The Mount Everest-climbing Snapchatters are going back
https://cforbeauty.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-mount-everest-climbing-snapchatters.html
AUSTIN – Battered by 70-mph winds, snow drifts threatening to wrench his tent – and his existence – off the face of Mount Everest, Cory Richards did what most modern-day climbers would do: He pulled out his smartphone and Snapchatted the ordeal.
]]
]]
Richardson and fellow climber Adrian Ballinger, still acclimating to the lack of oxygen at 25,000 feet, endured a long night of shoveling snow and securing tent anchors in sub-zero weather, but they had first-rate Snapchat footage.
“It is just awesome,” Ballinger said. “It’s my favorite Snap of the trip. It’s six seconds of: ‘This is what it’s like when it’s really, really bad on Everest.’”
Ballinger, 41, and Richards, 35, became social media sensations last year when they scaled Everest while Snapchatting their journey. The pair was in Austin this week at the SXSW Conference and Festivals discussing their trip and promoting a repeat trip to Everest next month, where they’ll again bring the arduous climb to millions of Snapchat users under the hashtag #EverestNoFilter.
Ballinger, a professional climber who has scaled Everest six times, said he got the idea for Snapchatting the Everest climb while skiing in France with his girlfriend. They noticed how professional skiers would post beautiful pictures of their runs on Instagram but their Snapchat session showed a grittier picture.
“Cory and I talked about it and we said we should do this on Everest,” he said. “The reality is so different. That’s where the idea came from.”
Everest, the tallest mountain in the world with a peak of 29,029 feet, draws hundreds of climbers a year and is also one of the most dangerous mountains to climb. In 2014, an ice avalanche on the Nepalese slopes of the mountain killed 16 people. The following year, another avalanche plowed into Everest's base camp, killing 22 people. The last year there were no deaths on the mountain was 1977, according to everesthistory.com.
Besides staying alive, one of the challenges of Snapchatting on Everest is having a system that allowed the climbers to send the chats, Ballinger said. They took a portable solar-powered satellite to access the Internet and send their daily Snapchats. But the connection was excruciatingly slow and, as the sun set at 3 p.m. each day, they had very limited time to take their Snapchats and send them before the solar-powered system turned off.
Hours were spent each day sending and resending the Snapchats, in freezing weather. As they climbed higher up the mountain, they were able to jump on 4G cell coverage on the Nepalese side of the mountain, Richards said.
“All of a sudden we were able to host from a network at the top of the planet,” he said. “It’s crazy.”
Their Snapchats quickly grew in popularity, from around 30 views each Snapchat at the beginning of their trip to more than 100,000 per chat as they approached the summit. Their Snapchat sessions were archived on YouTube.
But with only 1,000 feet to go to the summit, Ballinger felt his body dangerously shutting down and made the difficult decision to turn back. Richards continued without him.
He reached the summit, pulled his phone to record the most significant, anticipated Snapchat of the trip – and realized his phone had died, likely frozen into silence.
“I was like, 'Nooooo!'” Richards said. He spent just three minutes at the summit and began his descent.
In retrospect, not recording the summit was a fitting final phase of the trip, Ballinger said.
“It’s kind of perfect,” he said, laughing with Richards at the thought. “I was the one who always carried extra external batteries and had a heat pack around my phone and all these silly things. And I didn’t make it to the top.”
Richards said he realizes there will be people who won’t approve of bringing social media technology onto a pristine endeavor like climbing Everest. But climbers have been recording the Everest experience since first discovering the mountain, from taking traditional photos to film crews doing highly-produced documentaries, Richards said.
“This is not a new thing,” he said. “Snapchat is just the latest iteration.”
For their next trip, which begins Apr. 8, the two climbers will again bring the experience to Snapchat viewers, but with a greater emphasis on the political and ethical issues surrounding the climb, as well as better technical equipment, Ballinger said. Last year, they spent about $23,000 on the satellite Internet – and still lost about one-forth of their chats due to their slow connection.
Sponsored by Eddie Bauer and Strava, a social network for athletes, the pair this time should have a better satellite system that will improve their Snapchats.
Two more goals: To have Ballinger reach the summit and for them to Snapchat it.
“The great thing is we don’t answer to anybody,” Richards said. “This is not a produced television show. We can do and say whatever we want. And that makes it ‘us.’”
Post a Comment