Ep. 1024: The Mt. Everest Industry - Will Cockrell
Adventure Sports Podcast
Curt Linville
4.6 • 579 Ratings
🗓️ 22 April 2024
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Award-winning adventure journalist Will Cockrell took one look at the infamous Everest “traffic jam” photo in 2019 and knew the time had come to dispel the narratives of that pixel-perfect misconception by unpacking the mountain’s far-more thrilling reality. In EVEREST, INC.: The Renegades and Rogues Who Built an Industry at the Top of the World (on sale April 16, 2024; Gallery Books), Cockrell presents the untold and definitive history of guiding on the world’s most famous peak, in all its complicated and exhilarating glory.
Will Cockrell is the author of EVEREST, INC. He has spent more than twenty years as a senior editor, writer, and consultant for national magazines including Men’s Journal, Outside, Men’s Fitness, and GQ. His work has been awarded by the American Society of Magazine Editors and Professional Publishers Association UK. A former outdoor guide, Cockrell has covered Everest throughout his career, and has visited Everest base camp in Nepal. He lives with his family in Los Angeles, California. Find more at his website, WillCockrell.com.
You can learn more about Will and purchase EVEREST, INC. in the link below:
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Everest-Inc/Will-Cockrell/9781982190453
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey folks, welcome to the Adventure Sports podcast. I'm your host, Mason Gravely. Today's episode is with the author Will Cockrell about the industry of climbing Mount Everest. A lot of you may think, oh, yeah, Everest, there's kind of two sides of the spectrum here. A lot of people are like, oh, I still want to, you know, Everest is the pinnacle of adventure. And that's the goal, my biggest item on my bucket list. And others are like, you know, we pretty much have Everest figured out. It's a trashed mountain, there's debris everywhere. There's dead bodies. I have no desire to do |
| 0:40.4 | that from an adventure point of view. And you might know that infamous photo of the Everest traffic |
| 0:46.4 | jam from 2019 where like 200 people were trying to get to the summit. And it just basically |
| 0:51.5 | looked like a long line into a restaurant or something. |
| 0:55.4 | It was crazy. |
| 0:56.2 | Just tons of people waiting to walk on the summit, take a picture, and then walk down. |
| 1:00.4 | Well, the truth is the state of the mountain is somewhere in between those. |
| 1:05.1 | And what Will is doing today is going to tell us about what really is going on. |
| 1:09.2 | What is the history behind this industry, |
| 1:11.6 | the beauty of the Himalayan expedition and guiding industry, and how the future of Everest |
| 1:18.4 | will probably return to a much more sacred, a much more adventurous experience, and probably |
| 1:26.6 | get that status back to a lot of us of being a really |
| 1:30.4 | sought after adventure location because it is that you know all the sensationalism around |
| 1:35.4 | Everest having a tons of poop on it and tons of bodies and tons of debris yes that is true |
| 1:41.5 | but that's only part of the truth. It's still an incredible place. |
| 1:45.9 | In this book, Everest, Inc. is going to dive into that truth. |
| 1:49.5 | So just like we do with a lot of the authors we have on this show, we're going to be |
| 1:52.6 | giving away a free copy of the book. |
| 1:55.5 | All you got to do is message me in one of the ways listed. |
| 2:00.3 | Email, mason atadvent adventure sportspodcast.com, |
| 2:03.9 | Instagram, Adventure Sports Podcast, or Facebook Messenger, or if you got my number, text me, |
| 2:09.5 | but I'm not going to put that on air. One of those three ways, get a hold me, tell me you want a copy |
... |
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