There was a time when climbing an 8,000-metre mountain implied something very specific. It implied years of mountaineering. Bad weather. Failed attempts. Retreats. Navigation mistakes. Cold bivouacs. Broken equipment. Judgement earned the hard way. Today, increasingly, it can also imply something else: A very large bank balance. That is not to say that modern commercial … Continue reading Into the Death Zone, All the Gear and No Idea?