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Bad ass, stupid, or both? (sh.itjust.works)
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[-] magnetosphere@fedia.io 90 points 5 days ago

Both. He’s acclimated to those conditions, so that part isn’t a problem, but I really don’t like cigarettes.

[-] ikidd@lemmy.world 37 points 5 days ago

I imagine he's beside himself with concern over your lack of approval.

[-] magnetosphere@fedia.io 21 points 5 days ago

Right? He’s probably in better shape than I’ll ever be!

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[-] The_v@lemmy.world 28 points 5 days ago

It's a bit more than just acclimatized to the conditions it's genetics.

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physiology/articles/10.3389/fphys.2019.01116/full

Sherpa is a subset of the Nepalese population on the Tibetian plateau that has developed over 30,000 years. During that time lots of adaptations to higher altitudes have developed. Given that the plateau averages 4500m high (approx 15,000") is a pretty strong selection pressure environment.

[-] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 5 days ago

Yeah, Sherpa is doing a flex, pretty decent chsnce the other climbers would actually asphyxiate themselves if they tried.

[-] thedarkfly@feddit.nl 35 points 4 days ago

Smoking is never cool. It's so hard to quit once you start.

[-] Stalinwolf@lemmy.ca 14 points 4 days ago

It's weird how the perception of coolness plays a big part in starting up. I smoked for ten years, and teenage coolness was only half of it. The other half was the brief burst of euphoria it would give us every time we lit up, though that did subside after a few months of regular use.

I find the habit disgusting now, and I can't help but judge smokers as being a little trashy now whenever I see it. But I remember what it was like to be dependent on them, and I definitely remember that false sense of rogue-like coolness I felt whenever I was walking down the street taking a drag on one.

I was able to get off of them fairly easy by switching to a low concentration e-liquid/vape for about a year or two, and then going cold turkey from there. I didn't even get cravings. Just found myself reaching for my pocket every time I took a piss for a couple of weeks.

Now I just hope my daughter never starts.

[-] mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 days ago

I mean throwing literal trash on the ground all the time doesn't help the image

[-] UncleArthur@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago

I smoked for over 30 years and couldn't break the habit until I tried vaping in the early years of the technology. I slowly reduced the nicotine level in the e-liquid and quit completely within 18 months. It was easy and fun and cheap. Now I see vapes marketed to kids to get them addicted to nicotine and eventually onto cigarettes. I find it crazy and not a little tragic that a technology designed to get people off tobacco has been re-purposed by the tobacco industry to cause addiction.

[-] bier@feddit.nl 2 points 3 days ago

I never smoked smoked, but for 10 years I daily smoked joints (tabacco and weed). I stopped about 15 years ago, but when I'm drunk a cigarette will still give me sort of a stoned feeling for a few minutes.

[-] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 3 points 4 days ago

How do you feel about coffee, as I sit here with my three machines and five cups ready to go.

[-] Stalinwolf@lemmy.ca 3 points 4 days ago

I have a moderate energy drink dependency, so I'm certainly in no place to judge on that one. I've tried to get into coffee many times, but it always makes me feel dehydrated and as though I have a mild toxin coursing through my veins, and I don't know why.

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[-] drasglaf@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 days ago

It took me 6 tries and I was young. The longer you smoke, the harder it gets.

[-] slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org 6 points 4 days ago

I smoked so much from 14 to 20 it was crazy. Especially from 18 to 20. I had a job where i was bored and i would just smoke all day. I eventually quit when i was 26, and learned that i don't really have an addictive personality, or i necer really liked smoking that much, whatever. I just stopped buying cigarettes and never touched one again.

But seeing my sister getting back to smoking after she quit when she was pregnant for about 5 years is soul crushing. She quit like 10 times in her life and will probably die smoking.

[-] Coskii@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 4 days ago

Quit smoking 4 years ago, there isn't a day in my life now I don't have to stifle a craving.

[-] WhiteOakBayou@lemmy.world 62 points 5 days ago

He has air on his pack. He's probably stressed from having to carry all those other people's stuff up the mountain.

[-] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 26 points 5 days ago

Yeah, I'm leaning towards bad ass myself.

[-] fufu@feddit.org 6 points 5 days ago

Ya the oxygen is just for bis COPD from all the smoking

[-] WhiteOakBayou@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

This guy with copd probably still has better lung capacity than I do

[-] blarghly@lemmy.world 35 points 5 days ago

Badass. He's a baller. Also, iirc, being a smoker has some kind of performance benefit for high altitude climbers. Like, you are less likely to get altitude sickness because you are used to never getting enough oxygen anyway. But this guy is doing it because he's a blue collar worker in a developing nation. And being a high altitude porter is already much more dangerous than smoking.

[-] Zotora@programming.dev 17 points 5 days ago

Yeah....it doesn't work like that.

I used to skydive, which takes you up to ~15,000ft.

Most normal people don't get hypoxic untill your above ~12,000ft for 15-20min. Some of the smokers used to get hypoxic going through 8,000ft. Scary shit.

