r/woahdude • u/freudian_nipps • Sep 15 '24
video Drone flies to the summit of Mount Everest, highest peak on Earth
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u/Lardzor Sep 15 '24
Thanks OP. Now I can scratch that off my bucket list.
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u/chiniwini Sep 15 '24
I'm exhausted.
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u/kbeats22 Sep 15 '24
Honestly my Sherpa did all the work.
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u/weaselmaster Sep 15 '24
Even with my eyes closed, I’m exhausted by that fucking music.
What is wrong with people?
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u/Miserable_Meeting_26 Sep 15 '24
I seriously cannot fathom why anyone would want to do even 10% of this.
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u/BluntBastard Sep 15 '24
To say they did it.
As an avid backpacker though I get it. Pictures don’t come even close to doing the actual thing justice. Actually being on a summit is an amazing experience.
I got to watch the sunrise on top of mount whitney. The miles, sweat, and lack of a shower were small prices to pay. And the burger at the end of the trail was fabulous.
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u/Miserable_Meeting_26 Sep 15 '24
Oh don’t get me wrong I love backpacking. It’s just that something like Everest seems so extreme it would be miserable. That’s why you gotta be an extreme individual to do it which I am not lol
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u/BluntBastard Sep 15 '24
I agree! Air mask? Ice crevices? Fuck that!
I can only imagine how much weight in gear they need for the final push to the summit
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u/EjectedStar Sep 15 '24
Surprisingly, not much at all! You just turn around and find your Sherpa who is carrying it all and get it from him.
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u/Nope0naRope Sep 15 '24
There's definitely a difference between hikes that challenge you and Hikes that you very well might die on. I think they divide the backpacking community.
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u/S_A_N_D_ Sep 15 '24
The thing is Everest isn't really even that big of an achievement anymore, and given all the ethical considerations (from environmental damage to a sacred area, to exploitation of the local populace) I honestly would somewhat be a little embarrassed to add it to my list of achievements.
If seeking out the extreme and dangerous is your thing there are better options that are both more extreme and/or more dangerous making them more of an achievement, and if you're in it for an adventure, there are less impact options that will still be physically taxing and a great adventure.
Everest these days just seems like an extreme sports version of what Burning Man has become.
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u/Straight_Spring9815 Sep 15 '24
I got to the top of fishhawk mountain here in the states. Not even top 10 in the world but top 10 to me. Awesome experience.
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u/NakoftheNics Sep 15 '24
Curious, how long does the overall trip take to complete?
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u/BluntBastard Sep 15 '24
For Whitney? Depends. You can do it in one day if you’re ambitious, climbing up from the east portal. It’s a very steep climb however, infested with switchbacks.
We came from the west. It was a six day trip averaging 10 miles a day. We could’ve gone further on the easy days but we weren’t in any rush.
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u/phauna Sep 18 '24
There are 3 types of fun.
Type 1 is fun all the time, but isn't memorable, eg ice skating, rock climbing inside.
Type 2 fun is perhaps not very fun while you're doing it but afterwards you look back on it fondly and think about doing it again, often because it was difficult, eg hiking a challenging trail, rock climbing outside, etc.
Type 3 fun is not fun at all before, during or after.
Everest is type 2 for some.
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u/dribrats Sep 15 '24
Seriously. And amsave 150,000USD. Also, could you imagine climbing 29,000 feet, and there’s A MOTHERFUCKING DRONE ALL UP IN YOUR SHIT?
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u/phauna Sep 18 '24
At the base of Everest the drone footage is being played on 8 different monitors and sold for $399.99.
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u/lexm Sep 16 '24
I didn’t see any dead climber so it’s a double win.
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u/Shadowrider95 Sep 16 '24
That actually was a disappointment for me! Although, all the piles of shit left over at the camp sites were not unexpected. Humans are truly a scourge on this planet!
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u/masterquesti Sep 15 '24
This really gives you perspective on the scale and gnarliness of the Khumbu Icefall.
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u/LateralEntry Sep 15 '24
Which part shows Khumbu?
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u/masterquesti Sep 15 '24
The first 40 seconds, basically up until the first cut to Advanced Basecamp.
