• Flying SquidOP
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    8 months ago
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    The Chinese already built a paved road to the North Base Camp. Only a matter of time before they build it all the way to the top.

    • PhlubbaDubba
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      8 months ago
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      Maybe but IIRC the Chinese side of the approach was already considered the less treacherous side, this would most likely require some serious capital investment just for hazard mitigation alone during construction.

      The long term net benefit though would be more than enough to warrant the costs IMO, would even facilitate recovering the dead bodies on the slope.

      • Flying SquidOP
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        8 months ago
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        I think the long term net loss of allowing anyone who wants to drive to the top to do so is a bigger issue.

        • PhlubbaDubba
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          8 months ago
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          The net loss of people not dying like idiots for a fake accomplishment? The net loss of the local communities getting high paying technical jobs? The net loss of all that shit and dead people the hike accumulates being removed from the equation since it’s now able to be safely transported off the mountain without making people hike for days to retrieve it?

          • Flying SquidOP
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            8 months ago
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            And a road to the top allowing endless tourists up there won’t result in more trash accumulating on the mountain? Not to mention erosion.

            Have you been to an easily-accessible natural wonder before? People who can get up close treat them like shit. That’s why most of them are only viewable from a distance.

            I give it two weeks from the time a road to the top gets completed before someone spray paints their graffiti tag on the summit.

            • PhlubbaDubba
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              8 months ago
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              • who said anything about a road, I mentioned a rail car.

              • that’s what you install guard rails and write rules of conduct for. This tragedy of the commons narrative more often than not comes from understaffed park workers not having the funding to adequately police park visitor behavior with the up close sites, the tomb of the unknown soldier is also easily accessible and yet is one of the most well maintained and respectfully observed sites in the world.

              • I’m pretty sure the spray paint can would have blown off their hand by the time they got to the summit from becoming so much more pressurized by the high altitude.