Unicycle articles (but wait there's more...)

MADCAP STUNTS MAKE A MOLEHILL OUT OF THIS MAJESTIC MOUNTAIN
16 September 2008
The Guardian
© Copyright 2008. The Guardian. All rights reserved.

The last thing Everest

needs is a unicycle

Now look, my

purpose is not to mock Steve Colligan, an "extreme unicyclist" from
Salford who later this month sets off to ride a unicycle across the
Tibetan plateau from Lhasa to Kathmandu via Everest base camp.
Personally, I can't see the point of unicycles - bikes with two wheels
are more my

cup of tea - but Colligan is doing the 600-mile trip to raise money for
education in Nepal, so good luck to him.

"It's the challenge that drives me," he told the Manchester Evening
News somewhat predictably. His preparation has been admirably thorough,
with long hours spent cycling up and down the East Lancs Road. "I get a
lot of beeps from people," he says. Marvellous, though even with my
hazy knowledge of the geography of north-west England I am guessing
that the East Lancs Road will not be a perfect mirror of the Himalayas.
Only the

temperatures will be comparable.

My real concern, however, is poor Everest. This once majestic mountain,
associated with the heroic names of climbing - Mallory, Irvine, Hillary,
Tenzing - is now the plaything of cranks, stuntmen and would-be breakers
of obscure records. In 2006 a Nepali climber took off all his clothes
when he reached the summit and claimed the record for the world's
highest display of nudity; in May 2007 Dutchman Wim Hof, aka the
"Iceman", failed in an attempt to scale the mountain wearing only
shorts; but in the same month, in an expedition sponsored by Motorola,
British mountaineer Rod Baber did reach the summit and achieved his
grand objective - to make

a mobile call and send a text message from the highest point on earth.
Climbing Everest "because it's there" (in George Mallory's resonant
phrase) is no longer enough; now you must be towing a fridge, dressed
in a kilt or advertising a make of mobile phone.

Everest faces severe ecological damage because of the number of people
tramping through; deforestation is occurring and the glaciers are in
retreat; it is covered in rubbish - last year Japanese mountaineer Ken
Noguchi picked up 500kg of garbage - and uncollected corpses, 188 at
the last count; and restaurants and internet cafes are springing up at
base camp. "Everest has become too crowded. It needs a rest," says
another Japanese climber, Junko Tabei, the first woman to reach the
summit. The

last thing the mountain needs is a unicyclist. Stick to the joys of the
East Lancs Road, Steve. I might even sponsor you.


--
JJuggle

Raphael Lasar - Matawan, NJ

On a steel horse I ride.
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