Having read quite a few of these stories now, I don’t think “aspiring for greatness” is what really drives most of these people. It’s clearly a motivating factor for some, like Nims Purja, who remortgaged his house and quit his lucrative job in the British Special Forces just to be the first guy to summit all fourteen 8000 meter peaks in one year. He explicitly talked about the importance of having the “first all-Nepalese team” be the ones to do this, and about “wanting to show people what is possible”.
But most climbers aren’t like that. Sure the best ones have sponsorships and social media. But my impression is they mostly do that to financially support themselves so they can continue doing what they love.
I still don’t completely understand why they do it, but my impression is they really do view climbing as a grand and terrifying adventure, and one they can’t really get anywhere else besides the mountains. I also think a lot of them enjoy the experience of being completely and utterly focused on the moment-to-moment experience of climbing. The “flow state” of climbing, if you will.
Is it irrational? It seems that way to me. But humans execute strategies that have been rewarding in the past, and in these weird adventurous types, climbing mountains seems to generate positive rewards so strong that it overwhelms all these other considerations.
Having read quite a few of these stories now, I don’t think “aspiring for greatness” is what really drives most of these people. It’s clearly a motivating factor for some, like Nims Purja, who remortgaged his house and quit his lucrative job in the British Special Forces just to be the first guy to summit all fourteen 8000 meter peaks in one year. He explicitly talked about the importance of having the “first all-Nepalese team” be the ones to do this, and about “wanting to show people what is possible”.
But most climbers aren’t like that. Sure the best ones have sponsorships and social media. But my impression is they mostly do that to financially support themselves so they can continue doing what they love.
I still don’t completely understand why they do it, but my impression is they really do view climbing as a grand and terrifying adventure, and one they can’t really get anywhere else besides the mountains. I also think a lot of them enjoy the experience of being completely and utterly focused on the moment-to-moment experience of climbing. The “flow state” of climbing, if you will.
Is it irrational? It seems that way to me. But humans execute strategies that have been rewarding in the past, and in these weird adventurous types, climbing mountains seems to generate positive rewards so strong that it overwhelms all these other considerations.