[-] Mister_Feeny@fedia.io 7 points 5 days ago

You're talking elevations in feet and the post is using meters. 8,000 meters is approximately 26,000 ft.

[-] Zotora@programming.dev 7 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I'm aware.

The elevations I'm talking about are related to people becoming hypoxic when not on supplemental oxygen.

At around ~10-12,000ft the partial pressure of oxygen is low enough that if your not used to it, you can become hypoxic. O2 @ ~20%

If you are on supplimental oxygen (which if you are climbing Everest, you are), in the "death zone" (~26,000ft) even if your are on 100% supplemental oxygen, the partial pressure is low enough that you can become hypoxic. 02 @ 100%

In both cases, if your lungs don't work good (read; if you smoke), you'll become hypoxic at lower levels.

[-] MuskyMelon@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

You and other skydivers don't LIVE at altitudes the Sherpas do. That's the difference.

Just like the Bajau who've evolved to hold their breaths for 10mins and freedive to 50m regularly.

[-] Zotora@programming.dev 6 points 4 days ago

I was more commenting on the fact that smoking doesn't help.

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[-] bluesheep@sh.itjust.works 14 points 5 days ago

I've read a story where a guy survived CO poisoning and the medical staff said that he most likely survived that long cause he smoked like a chimney and his body was used to it.

Used it to defend my smoking habit a couple of times. No idea if it's true tho.

[-] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 19 points 5 days ago

Addiction, so neither

[-] Auli@lemmy.ca 22 points 5 days ago

The people who live there have minor adaptations after living there so long. I forget exactly what is different but they keep the differences even after moving away.

[-] MeatPilot@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago

Hopefully it's immunity to lung cancer.

[-] Revan343@lemmy.ca 5 points 5 days ago

I would guess more red blood cells

[-] Frostbeard@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago

Yeah. Remember reading something about first time birthing mothers had a higher chance of surviving with higher red blood cell count at high altitude. Have then selected for that adaptation.

[-] shaman1093@lemmy.ml 7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Pretty sure you guys are onto it, believe it is theorised to be related to Denisovan genes

"Denisovans, an extinct hominin species, possessed genetic adaptations that helped them thrive in high-altitude environments, particularly in Siberia and potentially the Tibetan Plateau. A key example is their version of the EPAS1 gene, which is crucial for oxygen regulation in low-oxygen conditions and is also found in modern Tibetans, enabling them to live comfortably at high elevations without the negative side effects experienced by other populations according to a study published in Nature. This suggests that Denisovans interbred with humans, and their genetic contributions facilitated the adaptation of some human populations, like Tibetans, to high altitudes."

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[-] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 days ago

I'd say a bit of both, yeah

[-] NotSteve_@piefed.ca 15 points 5 days ago

It'd probably be pretty hard to light a dart at that level right?

[-] FlihpFlorp@piefed.zip 14 points 5 days ago

Clearly not an issue

He is skilled

[-] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Gusts can be absurd, but avg windspeed at the summit is 50 mph / 80 kph.

I've sparked up in that level of wind before, multiple times, with an old school zippo, a good decade or so of being a chronic smoker'll teach you how to do that.

Granted... your footing is probably just a teensy bit more of a thing you're gonna have to be aware of, hahaha!

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[-] Kolanaki@pawb.social 13 points 5 days ago

Smokers are evolved to use less oxygen than non-smokers.

[-] Jhex@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

Stupid... I wouldn't consider a brave act as "bad ass" if it's also stupid.

[-] fitjazz@lemmynsfw.com 3 points 3 days ago

I know a Sherpa guide that lit up at the summit of Everest while waiting for the rest of his group to arrive. This was many many years ago before Everest became the zoo it is now.

[-] bathing_in_bismuth@sh.itjust.works 8 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Now I want a sherpa review of chewing coca leafs in the himalayas

[-] sbv@sh.itjust.works 12 points 5 days ago

Dude! Quit burning all the oxygen!

[-] Psythik@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago

Would be more badass if it were a blunt.

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[-] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago

a guy in my first unit ran a 4:08/4:24 first/second mile on the two mile apft. right before he started the run he smoked an entire cig in 3-4 inhales. I've never seen anything like it before or since.

[-] tacosanonymous@mander.xyz 6 points 5 days ago

Buddy, I have had a fuckin day.

[-] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 3 points 4 days ago

Then the cigarette is burning that much less too...

[-] umbraroze@slrpnk.net 3 points 4 days ago

Well technically oxygen isn't scarce, it's just that the atmospheric density is too low to support continued human habitation. Wait, literally speaking oxygen molecules are more scarce. Don't do this to me, language no longer works that far up in the mountains. I'm no mountaineer, I don't know know how to make it work, maybe these experts can

[-] MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 days ago

A mountaneer of my acquaintance said a lot of climbers smoke because - allegedly - it gets your body used to having less oxygen. He didn't smoke himself. Sherpas are physically adapted to working at altitude, so maybe it goes double for them.

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[-] someguy3@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

Don't think you need supplemental oxygen literally every second. You can take a smoke break.

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this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2025
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