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John Kazanas summits Everest

gfdonc

26-May-2010
10:07:43 PM

For those that know him, and even those who don't, long-term Chockstoner John managed to tick 'the big one' last night.

http://summitclimb.com/new/default.asp?linktype=r&mtype=smenu&vid=17&nid=132

Well done & we look forward to the trip report.


wallwombat

26-May-2010
10:40:14 PM

Looks like it's been a good season all-round for Aussie climbers on Everest .

http://www.humanedgetech.com/expedition/chadv21/

Arlee

26-May-2010
11:46:02 PM

Wonderful news - congratulations John a zillion times over. What an immense, amazing achievement!

Pietro_2003

27-May-2010
5:03:37 AM

Yeah, talk about someone with goals and focus. Well done John!


Sabu

27-May-2010
1:42:25 PM

Fantastic, well done John! Can't wait for the trip report.


IdratherbeclimbingM9

27-May-2010
9:10:29 PM

On 26/05/2010 gfdonc wrote:
>For those that know him, and even those who don't, long-term Chockstoner
>John managed to tick 'the big one' last night.
>
>http://summitclimb.com/new/default.asp?linktype=r&mtype=smenu&vid=17&nid=132
>
>Well done & we look forward to the trip report.
>

Excellent news.
It is always inspiring to hear of local success on Chomolungma/Everest. Well done John.

Duncan

28-May-2010
10:39:46 AM

On 26/05/2010 Arlee wrote:
> What an immense, amazing achievement!

Is it really though? Given that a 13 yo has done it, and a 22 yo novice? If it was done without oxygen, then I would most certainly agree that it's an astounding achievement, but otherwise it just seems like an ego trip.

Some interesting thoughts:
http://www.alexhibbert.com/blog/2010/5/27/easy-or-just-a-case-of-perspective.html

Wollemi

28-May-2010
11:14:20 AM

And no-one remembers Australians Cheryl Bart and her 23-year-old daughter Nikki from 2 years ago, anyway... Got a link to the 22yo novices tale? - likely they did marathons every 2 months or some such before going. Oh; and have a cashed-up mum.

Duncan

28-May-2010
11:16:46 AM

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/17/bonita-norris-everest-youngest-woman


cruze

28-May-2010
11:31:59 AM

On 28/05/2010 Duncan wrote:
>On 26/05/2010 Arlee wrote:
>> What an immense, amazing achievement!
>
>Is it really though? Given that a 13 yo has done it, and a 22 yo novice?
> If it was done without oxygen, then I would most certainly agree that
>it's an astounding achievement, but otherwise it just seems like an ego
>trip.
>
>Some interesting thoughts:
>http://www.alexhibbert.com/blog/2010/5/27/easy-or-just-a-case-of-perspective.html

Referring to Arlee's post I would say they have combined the subjective with the objective. Subjectively Arlee is amazed. That is their opinion and as valid as the next person's opinion. Regarding the objective, Arlee's opinion is that it was an "immense" effort. Who really knows how immense an effort it was for John, or for a 13 year old? I suspect only the individual and those close to them.

From a personal perspective if I went from average fitness working a desk job to train and climb Mt Everest with the aid of those far more experienced than myself then I would regard it as a immense effort, in the same way that a seasoned mountaineer stepping up to summit all the 14 peaks over 8000m could regard their acheivement as requiring an immense effort. Incomparable experiences both requiring an immense effort.

I read the comments by Alex Hibbert and became confused. On the one hand he is saying that the question of whether it has become "easy" to achieve named accomplishments like South, North poles and Everest is irrelevant and yet on the other hand he appears to be drawing a distinction between accomplishments based on how hard each individual has made it for themselves.

Personally I believe that if an individual is less concerned about the difficulty of the journey than the the final goal then their experience is no less significant than the person who wants more of a challenge. After all it takes all types.

I watched Talking Heads the other day about a lady who walked from London to Morrocco as a warm up for walking across the Sahara. Apologies for not remembering her name. I thought she must be a nutter, but respected her determination to challenge herself and was fascinated with the way that she had described the changes that it had made to her life. So if the 13 year old goes on to be unemployed long term or Secretary General of the UN I guess that would be the sum of all of his life experiences to date, including climbing Everest, and will add to the rich tapestry of life. (sorry that last bit was a bit of gag material) Perhaps we shouldn't be so quick to judge and pigeonhole?


Sabu

28-May-2010
11:41:37 AM

widewetandslippery

28-May-2010
11:44:53 AM

A mate of mine Chris summited. I reckon he is a good bloke. He is altheticly gifted. He has failed on a couple of biguns. Good on him. He topped out. I'm in the office.

