I have a few favorite sports that I like to write about but mountain climbing is not one of them. Today however I'm posting about a topic that hasn't been covered by me before and that's mountain climbing. Climbers deserves respect if you ask me, at least some of them, because I know it's a sport that requires a lot of things and qualities a lot of us don't have.
If I'm honest, many of the readers (who m I kidding, no one reads posts anymore) are going to think I'm crazy but it's still my opinion and I'm not changing it. So in my opinion there are two types of climbers, brave and stupid. Maybe it's harsh but it's true. You must be brave to do what they do in those conditions but some are stupid to expose themselves to those risks, to go against nature.
When I used to do running trainings, I remember the senior runners always saying distances must be respected. It may sound stupid as distances don't do anything to you, but they meant you could harm yourself by not respecting the distances, which is very true. There were newbies who thought after running 5k they can run 10k as everything is possible and there are no limits. They had to find out the hard way that there are limits, we all have limits and that foolishness has a price. Some ended up having knee surgery, others hit the wall very soon and had to start their training over, doing it step by step permitting the body to adapt in order to get results.
You're probably asking yourself what does this have to do with climbing. Well, even though I know very little about climbing, I see a certain similarity between running and climbing. Both sports require a lot of self control, planning and mental strength among many other things. The mountain must be respected and this is a must, without exception. Both sports can be deadly as there were runners who have died running a half marathon, not to mention a marathon but climbing has taken more lives I believe. I've been planning to write about a Hungarian climber who lost his life a few years ago but this story comes first as the big event has happened these days.
It's about Nirmal Purja, the 36 year old Nepalese climber who has managed to break the World Record these days. He has managed to climb 14 8000-meter high mountain peaks in 7 months. The previous record was set seven years ago.
Being Nepalese maybe it helped him mentally as 8 of the highest peaks are in Nepal, while 5 are in Pakistan and only 1 in Tibet. He grew up at 1600 meters above sea level, pretty high if you ask me, so he got used to high mountains from a young age. He served with the British Special Forces, which must have been an advantage as those trainings make you stronger and also help you discover your limits.
I'm truly happy for him as he has accomplished something at this young age that just a few people do. But I'm also afraid for his life as this is a very dangerous path. After this huge accomplishment, he's going to set other goals and those will be even more dangerous. This is way of life and they have this in their blood. No one can stop them, I know that. They would do anything to accomplish what they want, even paying with their life.
