from this experience and move towards.
Spot on, as ever. You are right about the mountaineering community coming together – very heartening. And as someone who loves climbing but hasn’t summited in (gulp) quite a few years now, I fully endorse the idea that we should all enjoy our time in the mountains, whether or not we summit. I have loved every single climbing trip, regardless of whether or not we could summit.