By the way I feel the same about people who drive fast cars in circles -it is pointless.
Millions of people do take a risk driving to work every day,and they take that risk to provide a living for their family.Nor is the odds of death 1 in 20 for each trip.
Now if he had expended great effort fighting some injustice,then I would count him some kind of hero.
But people who die of some highly dangerous sport don't get my sympathy.
It was an ego trip ,and maybe he was an adrenaline junkie.
Oh yeah,I don't worship at the altar of Teddy Roosevelt.TR raised a private regiment to join an unjust war against Spain ,greatly expanded federal power over land,and then formed a third party out of egotism when his party rejected his bid for another term.Of course he did have the courage to go on safari and kill off the rarest Afican beasts while calling it conservation and sporting. Bah!Rich egotists may do as they please but that doesn't mean the world is bound to applaud.
If it is their profession, then I have sympathy. When a Sherpa dies on Everest, it is a tragedy.
For these adrenaline junky fathers of young children who perish on Mount Everest, I can have no more sympathy for them than I would for the drug addict who dies of an overdose or the drunk driver who drives over a cliff.
They have all died doing what they love to do.
Drugs, Drinking, climbing. They are all done for the purpose of satisfying some inner personal and selfish need. What is the difference?