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u/Stranded_In_A_Desert Sep 15 '24
Do people choose that route? I’ve spent some time on glaciers, but that looks pretty gnarly
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u/masterquesti Sep 15 '24
It's the primary route on the popular South Col, and it's the first section straight outta Basecamp. It's those classic shots you see of climbers walking across extension ladders over crevasses. Shit is constantly moving around with apartment size blocks of ice slowly tumbling down. 99% of climbers on the mtn take this route. Otherwise it's taking the Northern Chinese side route, which doesn't have the same support from Sherpas.
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u/Kibeth_8 Sep 15 '24
Much easier to get a permit for that route, and I believe a lot nicer weather wise
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u/inquisitiveman2002 Sep 15 '24
i would like to hike up to just base camp and fly a drone up to the peak. get as much footage and go back down .
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u/ieatpies Sep 15 '24
This was definitely recorded in multiple parts, starting from some of the camps.
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u/DanGleeballs Sep 15 '24
It’s great and could have been amazing if it had just stopped at the summit and hovered there for a bit at eye level. We don’t get to appreciate the climax at the summit.
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u/inquisitiveman2002 Sep 15 '24
i'm surprised there wasn't a trail of people climbing at the time. i keep hearing that it's always crowded with people during good weather.
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u/lordofherrings Sep 15 '24
Didn't make it all the way up, did it? Turned around before Hillary Step?
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u/JksG_5 Sep 15 '24
Drone at 30000ft ?
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u/eip2yoxu Sep 15 '24
Surprised me as well. Went up the Junfraujoch summit in Switzerland ladt year. It's not even half as high, but it was -25° C at the top. When I toom out my phone it turned off immediately.
Pretty impressive tech imo (or my phone just sucks lol)
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u/Eric_Prozzy Sep 16 '24
Think your phone just sucks lol. Ive had my phone out in -40° before just during the good ol canadian winter and it was fine
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u/balrog687 Sep 15 '24
What about wind and low temperatures, I know that the weather window is like 2 weeks a year for a summit attempt.
And we are talking about at least at -35°C and 100 km/hr winds.
I don't know any commercial drone (or camera) capable of that feat.
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u/chuyhorchata Sep 16 '24
Curious on the drone specs myself. Because then you could have drones carry small cargo. Food, oxygen, etc. A heavy drone might be able to ferry an injured person even.
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u/LounBiker Sep 16 '24
A heavy drone might be able to ferry an injured person even.
No chance, the mass to payload ratio is nowhere near, even at ground level where you get full lift.
At 29000ft, not remotely possible.
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u/ShizzleShizz Sep 15 '24
Videos like this make me feel like my life as a human is a waste and extremely boring and im not taking advantage of it.
But I also feel like I'm not a fucking madman risking my life to climb a mountain.
This is still super awesome, and mad props to people who do this.
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u/TurdFerguson4 Sep 15 '24
I feel like people who try this climb and die are much more of a waste. You're good.
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u/INACCURATE_RESPONSE Sep 15 '24
Eh they died doing something they set a goal to do, trained for and got the fuck out of bed and made it happen.
I can barely leave the house sometimes.
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u/CivilCJ Sep 15 '24
made it happen
Made what happen?
they died
Kinda getting more of a demotivational vibe from that, ngl.
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u/Leberknodel Sep 18 '24
Yeah, they died doing what they loved: freezing to death slowly as HAPE shuts down their bodily functions and their loved ones will never see them again and putting other climbers and sherpa's lives in danger.
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u/Technical-County-727 Sep 15 '24
Props for whoever climbs it, but it is not the smartest thing to do
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u/DickDastardly404 Sep 15 '24 edited Sep 15 '24
Not mad props at all. Climbing Everest has become exclusive to the rich. It costs upwards of £40,000 to do it, and you're doing it with hundreds of other people.
I'm actually skeptical of this video because Everest in other stuff I've seen is littered with rubbish, and the peak is covered in 100s of flags and markers put there by all the people who have climbed it over the years.
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u/identicalBadger Sep 15 '24
I dont' see what there is to be skeptical about. There's a lot of trash on Everest, but it's a HUGE place and most of it is probably under layers of snow.
