Everest is the worst example of mountaineering. For many it's just an achievement, not an experience, not something that's worthwhile on its own merits. And in that light it makes it more obvious why so many people fall into the trap of tackling it unprepared. Many people don't understand how challenging it can be and they think that if they just struggle through and be miserable for a few days they'll come out the other end with a shiny brass ring they can decorate their life with, something that will serve as bragging rights and help define who they are as a person for their life. It's really not much different than, say, college, for that matter. When you have people who have been rewarded so much for gaming the system, when you have people who struggle constantly in the search for authenticity and meaning in their life they are prone to try to fake their way through.

I can't speak for climbers from other countries, but I feel that the American attitude towards achievements like "climbing mountain X" is that they want exactly that, a checkmark on a list. They want to get in and get out as fast as possible. The destination is the goal, and everything in between is just noise that should be overcome as swiftly as possible.

This is, at least, my anedoctal experience. I go hiking recreational level hills with (American) friends frequently and it always annoys me how they just want to get to the top as soon as possible and then come back down just as quickly. I instead frequently stop on my way to look around and admire the view (and not just at officially sanctioned "lookout points") and this is something they never have any inclination on doing.

There are peak baggers from all over the world, it's not an American phenomenon. I got a nice tip the last time I was hiking in Colorado: ignore the 14ers and go for the just unders. 13,950 feet has the same views and sense of accomplishment, but with no peak baggers.

This seems like a pretty broad generalization, deriving an entire culture's adventure sport habits from a hill hike with friends. Not saying you're wrong, not saying you're right. For me, it takes a little more to characterize 300+ million people.

I did say it is anedoctal, but to make it more clear: this was not from just "a hill hike with friends". This is my experience from years hiking with these and other friends in the US, noticing their behavior (and those of other people in the same trails) on both the West and East coast, and contrasting it to the behavior seen in comparable trails outside of the US. After a while it starts feeling more like a common pattern, instead of an isolated thing.

hikers and alpinists are totally different breeds, though.

The americans writing articles for the AAC journal or evening sends or whatnot are not peak-baggers.

conversely, the grade-seekers of 8a.nu are primarily european.

Anecdotally I'd say that's true. The majority of the most active climbers and alpinists that I've been around don't seem to be overly goal oriented about it, though there definitely is a subset who are.

I've lived in a few countries and I'd say the whole constant need to be first or ahead of others is definitely a characteristic among Americans.

Coincidentally, Nepal is one of the best places to trek in the world, thanks in part to the natural beauty and tea houses located everywhere. It's worth it just to visit base camp.

Despite living close to the Sagarmatha (equivalent of Everest in Nepali) region, I myself haven't even dared thinking about giving it a try(not that I can't afford it). The mere suggestion of “conquering Everest” sounds ridiculous. Having conversed with few of them I've realized that many climbers do in fact posses this mentality, and while that may be fine for them, I personally believe that the true beauty in climbing is the experience – both in appreciating nature’s wonder while challenging yourself physically in new ways and to your personal limits. While reaching the top of mountains can be an exhilarating experience, irrational obsession with summiting (also called Summit Fever) can be deadly. So what is my point? It is my opinion that for most people attempting to climb to the summit of Mt. Everest is simply dumb.

Mountaineering above 6000m is never extraordinarily safe. During past 5 years death rate on Everest is 3.4%. That's pretty high if you ask me. If you were sitting in a bus full of climbers, one of them wasn't going back home. Sure, there is always a lot of stupidity but pretty much its just nature. No one is still able to predict weather perfectly, no one can tell who is going to get AMS and people even sitting on basecamp can just die because of avalanche.

While I don't want to die from a change in the weather while climbing, to take on Mother Nature and lose seems a bit more acceptable than to die because I was stuck in a human traffic jam caused by a dentist from Akron going through a midlife crisis who is using Everest as a coping mechanism. Once upon a time I had climbing the seven summits as a goal but with the way things are on Everest now, I'd never attempt it regardless the quality of my own skills. There are just too many inexperienced climbers and too many ways they can cause harm beyond themselves.

Parent comment logic is "since we have better and safer equipment, people are making more dangerous choices" - statistics can't show it to be false, as this death rate can be explained in this logic as said dangerous choices, not the mountaineering itself.

Part of the issue is that people seek out risk. If something is made safer, people will not go "great, no we're not taking any risks" - they will seek out something riskier.

Peoples individual risk tolerance varies, but we all tend to have a tendency to see a reduced risk as a reason to push things further.

This gives rise to the situation where if we make changes that are perceived as adding more safety than it actually does, we even risk actually causing more injury than we prevent

In behavioral economics, this phenomenon is sometimes called "risk compensation".

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