I thought that Will Gadd hit the nail on the head with this article:



http://www.adventure-journal.com/2012/0 ... peditions/

Spot on, I've thought this for a while (and not specifically to mountaineering). A friend of mine does marathons every year to raise money for various charities. I thought it was because he liked running marathons. Turns out he hates it but does it anyway. Shame the charities he picks are bonkers.

I agree. Spend $60,000 to climb Everest to raise a paltry sum. Why not just give the $60k to charity? That said, the Susan G. Komen (my mother in law grew up next door to Susan and Nancy Goodman nee' Susan Goodman Komen and Nancy Brinker and helped start the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure charity) is one of the most successful charities ever and their big fund raiser is a simple walk, plus tie ins with every woman's product sold.

Funny story. My mother in law had ovarian cancer and stayed with us in Seattle for the excellent cancer care. Nancy Brinker's office would call for my MIL and I would answer the phone something like this: 'Oh hi Nancy, how are you?' My wife would run over and say 'You can't talk to her like that, she's the ambassador to Hungary!' Apparently she is an arch republican and under the George W adminsitration was the ambassador to Hungary. Who knew? Just yesterday I was reading one of my wife's magazines. In an interview with a reporter they were discussing the importance of women's votes in the upcomming presidential election. The reporter interviewed Nancy Brinker on her show who, champion of breast cancer health and legislation requiring insurance companies to cover mamograms, said her charity was withdrawing its support for Planned Parenthood. WTF?

A dumb, lazy mish-mash of about three different issues, from the guy who thought heel spurs were a matter of 'ethics', sponsored by a junk food company you were all ranting about a year ago.

All Summitposters are just armchair pretenders and hikers, not real climbers. How's that feel? All Texans are rednecks. All Red Bull athletes are disrespectful asshole egomanics. I can say that, right? I mean as we're tarring several groups with one big brush, right? David Lama bolts Cerro Torre so Will Gadd is an asshole, because they're both on the RB payroll, right? So goes the Gadd logic.

That pile of crap passing as writing doesn't deserve too much time, I read it a few days ago and just let it pass by. Another climber angry at life because it hasn't given him what someone else has earned. When he writes: 'most charity adventurers could probably raise more money if they just sat at home and canvassed their family and friends by telephone' he shows how much he knows. It just doesn't work like that, no matter what anyone thinks, no matter how much we would like it to be. People need a reason to give. He should try it, see how he goes.

Sure there are people raising money in the name of the charity, using that money to pay for their expedition and then leaving the charity with 'a paltry sum'. I know all about the scammers and the bullshitters, their BS and the pretenders. I railed against them for years - in the UK they are a curse. Parasitic businesses living off commissions from gap-year Kilimanjaro charity 'expeditions'. The whole 'cause' thing has muddied the waters with sponsors and media for climbers who just want to climb. We're asked what we're doing it 'for', like we need a charitable justification. I know all that. Big deal.

There are also many, many, more 'adventurers' who either pay for the trip themselves and the charity gets everything they raise, or who use the sponsors' donations to help pay for the trip but then raise the same amount or more on top of that, because of the trip, which all goes to the charity. Gadd makes no distinctions between such groups. If you're gonna shoot, Will, shoot straight.

There are people who raise hundreds of thousands of dollars, sometimes millions, over and above the cost of their trip. This money does not just come out of thin air for no reason. It certainly doesn't come from 'professional' climbers mouthing off with half-assed drivel. I guess Will feels threatened by these developments, it makes him feel a bit less special for all that really important mixed climbing he does. The lack of perspective is embarrassing. For him.

Will Gadd, if he can take a break from contributing to humanity for an hour or so, should go to the hospitals, clinics, the support centres, and tell all the people being treated there that the money funding their treatment should not have been raised, because he and his bolt-clipping, kite-flying manboy buddies don't think it's cool enough.

Upside? One more reason not to drink Red Bull.

sjarelkwint wrote:you need to start a blog with rants like that damien

I'd even donate money to charity for the privilege of reading them.

To reiterate DG's comments, there are people who pay for their expeditions completely out of personal funds, AND use the adventure to raise money. I'm thinking of a few donations that I made. There was a list of charitable causes on the "expedition" web site, and when you donated money, you were transferred over to the website of the charity of choice, and 100% of the funds went to that charity. I had to admire a person who could work a full-time job, prepare for a big mountain, pay for the real expenses herself, AND raise $10k mainly for child services or the Special Olympics.

It's funny what grabs our attention.

Will Gadd wrote:When we wrap a naked woman in a feather boa, all we’re really trying to do is assuage the viewer’s guilt about liking porn. It’s much the same with adventure...
...what we need is less guilt and more pure, for-the-hell-of-it adventure. It’s worth it on its own terms. No feather boa required.

I'm not a big fan of oversimplification when taking a political stand, but sticking with the statement above might have been better than taking several simplified and confusing stabs at multiple complex issues.

Will Gadd doesn't know who I am, but I don't know who he is either. He doesn't strike me as an expert on psychology or on the vast array of human perspectives and motivations. I've honestly never heard of him, but his conclusion sounds like a good concept for a Red Bull commercial, so I'll think of his name the next time I see one. Hopefully his mantra will serve him well.




BTW, funny to hear the story about the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure personal connection. I remember the controversy mentioned. I also remember seeing all kinds of ads for the walk on local tv last year. I suspect those events and various walk-a-thons are more life changing, a bigger adventure, and more fun to some of the participants than many more challenging hikes/runs/rides I do, and they are raising money for a cause at the same time. Some would prefer what may seem like a bigger adventure, some would prefer to just donate money/time, some over-estimate donations while only donating for a tax write-off, and some do none of the above.

Personally, I do tend to check out how efficiently a charity uses its funds before donating/getting involved. The internet often makes it easy to do (lots of sites for checking/ratings).

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This all reminds me that I was thinking about charities the other day when my kids begged for the last of the Girl Scout candy we had purchased via their cousin who lives in the next town down the road (the cookies were gobbled up months ago). I rarely like/eat cookies and candy, especially cheaply made, mass produced stuff. I try to avoid having that kind of stuff in the house. Several of the cousin’s school fundraisers also revolved around selling junk food. Luckily the schools in our town stopped selling that stuff, but many of the teachers/club supervisors weren’t keen on changing the fundraisers at the time. Sometimes I used to just make a flat donation if I wanted to support an activity/sport/club rather than a junk food purchase. It may be hard to convince my wife to do the same in the case of what the cousin peddles for Girl Scouts and her school. Personally, I find that more frustrating for a variety of reasons than people who have attempted to solicit donations toward adventures without peddling overpriced junk food. Red Bull probably isn’t any better than the Girl Scout cookies, especially if thought doesn’t go into timing of consumption. That’s one of the horses I’ve been known to ride.

MoapaPk wrote:To reiterate DG's comments, there are people who pay for their expeditions completely out of personal funds, AND use the adventure to raise money. I'm thinking of a few donations that I made. There was a list of charitable causes on the "expedition" web site, and when you donated money, you were transferred over to the website of the charity of choice, and 100% of the funds went to that charity. I had to admire a person who could work a full-time job, prepare for a big mountain, pay for the real expenses herself, AND raise $10k mainly for child services or the Special Olympics.

I agree with you on this. I admire people who pay for their own adventures, and raise money for charity.

The people I take issue with are the ones that want to fund their adventures with charity money, with whatever is leftover going to charity.