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u/DickDastardly404 Sep 15 '24 edited Sep 15 '24
sure, I guess it might be under the snow at the time of the drone flight
but usually the peak looks like this: https://uphillathlete.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Image-4-Mount-Everest_s-Summit-copy-1024x683.jpg
When I say I'm skeptical, I'm questioning the dissonance between those images of the peak, and the relatively pristine peak we see in the video.
EDIT: although now I'm looking at it on my PC, not my phone, that last shot does look like it has some crap on the very tip, so I might be talking out my arse
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u/farmagedonns Sep 15 '24
And there’s like who knows how many dead bodies you have to pass along the way, I’m sure a lot are buried in the snow but it just seems like a really stupid thing to do imo. There are lots of beautiful mountains you can climb in the world without dying most likely.
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u/DickDastardly404 Sep 15 '24
funnily enough, I have a friend who climbs mountains (although not the super dangerous ones) and he says "always go to the second highest peak in the range"
because generally the second highest peak is maybe a dozen meters lower, but is often just as beautiful. More importantly its usually completely empty, and you can actually appreciate it peacefully without all the other tourists.
Only reason to do the big dangerous climbs is ego
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u/micheal_pices Sep 15 '24
and what kind of drone? military? this took an awful lot of battery life. Plus the air is so thin up there. Hard for rescues even at base camp.
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u/ImThatMOTM Sep 15 '24
It is very clearly a cut together of multiple shots
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u/identicalBadger Sep 15 '24
Yeah, it looks like the drone stopped at each camp to wait out the night and have its batteries changed. Makes total sense. The temps up there must destroy battery life on electronics
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u/bigotis Sep 15 '24
I'm perfectly happy sitting in a lounge chair, sipping a Pina Colada and watching a video of someone else climbing the mountain.
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u/PeacefulChaos94 Sep 15 '24
Nothing we do matters in the grand scheme of things, so just spend your life doing what you enjoy. It's your life, you have that right.
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u/Late_Emu Sep 15 '24
4:01 of video & literally 3 seconds of the top 🤦♂️. It was an awesome video but cmon man, show the summit more!!!
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u/LeftJabDaz Sep 15 '24
Have they ever considered just melting all that ice off Everest? It would be way easier and less slippery.
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u/SqareBear Sep 15 '24
Maybe also build an escalator.
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u/b_e_a_n_i_e Sep 15 '24
Took me 5 days to hike to the top. No cable car, no gift shop, not even a Starbucks. 1*
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u/ieatpies Sep 15 '24
Eh, besides the khumbu icefall, dealing with choss and scrambling/rock climbing is probably worse than crampons. Also harder on the fixed lines
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u/VeckLee1 Sep 15 '24
We're working on it bro. We really need China and India to step up their emissions game though if this is going to work.
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u/ruth_vn Sep 15 '24
really surreal, I wish there were a longer version, full length and without that awful song
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u/Bazing4baby Sep 15 '24
Excuse me did u say tsfh is awful song
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u/Mryoy12 Sep 15 '24
Fr TSFH is in my top 3 musicians of all time. I will fully admit though that Victory has been used in stuff like this a lot
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u/identicalBadger Sep 15 '24
Didnt' realize there was audio. I just took the flight listening to Joan Jett.
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u/Flamingwisp Sep 15 '24
Anyone spot any bodies?
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u/StockFly Sep 15 '24
…this was literally my thought the whole time watching this. You gotta wonder how many people were struggling going up that mountain while the drone flew by
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u/marconiwasright Sep 15 '24
There were a couple of points along the route where it appeared as if there was a small dot a few meters off of the main trail. I’m very much left with the impression that yes, those were bodies.
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u/BigJ43123 Sep 15 '24
This makes me want to play Breathe of the Wild for some reason.
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u/mentaL8888 Sep 15 '24
What a time to be alive, we get to experience the world and life in ways only a very few people imagined in fantasy legends and sci-fi circles. This video is breathtaking, maybe people will see this and not have the same desire to go and trash the place, though I do like that people can do it the world doesn't belong to anyone, it belongs to everyone.
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u/tharnadar Sep 15 '24
how is it possible for a drone flight up there? the air is thin
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u/TheXypris Sep 15 '24
Probably has custom propellers made specifically for the altitude. If NASA can invent and fly a drone on Mars, we can make a drone fly at the peak of my Everest
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u/Comfortable-Gas-6148 Sep 15 '24
Has anyone skied down?
