4w ago

Bad ass, stupid, or both?

60 comments

Both. He’s acclimated to those conditions, so that part isn’t a problem, but I really don’t like cigarettes.
- I imagine he's beside himself with concern over your lack of approval.
  
  Right? He’s probably in better shape than I’ll ever be!
  
  I don't know, he has a dangerous job too.
- It's a bit more than just acclimatized to the conditions it's genetics.
  https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physiology/articles/10.3389/fphys.2019.01116/full
  Sherpa is a subset of the Nepalese population on the Tibetian plateau that has developed over 30,000 years. During that time lots of adaptations to higher altitudes have developed. Given that the plateau averages 4500m high (approx 15,000") is a pretty strong selection pressure environment.
- And genetically different. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5241213/
- Yeah, Sherpa is doing a flex, pretty decent chsnce the other climbers would actually asphyxiate themselves if they tried.

He has air on his pack. He's probably stressed from having to carry all those other people's stuff up the mountain.
- Yeah, I'm leaning towards bad ass myself.
- Ya the oxygen is just for bis COPD from all the smoking
  
  This guy with copd probably still has better lung capacity than I do

Badass. He's a baller. Also, iirc, being a smoker has some kind of performance benefit for high altitude climbers. Like, you are less likely to get altitude sickness because you are used to never getting enough oxygen anyway. But this guy is doing it because he's a blue collar worker in a developing nation. And being a high altitude porter is already much more dangerous than smoking.
- Yeah....it doesn't work like that.
  I used to skydive, which takes you up to ~15,000ft.
  Most normal people don't get hypoxic untill your above ~12,000ft for 15-20min. Some of the smokers used to get hypoxic going through 8,000ft. Scary shit.
  
  You're talking elevations in feet and the post is using meters. 8,000 meters is approximately 26,000 ft.
  
  You and other skydivers don't LIVE at altitudes the Sherpas do. That's the difference.
  Just like the Bajau who've evolved to hold their breaths for 10mins and freedive to 50m regularly.
  
  why is that scary?
  
  Yeah but with climbing you also train your body. With skydiving the plane does all the lifting. Not comparable at all
  
  If I could light up when I gotta fall to earth I think it would really take the edge off. Prolly enough time to have a few cigarettes and a couple drinks?
- I've read a story where a guy survived CO poisoning and the medical staff said that he most likely survived that long cause he smoked like a chimney and his body was used to it.
  Used it to defend my smoking habit a couple of times. No idea if it's true tho.

Smoking is never cool. It's so hard to quit once you start.
- It's weird how the perception of coolness plays a big part in starting up. I smoked for ten years, and teenage coolness was only half of it. The other half was the brief burst of euphoria it would give us every time we lit up, though that did subside after a few months of regular use.
  I find the habit disgusting now, and I can't help but judge smokers as being a little trashy now whenever I see it. But I remember what it was like to be dependent on them, and I definitely remember that false sense of rogue-like coolness I felt whenever I was walking down the street taking a drag on one.
  I was able to get off of them fairly easy by switching to a low concentration e-liquid/vape for about a year or two, and then going cold turkey from there. I didn't even get cravings. Just found myself reaching for my pocket every time I took a piss for a couple of weeks.
  Now I just hope my daughter never starts.
  
  I smoked for over 30 years and couldn't break the habit until I tried vaping in the early years of the technology. I slowly reduced the nicotine level in the e-liquid and quit completely within 18 months. It was easy and fun and cheap. Now I see vapes marketed to kids to get them addicted to nicotine and eventually onto cigarettes. I find it crazy and not a little tragic that a technology designed to get people off tobacco has been re-purposed by the tobacco industry to cause addiction.
  
  I mean throwing literal trash on the ground all the time doesn't help the image
  
  How do you feel about coffee, as I sit here with my three machines and five cups ready to go.
- It took me 6 tries and I was young. The longer you smoke, the harder it gets.
  
  I smoked so much from 14 to 20 it was crazy. Especially from 18 to 20. I had a job where i was bored and i would just smoke all day. I eventually quit when i was 26, and learned that i don't really have an addictive personality, or i necer really liked smoking that much, whatever. I just stopped buying cigarettes and never touched one again.
  But seeing my sister getting back to smoking after she quit when she was pregnant for about 5 years is soul crushing. She quit like 10 times in her life and will probably die smoking.
- Quit smoking 4 years ago, there isn't a day in my life now I don't have to stifle a craving.

The people who live there have minor adaptations after living there so long. I forget exactly what is different but they keep the differences even after moving away.
- Hopefully it's immunity to lung cancer.
- I would guess more red blood cells
  
  Yeah. Remember reading something about first time birthing mothers had a higher chance of surviving with higher red blood cell count at high altitude. Have then selected for that adaptation.
- https://youtu.be/zXHgbUjPhOU
- If I remember correctly, Ketosis is easier to achieve for Sherpas? And in contrast to getting energy from sugar, energy from ketosis doesn't require oxygen.. Or at least, less.

Addiction, so neither

It'd probably be pretty hard to light a dart at that level right?
- Clearly not an issue
  He is skilled
- Gusts can be absurd, but avg windspeed at the summit is 50 mph / 80 kph.
  I've sparked up in that level of wind before, multiple times, with an old school zippo, a good decade or so of being a chronic smoker'll teach you how to do that.
  Granted... your footing is probably just a teensy bit more of a thing you're gonna have to be aware of, hahaha!
- Maybe with flame but the wind would also make it tough. Probably a high speed flame or metal element.

Smokers are evolved to use less oxygen than non-smokers.

Dude! Quit burning all the oxygen!

Now I want a sherpa review of chewing coca leafs in the himalayas

Would be more badass if it were a blunt.

Buddy, I have had a fuckin day.

a guy in my first unit ran a 4:08/4:24 first/second mile on the two mile apft. right before he started the run he smoked an entire cig in 3-4 inhales. I've never seen anything like it before or since.

Don't think you need supplemental oxygen literally every second. You can take a smoke break.

Then the cigarette is burning that much less too...

A mountaneer of my acquaintance said a lot of climbers smoke because - allegedly - it gets your body used to having less oxygen. He didn't smoke himself. Sherpas are physically adapted to working at altitude, so maybe it goes double for them.
- I just can't imagine smoking being good for you at any altitude. I have asthma and being in high altitude sucks.

Well technically oxygen isn't scarce, it's just that the atmospheric density is too low to support continued human habitation. Wait, literally speaking oxygen molecules are more scarce. Don't do this to me, language no longer works that far up in the mountains. I'm no mountaineer, I don't know know how to make it work, maybe these experts can

I know a Sherpa guide that lit up at the summit of Everest while waiting for the rest of his group to arrive. This was many many years ago before Everest became the zoo it is now.

I'd say a bit of both, yeah

Not a climber. But from docs I've watched, climbers smoke because it alleviates hunger. It makes it easier to keep going.

Stupid... I wouldn't consider a brave act as "bad ass" if it's also stupid.

60 comments