The question that is constantly being asked to anyone, at any level, who cultivates the passion for a so-called extreme activity is: “Why do you do it?”.
The same question was asked several times during the recent events related to the second winter ascent of Nanga Parbat, along the Messner-Eisendle route, which saw the death of Tomek Mackiewicz and the hero-like rescue of Elisabeth Revol, after they had reached the summit.
The question: “Is it worth to die for an 8000er?” makes no sense in itself, much less for those who practice any form of mountaineering.
Where is it written that it makes more sense to die in a car accident while going shopping? On the contrary, I would say that it makes a lot less sense. An accident can always happen, in any kind of activity, whether it is leisure or work, and there is not a more or less sensible death, a more or less justifiable one. It just happens.
From my point of view Tomek died making one of the things he loved most. It was the seventh time he returned to Nanga, it is clear that for him it was extremely important. I do not see how it can be useful for anyone trying to make a scale of values on the most sensible or the least sensible deaths.
On the Nanga Parbat the two mountaineers were carrying out what was a great passion for them, they knew the environment, they knew it was not a walk in the park and climbing was what they did in their lives. So it is normal, even likely, that an accident (if it must happen) happens during a climb.
Making the right proportions, each of us while trying to pass the limit of our possibilities during a climb or while rappelling down from a rock spike, wonders “Why am I doing this?”. Actually, from personal experience too, I can say that the most memorable moments, those moments you will always carry with you, are the ones in which, even for a little while, you leave your comfort zone. And the comfort zone, the boundary of safety, is very shifting for each of us: for someone it can be just a path a little more daring and exposed, for others it is a passage on thin ice, for others it is talking in front of an audience, but for everyone to be able to go a bit beyond their usual limits is always a moment of self fulfillment.
This does not mean that you have to go to the mountains to measure yourself. Usually you go to the mountains simply because you love nature, the landscapes and being outdoors. Clearly, however, any comparison with the environment and with nature is always potentially more at risk than lying on the couch at home. I believe, however that it is not in the human nature to simply lie on the couch at home, rather it is in the human nature “to search for virtue and knowledge”, always looking for something more and something different to what you already know.
The spirit of exploration in the broadest sense is the essence of human nature. The spirit of the search for the unknown is what has driven human kind from the Stone Age to the Big Data age. Speaking of disdain for life when it comes to mountaineers, explorers, sportsmen, researchers, entrepreneurs, dreamers or anyone who in their lives constantly try to improve themselves and go out and discover new things is simply bogus compared to the reality of things.
Exploration is the essence of human nature and the essence of life itself. We should just thank Tomek and wish him a good rest.