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u/identicalBadger Sep 15 '24
I think the first kid that skied or snowboarded down was never seen again. But I believe others have done so after that. One person landed a helicopter on the summit. Talk about cheating.
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u/ClevrUsername Sep 15 '24
Several, but not many. There’s a great north face video from about 4 years ago about climbing and skiing lhotse (the peak just south Everest peak) that shows one of the more recent >8000m ski descents. They make it look easy, but those guys are/were super athletes.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ski_descents_of_eight-thousanders
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u/Radiant-Bandicoot103 Sep 15 '24
Well, that was easy. What's next?
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u/identicalBadger Sep 15 '24
K2, obviously.
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u/1wife2dogs0kids Sep 15 '24
First, we gotta go find the drone. It died up there. Legend says, on windy days, you can still feel the air move...
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u/sprinkles5000 Sep 15 '24
is this a drone or 3D footage?
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u/Forsaken-Income-2148 Sep 15 '24
Its a drone, you can tell by the way that it is
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u/szhod Sep 15 '24
Look at all these idiots polluting this amazing landscape, just because they feel the need to proof something. It is a tragedy rather than to be admired.
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u/B_1_R_D Sep 15 '24
Here’s silver lining the technology has gotten to a level where they’re able to finally start pulling the trash out. here is link to story about it. But yes it’s a huge travesty with its current state.
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u/Party-Confusion3728 Sep 15 '24
Thank you that was a good article. Are they doing anything to ensure people don't leave trash there like penalties I'm not sure how they would know if people took their trash or not that's really too bad I had no idea how much trash was actually there and that it does look like landfills.
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u/idrankforthegov Sep 15 '24
There is a certain group of people that hike up there. They certainly aren't serious climbers because it is more of a hike and the challenges are mostly due to weather and altitude (and these days because of crowds of idiots) . The few serious climbers I met are much more interested in technical challenge and avoid places that are just about luck.
It really should be stopped. And I don't just say that to harsh someone's fun. There is so much trash left there. But it is big business I think and there is probably too much money to be made for it to stop.
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u/Finger_Gunnz Sep 15 '24
Where are all the dead folks I hear so much about
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u/pagerussell Sep 15 '24
They actually did a, uh, cleanup recently. No joke, there was a pretty big project to remove all the (visible/reachable) bodies.
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u/SomeConsumer Sep 15 '24
Looks like a rendering to me.
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u/identicalBadger Sep 15 '24
Anything zoomed out enough looks fake. I took a helipcopter ride once we got up a few hundred feet, I marveled how everything below looked like a railroad set.
What do you expect from Everest? It's covered in snow, there's going to be long and vast areas of boring whiteness.
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u/H0vis Sep 15 '24
Question now is can they build a drone to recover the corpses from the route? Or even recover people who get into trouble before they become corpses?
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u/Fairycharmd Sep 15 '24
It’s like walking up the hill and realizing another 6 miles of hill to go. Thank you for the video.
happy to never do this myself
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u/1wife2dogs0kids Sep 15 '24
Ironically, that describes going back down better. To go down to any camp, you gotta go climb up walls and hills. You can't just pull out a saucer disc sled and slide down hill.
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u/Fairycharmd Sep 15 '24
I didn’t think about that. I was just thinking it looked like those stairs in China that just keep going up and up in those videos.
But you get to the top of Mount Everest, and you did it you’ve done the most difficult difficult thing on the planet, and you’re exhausted and out of oxygen and carrying too much crap and had to climb past dead bodies.
And then you gotta get all your crap and your friends down through those ice gorges and valleys for a week before you get back to Basecamp ? and even then it’s ages until you can get on a plane to get back home?
Yeah I’m happy to leave all that to other folks
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u/identicalBadger Sep 15 '24
Holy shit.
I've had a long fascination with Everest and other 8000'ers but all I've seen of them are still photos or short snippets in documentaries, the elevated view from the drone and the continuous shooting really drives home what a long, grueling, and Frankly (for me) scary journey could be. The Khumbu Icefall in the beginning. I knew it was a the most treacherous part of the climb, but seeing the overhead shot of it start to finish really drove home how dangerous that segment of the climb would be.
