[Tishabet]

Originally Posted by VINMAN

Climbing has become a complete joke. I started climbing back in the early 80's.( rock, ice) back then, it was still a purist thing. Very few did it. It wasnt popular.
Rock climbing was still something that had some sense of solitude. Then in the 90's it became a "sport". Which basically ruined it. Used to be able to go to one of the local crags and maybe see 2 or 4 other climbers all day, now you have to wait in line to get a turn at a certain route. Same thing with verticle ice.

Alpine climbing was even more of a rare thing, Ive never done any Himalayan level stuff, just climbs here, Rainier, Hood, Tetons, Washington. Had a Denali climb planned but had to cancel it due to lack of time off. The big peaks were only climbed by the elite guys back then. Messner, Bonnington, Scott, Haston, Whittaker, Lowe etc..... Then all of a sudden for some reason it became a trendy yuppie thing. Which again, destroyed the purity of it. Mountaineering now is all about "first ascents" who is the oldest, youngest, blind, crippled, tallest, shortest, LBGT, whoever... to climb a peak.
As far as Everest goes, it isnt even close to being the most technical peak , especially the "tourist route". Anyone is any kind of good physical help can pretty much be carried up now. and claim to have "conquered" it. These "guide services" have basically trashed the moutain. ( although there have been a few expeditions to perform major cleanups).

Just another thing ive always enjoyed, but now hate because of becoming mainstreamed.

Former mountain guide here (though never anything as big as Himalayas, craziest I ever for was the alps) and I cannot agree more with this post. The sport guys have really taken over what used to be "my" thing, everyone shows up with gym skills and cannot figure out why i would go trad. Same goes for more pedestrian (pun intended) pursuits like backpacking.