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14yo boy to climb Everest |
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9-Dec-2004 4:19:07 PM
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http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/12/08/1102182366550.html
I've seen this kid interviewed on A Current Affair. He doesn't seem very mature. I don't his chances of succeeding are good. I just hope he doesn't get killed in the process.
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9-Dec-2004 4:47:38 PM
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He and his father were interviewed on Channel 9's Today show this morning. Seemed to me as mature as any 14 y/old...
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9-Dec-2004 5:30:44 PM
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A parent feeling the need to live their life vicarously? And hey isn't it great that Dad gets to tag along too.
Looking for sponsorship! Give it to a worthy cause instead.
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9-Dec-2004 5:35:26 PM
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Australians love a tall poppy, don't we?
*whack*
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9-Dec-2004 7:41:09 PM
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On 9/12/2004 vwills wrote:
>A parent feeling the need to live their life vicarously? And hey isn't
>it great that Dad gets to tag along too.
>Looking for sponsorship! Give it to a worthy cause instead.
Your just bitter Ness cause the best we got was a camping trip up the Nepean in the old mans tinny.
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9-Dec-2004 11:06:24 PM
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It's pretty sicko stuff this.
A couple of years ago we met a young girl and her Dad in Unwin hut on their quest to have her the youngest to climb Cook. She was lovely, he was an absolute control freak.
I think this lad here beat her to it and look how he's progressing.
Serious mountaineering should be left to adults who can be responsible for their own choices.
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10-Dec-2004 8:30:34 AM
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Maybe....but in 20 years time when the kids done all 7 peaks, put up legendary routes here and there etc (if he survives)...the articles in Rock, Rock & Ice, Climbing will all refer to how this legend of climbing did the world highest peak at 14. its how climbing legends are made.
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10-Dec-2004 8:42:26 AM
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On 10/12/2004 rodw wrote:
>........ its how climbing legends are made.
They shouldnt be made, they should occur naturally, not some reincarnation of there dad who couldn't make it.
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10-Dec-2004 9:36:08 AM
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Im not saying its right, i just know what the media is like.
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10-Dec-2004 10:36:07 AM
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They've got it wrong. I'm gonna get my kids into tennis and golf. You hang golf balls and tennis balls above the crib when they are nippers and the only toy they are allowed to have is a tennis racquet. Ship them off to Nick Bolletieri's tennis academy at age five, then I take over the coaching. Tennis training before school, at lunchtime and then for an hour after school everyday. We'll have a tennis court built in the backyard, and I'll be going along to all the tournaments to make sure there is no cheating by the other players.
I've learned up on all the techniques form Damir Dokic and Tiger Woods old man - scream at the kid while he/she is practising their serves/swing so that they have to learn to focus under pressure. Withhold allowance and food after a poor performance thereby instilling the creed that winning is everything, losing equals nothing.
We'll set aside a room in the house for racquet smashing. When you lose a final smash the racquet as it's bad luck. We'll have dual citizenship set up so that if Tennis Australia pisses us off we'll head overseas.
Alll goes according to plan you have the perfect nest egg. The kid turns pro at age 13 or 14 and you're retired a couple of years later. Bugger this Everst crap, there's no money in it and it's damnd dangerous too, sheesh!
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10-Dec-2004 11:31:30 AM
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Anyone remember that little girl who was gonna be the first to fly all the way round the world?
RIP
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10-Dec-2004 1:56:38 PM
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Yeah, that girl sprung to mind. I'd like to know how a 14 year old boy could decide on his own to climb everest .. sounds like a lot of parental influnece to me....
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10-Dec-2004 2:08:55 PM
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On 10/12/2004 Richard wrote:
>Yeah, that girl sprung to mind. I'd like to know how a 14 year old boy
>could decide on his own to climb everest .. sounds like a lot of parental
>influnece to me....
Not really ask any 14 year old who is active and fit if they wanna climb everest, sail round the world solo, etc and i reckon a lot more will say yes for personal reasons than parental influence.
That said, i beleive most "would want to" do it in theory, get them on the mount and they probably would need large amounts of parental influence to continue.
Most people on this forum would have been in a position to seriously shit themselves on a 10 - 100m route, hows a 14 year old gonna cope on a 8,000m route when the shit hits the fan or for that matter the frostbite hits his toes ?
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10-Dec-2004 3:50:47 PM
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If you climb Everest at fourteen, what the hell do you do at fifteen?
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10-Dec-2004 4:59:35 PM
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Try and get down.
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10-Dec-2004 5:18:03 PM
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from a 14 y/o perspective its all fine and dandy, shit when i was 14 i seriously wanted to do it as well (no parental influence, they were too busy convincing me not to drop out of school), and i believed i had come to terms with the consequences...but now just what 3 years later im still a kid and can already see that yeh i could have gone there and done it, maybe even summited, but then i could have easily died, or had people around me die, and the real impact of those experiences are maybe a bit hidden to us undermature kidlets
if he wants to do it and has the opportuniuty then f---en go for it, all power to him, but i'd also question whether he has a true understanding of the consequences of something going f---ed?? but noone is gonna tell him (or anyone else in the position) anything that will deal with that, i think its one of those things that one day will just click
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10-Dec-2004 5:40:22 PM
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Australians love a tall poppy, don't we?
*whack*
Being a tall poppy usually implies that you have done something meaningful from a societal point of view. I am sure that being guided up the seven summits is no picnic whatever age you are. It may be meaningful to yourself, but is of little value to humanity. Therefore the whole marketing/ sponsorship request is audacious. Companies should be donating to the Fred Hollows Foundation or looking after the health of sherpas or providing money for research into high altitude medicine or for base camp cleanups if they want an association with mountaineering. Not giving some kid and his father sponsorship for personal gratification. Perhaps the kid could do a paper run.
And don't try analagous arguments about how much money is piad out in other sports. That really annoys me too.
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13-Dec-2004 11:39:23 AM
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Maybe this post should be its own topic, but I will throw it in for flavour anyway.
I heard on ABC radio the other day that the Chinese are organising for the Olympic Flame to be traversed over Everest by climbers as part of the next enroute to the Olympics.
Apparently Australias own Tim MaCartney Snape (Sp?) has been approached as one of the advisers / co-ordinators, and is enthusiastic about it.
It seems to me that commercial interests are now heavily influencing 'sport' ...
What ever happened to climbing (anything)
>"because its there"
?
Warmnfuzzy feelings all round ??
PS If the 14 yo succeeds, its then only a matter of time before its a 13 yo;
... 12 yo etc.
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13-Dec-2004 3:16:00 PM
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>PS If the 14 yo succeeds, its then only a matter of time before its a
>13 yo;
>... 12 yo etc.
Better start training my 4yo daughter then.
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13-Dec-2004 3:29:19 PM
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she could go at it with my 3 y.o. Although I imagine the belay concentration would be lacking somewhat...
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