this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2025
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Today I Learned (TIL)
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Technical question for actual climbers.
How high up can you go by vehicle and still say you 'climbed' the mountain?
Nobody goes on foot from sea level to the top of the mountain, so at what point does the ascent start?
Tim Macartney-Snape climbed Mount Everest that way. It took him 3 months.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Macartney-Snape#Everest:_Sea_to_Summit_Expedition
The exception that proves the rule.
But thank you, that's pretty interesting.
What rule? "Don't use absolutes"? 🤪
Absolutely.
🤌🏼
If it's noteworthy that he did this, it must be rare. So this tells us most don't.
Most =/= All 🤷🏼♂️
If you're not starting on foot from the bottom of the Mariana Trench, you're just a filthy casual.
What if I'm standing on the beach but my balls are all the way inside Challenger Deep?
i thought I would see a dick measuring joke but this is new
come on, kiss the abyss
The practical answer is: you drive as far as you legally can.
As a disclaimer, pictured here are the Himalayas, which are at a completely different scale to where I've been, but in my experience there are typically parking spaces/bus stops at the end of public roads. At this point you leave the built up infrastructure and enter nature, and these are often located in a place where the flatter valley ends and a steeper ascent begins. In many cases there are smaller private roads further up to service more remote cabins or farmsteads. Sometimes there are even taxi services that drive you further along using private roads, which can be seen as not fully scaling the mountain yourself. Generally, the closest public parking is considered the starting point and most people will therefore start at the same spot.
I expect that by 2050 it will be common for the 0.01% to land a flying car 100 meters from the summit and then claim to have conquered the peak.
'flying car'
For Everest in particular, Base Camp 1 is at about 4000m IIRC, and that's where ascents typically start after some time to acclimate to the already high altitude.
Not a climber but I’m assuming the base of the mountain.
I guess that's what my question is. what is considered 'the base?'
I suppose it varies for each mountain.
It is entirely subjective. So is the height of a mountain as a result.
Correlation is not causation.
I mean you park the car in the parking lot and then you start at the trailhead. That's really as far as you're allowed to drive up, not like you can drive on the hiking trail
I learned from experience that vehicles lose torque the higher the elevation due to the thinning of oxygen. I think it was something like 30% per kilometer in elevation. That being said I'm sure there's a level where they can't drive anymore.
Which begs the question; how do jets fly higher than the mountain tops?
edit = jet engines have compressors to overcome the difficulty. Car engines don't
I should learn to search first.
good for you, learning something that quickly
at this rate, you'll be the one to figure out how to solve this problem for helicopters