Circumnavigators vs Mt Everest

[boatman61]

I dont know.. crossings can be fun if solo.. crewed less so.. like most things, its only as fun as you make it.

[Cayuse51]

Could be the basis for an even more exclusive group: those who've done both the 7 seas & the 7 summits.[/QUOTE]


Here is someone attempting it. https://www.sara.blue/sailing

She has already made it around the world but recently had a setback on Denali near the summit. Hopefully she goes again. Climbing and hiking at high altitude is hard.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I have done neither, and likely never will so I really can’t make an informed comment, but I would imagine the two couldn’t be more different. One takes amazing physical abilities and is a relatively short duration super physical event.
If you just set me on a lawn chair at those altitudes, I’d die.
The other requires not nearly the physical abilities, but requires months or longer.

One is mostly a team activity, rarely is it accomplished solely without outside assistance, the other is more of a individual event, most often accomplished with little outside assistance.
Assumption is that a Circumnav is as much of a mental event as a physical one.

The relative physical demands I think depends on the crossing, the weather conditions, and whether racing or cruising. Some of the big offshore races are very physically demanding too. Ive never raced at that level, but have been to the point of physical exhaustion offshore in heavy conditions.

A crossing can also be super easy of course, no big climb can be. I just finished a run from Bermuda to Azores...conditions could not have been more perfect...we had full sit down dinners in the cockpit many nights, while still making good time under sail.

Climbing is similar in that it depends on the summit. Many of the 7 are non-technical climbs...what makes them hard is the altitude and weather. Im not a climber, though I do have a few hard core climber friends, but I have done a fair amount of hiking in mountains (including Everest Base Camp). Being a successful big summit climber not only has to do with skill & conditioning, but how well ones physiology is suited to altitude. Ive learned that for me anything above 12K becomes a problem....so that rules out big summits for me.

And some of the big summits are epic efforts which require lots of time to complete. Everest expeditions may take as much as 2 months due to acclimitization and weather.

For a truly epic summit, its only been climbed once, take a look at Meru. Even if you are not a climber the film of the first successful attempt is worth watching.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meru_Peak

[mtmattking]

Okay, I have a C&C41 on the hard for a new engine and a dream of cirumnaviagating.

I did do an attempt on Everest via the South Col in May of 2019. I came off the moutain at 22,000’ due to pneumonia.

Trip of a life time!

[Hardhead]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I have done neither, and likely never will so I really can’t make an informed comment, but I would imagine the two couldn’t be more different. One takes amazing physical abilities and is a relatively short duration super physical event.
If you just set me on a lawn chair at those altitudes, I’d die.
The other requires not nearly the physical abilities, but requires months or longer.

One is mostly a team activity, rarely is it accomplished solely without outside assistance, the other is more of a individual event, most often accomplished with little outside assistance.
Assumption is that a Circumnav is as much of a mental event as a physical one.

I agree, one is for a week or so, the other for 50 or 100 times that. Both take a lot of dedication I believe, but the circumnavigation carries it on a lot longer and more solo, at least if it's a relatively quick circumnavigation.

I've been reading Robin Knox-Johnsons' "A World of my Own," - and in the manner that was done - is about as hard as it gets mentally I would think, short of winding up in a raft. Any Golden Globe really.

Everest is a major accomplishment, but the way it's done en masse now, I believe might be more akin to comparing a 5 capes circumnavigation solo to a Panama-Suez navigation. Both very challenging, and a real accomplishment, as is climbing Everest no matter how you got up there on your own two legs.