French Influencer Inoxtag's climb and documentary (which, in 2 days, already has nearly 18 million views) has been controversial in France. Still, for a non sporty YouTuber with zero mountain experience to climb Everest with a year of preperation is impressive. Very impressive. Kudos to the support team including the Sherpas and porters.
But beyond the climb this is a huge media event. The film, two and a half hours long, has already been seen in a number of cinemas with 340,000 ticket sales. More than most French mainstream films and absolutely unprecedented for a documentary according to the boss of the MK2 cinema chain. The French channel TF1 has picked up the TV rights for France. According to a YouTube spokesperson the figures make the video “one of the best launches in the history” of the platform in France.
Quote:
To become a mountaineer and climb Everest in 1 year, to the day? That's my dream! Me, a 21-year-old YouTuber who doesn't do any sport.
For 1 year, you're going to follow me in this documentary to find out how I changed my life to achieve this dream.
I sincerely hope that this documentary will have as much impact on you as it has on me.
Kaizen’ is a philosophy of continuous progress, consisting of improving every day, step by step. Climbing Everest, an ideal that seemed out of reach but which he made possible by following several steps. The first step is to dream, the second is to share that dream with those close to you, because that creates responsibility and commitment. Then you have to follow a rigorous discipline, which is essential to overcome the obstacles and strengthen yourself mentally. The importance of the people around you is underlined: you don't realise a big dream alone, but as part of a team, surrounding yourself with people who bring complementary perspectives and energies. Finally, Kaizen means fighting your fears and acting despite your doubts. Every dream is a path of constant progress, where the important thing is to become better than yourself, every day.
"Benjamin Vedrines (French mountaineer) says: 'Today, climbing Everest with oxygen is like doing the Tour de France with an electric bike.'"
Pascal Tournaire (Guide and Everest summiter in 1990) Inoxtag has talent, charisma, he doesn't cheat but we must remember that a 14-year-old boy and girl, an 83-year-old Japanese grandpa also managed to get up there. If we give ourselves the means, it's accessible to any healthy person who kicks their own butt a little. There, I don't see where the feat is. And then it's very self-centered.
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Honestly Kudos to anyone who goes into the death zone, Everest or a n other mountain. Summiting Kili was awful enough for me. However...
He's 21 and plenty of money and support. It's really not that difficult.
2.5 hours long seems a slog - instinct tells me it's pretty dull.
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
I'm thinking a boy band "climbing" Everest would work even better, from an audience interest perspective. They could lip sync on the top and it'd be amazingly impressive.
Why are people buying tickets to watch a film that is freely available on YouTube? Am I missing something?
I tend to agree with Vedrines. A year should be more than enough time for any 21 year old non obese male with no underlying medical issues to get fit enough for a standard Everest summit (I.e. Sherpa support, fixed ropes, supplemental O2 etc.). It's basically a walk up with fixed ropes taking away the need for learning any real mountaineering skills. Having a personal Sherpa and team making the decisions and doing all the carrying/cooking/melting snow for water also helps massively. So yes, I'd agree what he's done is not a particular "feat". If it wasn't for the huge cost we would probably see a lot more "normal" people attempting it.
While I agree that it's "it's very self-centered" you can say that about any mountain summit. Just because someone is doing something more novel, in better style, it's no less self centred. So I think it's a bit hypocritical for Vedrines to say that.
But fair play to Inoxtag. He obviously put in some work, and was smart enough to make some money out of it. While I do sometimes wish the "proper" mountaineers got more coverage/respect/financial reward I think they have to look at the likes of this, harila, nims etc. and realise this is the way to go. Simply doing amazing things isn't enough for commercial success (if that's your goal) you need to be able to market yourself better.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Inoxtag's climb is a cool story, but let's be real: with Sherpas and fixed ropes, it's not exactly the same as soloing Everest. Still, it's a great achievement for someone who's not a mountaineer. The documentary's success shows that people love underdog stories
MK2, the cinema chain that put on 3 days of special screenings of Kaizen is facing sanctions from the authorities. The reason: the film was too popular (some French films get as little as a dozen ticket sales in their opening weekend) and was shown at too many cinemas. The limit is 500 and demand for tickets (which crashed the servers) was so high it was screen in 800 cinemas across France and beyond.
It will be screens on TF1 (French first tv channel) in October.
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
There’s been quite a few couch potato climbed Everest successfully. They just didn’t have the net-savvy to create a following.
Publicity and marketing is a skill not recognized by the “serious” academic type. Creating entertainment is also a pretty lucrative career. The latter is more recognized, so you can even pay tuition to attend college to learn the starting bits.
After all it is free
After all it is free
I watched this earlier this week over two evenings.
I would not describe him as a couch potato. There is an early shot of him bare chested and he looked very muscular as though he used weights a lot. Yes his cardiovascular needed improvement but he was starting from a good place.
He took to climbing impressively quickly. Despite repeatedly saying how scared he was, within a few months he had climbed The Dru in Chamonix followed by the Matterhorn. He then went to Nepal in the autumn and climbed Ama Dablam.
By the time he returned in the spring to attempt Everest, by his own admission he was better prepared than many of the people that go there. The film does show the downsides of Everest regarding the littering, crowding as well as the two deaths that occurred while he was there.
I am not a climber but have trekked in Nepal a number of times, therefore I tend to watch anything Everest related.
I found that there was a bit too much over emoting for me and he film could certainly have been a lot shorter. I still found it worth watching and there are some good messages at the end.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
Real mountaineers gave up on Everest a long time ago
Never been but sounds like a commercial zoo.
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Sod this story. Have they just found Sandy Irvine?
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
ster wrote:
Sod this story. Have they just found Sandy Irvine?
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