Climbing bro here. I've answered these threads before so I'll do it again.
>Darby is climbing Everest
He's almost certainly going to Everest Base Camp and not the peak. EBC is not incredibly difficult and it's how 99% of people who "climb Everest" do it.
>What's the difference?
EBC is a camp about 17,000ft up. It's not a joke to get there although a reasonably fit and healthy person can do so with some training.
The peak of Everest is at 29,000ft.
>Why do people go to EBC
Everest is a very high mountain and in order to climb to the peak, you have to acclimatise your body to the atmosphere. This usually takes weeks. People go to EBC in order to get their body ready for the climb to the peak.
>So anyone can do this?
No. The Nepali Government require you to have climbed another peak of a certain height before you're allowed to attempt the peak, within the same year. So you've got to climb a different really tall mountain before you're allowed to climb Everest.
>Everest is easy
Everest is absolutely not easy. People die going to peak regularly. It's not the world most dangerous mountain and it has gotten easier since Hillary but its still extremely extremely difficult and outside the skills of most people let alone amateurs.
>But I saw this photo where....
It's a bit out of context. The weather for a peak climb is very variable and its highly possible to get just before the death zone then having to turn around because of the weather, wasting tens of thousands of dollars. Most people who go for peak, do not reach the peak. On rare occasions, there's a break in the weather for 1 day so people who have been waiting potentially months all attempt to go to peak at the same time rather than waiting another year, resulting in the "traffic jam" photo.
>But he's training
It takes a decade of training or more to go to peak and years of climbing smaller peaks. He's going to EBC like all celebrities who climb Everest.