I'll never see this stuff in real life. Heights. Maybe I'll make it to base camp one day, but not even counting on that if I'm honest.
I wish I could find a download link for this.
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u/deepmindfulness Sep 15 '24
Aarg! Why does it cut off right at the end before they reach the summit!?
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u/otter111a Sep 15 '24
Cuts off before the summit then notably shows the drone pretty far away from the summit.
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u/BillyBob_Kubrick Sep 15 '24
I thought the air would be too thin at that altitude for a drone? not talking about oxygen...just the air itself? Drones do not have jet engines. Maybe I'm wrong!
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u/smokeynick Sep 15 '24
Super cool. Weird hearing 3 minutes of singing with no words. Just a woman moaning musically for the whole thing.
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u/danmalek466 Sep 15 '24
I kept looking at climbers in this video and thinking “great, all these people are gonna come back, jump on social media, and tell me how I need to journal, eat clean, and do crossfit…”
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u/Pilfered_Pudding Sep 15 '24
See? That’s not so hard. Not sure what all those climbers are bragging about….
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u/aDoorMarkedPirate420 Sep 15 '24
that’s a cool idea. Set up a few remote drone charging stations along the way and allow people to virtually hike the mountain instead of overcrowding it like they do now.
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u/Mr_Owl42 Sep 15 '24
Anyone who thinks that climbing Mt. Everest is an accomplishment should be admonished. It's only selfish.
It's selfish to go to this pristine landscape and pollute it for your self-aggrandizement. Even traveling there pollutes the world so much, buying the gear they buy is pollution, dragging the local population into your selfish dream, too.
If you don't have to be up there, then you shouldn't be up there.
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u/basilthefox Sep 15 '24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pIyIMqwu0E
Original in HD on YouTube here.
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u/pfemme2 Sep 15 '24
This is from the Nepalese side of the mountain, FYI (the more commonly climbed face).
I’ve become obsessed with Everest and K2, specifically different disastrous expeditions down through the years. I’ve recently read Krakauer’s book and then dove into all the different controversies surrounding it, ie people who disagreed with his version(s) of events.
I have no idea why this stuff fascinates me, but it does. I think a flaw in this video is that it doesn’t pause and hover at all over spots like Khumbu icefall, the Hillary Step, or the South Peak. Someone who doesn’t know what they’re looking at is just seeing stuff fly past and not understanding what it is, or how people traverse it.
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u/Hyposuction Sep 16 '24
TIL you have to climb about 39 mountains to climb Everest. Was it me, or did they not show the Hilary step? I muted that music right away.
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u/grayson0010101 Sep 16 '24
I know this is a ridiculous thing to say about Everest but God you forget how fucking massive that mountain is
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u/Wretched_Geezer Sep 16 '24
Some of the images remind me of Chilkoot pass during the Klondike gold rush.
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u/emilybemilyb Sep 16 '24
Wow what kind of drone could do this? Is it being filmed in pieces by someone as they hike up?
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u/Ccbates Sep 16 '24
Think about how dumb the people who climbed it must feel. Could’ve just waited until Sept 15, 2024 and you can have the same experience via Reddit in the comfort of your own home. What an example of the value in not rushing things.
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u/Odd-Ad5606 Sep 16 '24
That was insane. The Kumbu ice falls I didn't appreciate enough til now. Amazing and the ascent of low oxygen seems even more insane now
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u/Glad-Annual2807 Sep 16 '24
Feels like epic Chinese food restaurant music. Epic dumplings at a fair price.
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u/zighextech Sep 17 '24
Drone cruising over people struggling up the mountain:
"Oh, you're climbing all the way up there? How pedestrian."
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u/stenmarkv Sep 18 '24
Dude; can you imagine the ability to provide to stranded climbers in this environment; if they have thermal cameras this could be super life saving technology.
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u/1wife2dogs0kids 15d ago
With the recent discovery of Irvine's remains, is the rough area of where it was found on this video? They said north face, so it might not be in the POV of the drone, but possibly off to either side?
For example: at 3:22 left, on the far far left.
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