The Last Mountain

[weltweit]

The Last Mountain

The fateful story of climber Tom Ballard who perished on Nanga Parbat in 2019.

www.bbc.co.uk

Quite a moving story. Sad and inspirational at the same time.

There is no way I would gamble with the mountains.

 

[weltweit]

Nope, can't watch it anymore, the inevitable is inevitable ..

 

[Epona]

How far did you get?

I enjoyed it!

 

[weltweit]

How far did you get?

I enjoyed it!

The daughter was going back to the mountains to be close to her mother and brother.

 

[Epona]

The daughter was going back to the mountains to be close to her mother and brother.

The rest of it is kind of heart-warming, it doesn't go where I think you think it is heading!
(Some sad bits due to loss of the brother and mother ofc)

 

[weltweit]

The rest of it is kind of heart-warming, it doesn't go where I think you think it is heading!
(Some sad bits due to loss of the brother and mother ofc)

I am watching it again.

 

[weltweit]

Well, there you have it .. a sad story .. the last mountain ..

 

[weltweit]

Mountaineers seem compelled to risk life and limb in the pursuit of peaks and records, I wonder if they even comprehend the situation they leave their loved ones in when they are on their adventures and especially when they don't return.

 

[Epona]

Mountaineers seem compelled to risk life and limb in the pursuit of peaks and records, I wonder if they even comprehend the situation they leave their loved ones in when they are on their adventures and especially when they don't return.

And the people who might attempt to rescue them (although high altitude rescues are generally accepted to be too risky to others, in an "if you can't walk down yourself you ain't coming down" type thing). Surgery and rehabilitiation for people who lose limbs to frostbite etc. It's a costly business, not just for the climbers themselves.

If you haven't seen it, the documentary film "Sherpa" on Netflix is an absolutely excellent look into the mountaineering "industry" and its impact on the Sherpa communities, including those often unsung mountaineer Sherpas in the employ of wealthy Western mountaineers and explorers, it's absolutely excellent - sad moments and things that made me utterly furious watching it, but a very worthwhile film showing the whole thing from the rarely shown other side of the industry.

 

[weltweit]

HI Epona I don't have Netflix. I do have a distant relative who climbs, at least they used to, I haven't heard of them for a few years. They and their climbing partner very nearly died on K2.

I used to ride big fast motorcycles, was I being equally selfish?

 

[Epona]

One thing they didn't cover at all in the Last Mountain documentary was the media outcry when the mother, Alison Hargreaves died (which I somewhat remember from the coverage at the time) - how DARE a MOTHER be so selfish? What was wrong with her that she didn't care about her family?

There is no similar examination of the character and motives of the hundreds of fathers who have died mountaineering. They are athletes and heroes who died doing what they loved and striving to achieve mastery of nature or some such nonsense.

 

[weltweit]

I don't remember the mother dying, or the son tbh, but I can imagine the comments about her. There is no mastery of nature though, just a moment of chance to make it to the top and back down before the mountain kills you.

I did find the father very remarkable in the film, to have lost his wife and son and yet we never saw any moment of regret or anger.