‘Not a bucket list activity’: Calgary climber talks Mount Everest
Posted May 30, 2019 10:51 am.
Last Updated May 30, 2019 12:03 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CALGARY (660 NEWS) – Eleven people have died so far while climbing Mount Everest this season which may make you wonder if fewer people will want to make the famous trek.
One Calgary climber, however, anticipates more adventure seekers will make the trek because they want to achieve a once in a lifetime moment.
“There’s a certain hubris that we all have which ‘that won’t happen to me,'” says Jamie Clarke. “The fact that other people are trying and the more people are getting killed, that raises the stakes, ‘I’m going for it.'”
Clarke says historically, Everest has been the Holy Grail for adventure seekers and doesn’t see that changing.
While many Calgary kids grew up playing hockey or football, Clarke was obsessed with mountains and made it his goal to climb anything and everything.
In his lifetime, he has summited some of the largest peaks in the world, including Everest which he did twice.
But Clarke says it was no easy feat, as it required years of training and developing the necessary skills.
“This is a lifestyle, not a to-do list; this isn’t a bucket list activity. If this is something you truly love and it becomes a lifestyle, travel to the Himalayas, climb some surrounding peaks, trek in the valley, learn how this thing unfolds.”
READ MORE: B.C. man who scaled Everest says climb is not for ‘faint of heart’
He says the many deaths that have occurred on Everest are completely preventable, but the news shouldn’t take away from the fact that the climb is treacherous.
“They went on that trip, they got into that situation, and now there are family members who have lost family members, and that’s just purely sad, and it’s so preventable.”
Although Clarke was successful in two trips to Everest, he fell short in two other attempts as conditions forced his team to turn back.
