>>10099617Most people are doing it because they want to stand on top of THE very highest point on Earth.
If there were a helipad tucked away somewhere near the top without ruining the view, and the weather somehow permitted, lots more people would then go there and climb the last few hundred feet, and a few of them would still try to lie and brag and say they climbed up, but the rest of us just want to stand on the highest solid place we possibly can, the absolute apex of the crust jutting up through the loam, the closest point to the stars.
And it wouldn't cheapen it for us that we didn't have to devote years of our life and risk our life and health and exhaust ourselves to do it.
Ego-driven people just would not fucking understand. It is not about the climb.
My life has plenty of hills left to climb and I'm doing my best, I'm not lucky enough to need a physical mountain to feel challenged and stimulated.
But if I could fly like a bird and perch on the top of the absolute highest point, I would. And if I could plant a great redwood atop it and have it actually grow and not be blown away, I would do that too, and if I could live forever I would wait 500 years and then go stand on the very top of the redwood to stand a little higher, yet still connected to Earth. And if there's ever a way to economically free-orbit the Earth while tethered to it without getting vaporized, I would try that too.
