Friday, September 4, 2009

First Ever 9000 Meter Ascent?

I caught this earlier today on Eddie Bauer's First Ascent blog. While it is light on the details, it is the teaser for an upcoming expedition sponsored by the cash strapped outdoor apparel company that is trying oh so hard to get back to its roots and make a mark once again with the real outdoor crowd.

It seems two unnamed athletes will be making the "first ever 9000 meter ascent" by first SCUBA diving to 152 meters down, and then climbing Everest. The blog post says that this will begin in February, so presumably they'll make the dive just before they travel to Nepal and begin their ascent of the tallest mountain on Earth, which just so happens to stand 8848 meters in height, giving them a combined total of 9000 meters.

The blog also urges us to "Be First! Get Sponsored." Which seems to indicate that Eddie B. has more cash to splash around on these types of projects. While I'm sure this is a noble venture, and the whole SCUBA dive to Everest Summit will probably garner some attention, I'd personally rather see them fund some expeditions to more remote regions for more daring climbs. This just seems like another Everest publicity stunt, which we've seen so many times over the past few years. Anyway, they even put together a teaser video that you can check out below too, although you're better off watching the one of Babu Sherpa that I posted below instead.

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