The Tragic End of Natalia Nagovitsyna's Ordeal on Pobeda Peak
9 comments
·August 29, 2025weezy
Eesh, the person who went up to give her supplies died on the way down too.
bxsioshc
Also her husband died a few year ago.
These people want to do things that they know are extremely dangerous, and some times die. I don't empathize. Compare to those people who die by no fault of their own. Drunk driver, war, etc. Am I callous to believe that the two are not equally deserving of our empathy?
afthonos
I think making a point broadcasting that one doesn’t care if other people who weren’t harming anyone die is callous, yes. Doubly so when one does it on a news story about people dying.
jrm4
Hmm. I don't know. I am glad they're not harming anyone else, but also -- like, I have kids. And if they were to get into this sort of thing, I'd at the least be like "Well, that's STUPID. Why put yourselves in harm's way deliberately like this. Stressing me and mom out. Do something that helps someone else instead."
CamperBob2
Drunk driver, war, etc. Am I callous to believe that the two are not equally deserving of our empathy?
I've always thought that a good comparison was drug addiction. Ultimately, what's the difference between someone who engages in high-risk extreme sports and someone who just sits at home doing meth in the basement?
They are both doing dangerous, unnecessary things to manipulate their brain chemistry, without creating or learning anything useful or affecting anything in the larger world around them. Why is one considered heroic and adventurous, and the other criminal or at best pathetic?
I'm not saying that pleasure-seeking for its own sake is inherently bad or wrong, but how would you compare and contrast the behavior of a drug addict and a high-risk climber, if you were explaining it to an alien anthropologist?
afthonos
I find the analogy quite apt. I have known drug addicts who I thought were recovered, but who could not fathom simply going to work and then going home to their families every night. They thought that was an incredibly boring life. Predictably, they relapsed. They could’ve caused significantly less stress to their families and loved ones by having more socially acceptable thrillseeking methods.
foldingmoney
>I'm not saying that pleasure-seeking for its own sake is inherently bad or wrong, but how would you compare and contrast the behavior of a drug addict and a high-risk climber, if you were explaining it to an alien anthropologist?
the argument is probably that today's extreme sports risk takers were last epoch's explorers who helped humanity conquer the planet.
Without death, there is no life.
Climbers know they risk death in pursuit of their accomplishments. I am positive it is one of the ways they challenge themselves.
These aren’t kids you are talking about. As the article says, this climber’s husband died while she was climbing with him in 2021. She absolutely knew the risks. I do not believe she would have wanted sympathy. “Normal” people can’t relate, and have “normal” responses. I’ll imagine my own eulogy for her, but this article isn’t it.