13 y/o? un bloody real.


nmonteith

28-May-2010
12:09:35 PM

Congrats John! Must have been all the walking up the hill to the Gallery that got you in shape hey? :-)

citationx

28-May-2010
12:12:50 PM

On 28/05/2010 cruze wrote:
>On 28/05/2010 Duncan wrote:
>>On 26/05/2010 Arlee wrote:
>
>From a personal perspective if I went from average fitness working a desk
>job to train and climb Mt Everest with the aid of those far more experienced
>than myself then I would regard it as a immense effort, in the same way
>that a seasoned mountaineer stepping up to summit all the 14 peaks over
>8000m could regard their acheivement as requiring an immense effort. Incomparable
>experiences both requiring an immense effort.
>
>I read the comments by Alex Hibbert and became confused. On the one hand
>he is saying that the question of whether it has become "easy" to achieve
>named accomplishments like South, North poles and Everest is irrelevant
>and yet on the other hand he appears to be drawing a distinction between
>accomplishments based on how hard each individual has made it for themselves.
>
>Personally I believe that if an individual is less concerned about the
>difficulty of the journey than the the final goal then their experience
>is no less significant than the person who wants more of a challenge. After
>all it takes all types.
>

It's probably a case of the purists vs the pragmatists. As a singer recently put it during a performance in between songs, her disappointment came when she tried to achieve something that she couldn't because her mother had always said "You can do whatever you want, dear". In this scenario of the poles and everest, yes, there's definitely a case of "you can do it dear" for everest, it's just that sometimes the way you do it is by having more money than others and getting others to assist you in acheiving your goal. I'd much prefer to do two seasons in NZ and then climb a hard route up Tasman or Cook with a single partner than jump in with $65k and two seasons experience to get people to assist me getting up Everest.
This is where the questions come in, which scenario achieved more? From the purists point of view, the NZ experience. To be able to do it yourself, organising your own trips and learning sufficient to trust your own judgement and gain the summit through your own development. From the pragmatists, it's the Everest. You had the money (or scrimped until you got the money) in order to achieve a massive feat of summitting the worlds tallest mountain, sure, with your own development too, but (again, from the purists view) not the same level of development. Sure, you trained hard to be able to put one foot in front of the other for a 3,000m ascent "up in the thin air", but did you do it on lead, placing your own gear, with your own tents on your backs, your own plans, with your own judgement of the weather, the conditions, the physical ability to put out in bad times in order to achieve it?
Then the other question is "why the poles?" or "why everest?". The criticisms step in at that point about ego. It'd be harder to climb "Peak 3859" in the middle of the indian Himalaya than Everest, but who the hell has ever heard of "Peak 3859"*? Where's the glory in doing something that noone knows about? Everyone can relate to Everest no matter how long they've been living under a rock with their eyes closed and fingers in ears.The personal development and physical exertion will be greater getting to norht india and then hiking 25 days to get to some never-before climbed peak than it will to get up everest, but Everest gets first vote for "acheiving something"! And that's where people step in about "you're doing it because of your ego, not because of the actual challenge". And, personally, I tend to agree (purist ;-))
I do believe that there are people around here that got in to climbing and mountaineering in order to satisfy the sole aim of getting to the top of everest. But you can bet your bottom dollar that their climbing ability and knowledge was so lacking and dangerous that i'll be right royally screwed before I ever tie into the other end of the rope with them again!

*i'm just making up some random crap to illustrate my point

Duncan

28-May-2010
12:13:59 PM

On 28/05/2010 Sabu wrote:
>Well off you go then.

I have neither the desire, nor, and I think this is more important, the money to try and climb Everest. It seems like if you have the cash and a bit of fitness, you can summit - something like 300 people have summited this season! Imagine what a freaking zoo it must be up there! Frankly I think there are Australians doing much more news-worthy stuff in the Himalaya all the time. Someone summited Everest again? Yawn. People complain about reports of people redpointing a 32 sport climb, but is being guided up Everest really all that different? At least you can't be guided up a sport route.

singersmith

28-May-2010
12:21:45 PM

"I don't want to belittle the feat, but you could do most of it with your hands in your pockets." - Leo Houlding


cruze

28-May-2010
12:21:54 PM

Look, personally I tend to agree and value the "journey" more than the "destination". All I am saying is that there are others that do not value my "journey" nearly so highly, and choose a different journey.

In life more generally I find myself judging people way to quickly for not thinking like myself, and am trying and have been trying for some time now to stop doing that. I am trying to be more accepting of people's differences. That is why I am trying to point out that while we as a group of climbers value the technical climbing aspect of the achievement, there are those that would no sooner pay the first person to design a helicopter that is capable of dropping them on the summit to do so. That is their choice, and inevitably they would be able to claim just as validly to have stood on the summit of the world's highest peak as the person that has walked from the delta of the Ganges. I doubt they would get shouted a beer for it though...at least until they are 18.

widewetandslippery

28-May-2010
12:26:49 PM

hehehe Leo, hands in pockets, rent out a Paul Hogan dvd seppo

gfdonc

28-May-2010
1:25:19 PM


wallwombat

28-May-2010
1:44:40 PM

On 28/05/2010 Duncan wrote:
>Himalaya all the time. Someone summited Everest again? Yawn. People
>complain about reports of people redpointing a 32 sport climb, but is being
>guided up Everest really all that different? At least you can't be guided
>up a sport route.

I think the main point of this thread was to congratulate a fellow Chockstone member on achieving something that was obviously a dream of his. It wasn't to say "Wow, someone climbed Everest. That's amazing!".

It's a bit like when someone posts on the Official Stoked Thread saying they just did their first outdoor trad lead or climbed their first 21. It may not be an amazing feat in the overall scheme of things but it's a big thing for the person in question.

Some of the more charitable and friendly members of this forum will offer their sincere congratulations and some of the more hard-arsed members will think big fcking deal.

Personally, I think that if climbing Everest was one of John's dreams, then congratulations are due to him. Good on you, mate.

It's always a good thing when someone realises one of dreams, no matter what those dreams may be.

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