Extreme Mountaineering or Extreme BS? I think the latter...

This has got to be the most crass and deceptive load of nonsense I have ever witnessed. What a charlatan. He doesn't even HAVE andy children...

+1 Allen letter

Wish someone could ask Nicaraguan kids and their families how to help, oh wait, what they need might not be tax deductible dear sponsors. Pretty sure that they would feel lot better with Mr C and over 3000 peeps helping building houses, working on farms, bringing food to local "dumps" and maybe waving their ice axes when anyone want to hurt them instead of watching pictures from Himalayas.

Wish I could see next year a short documentary about unknown guy who climbed all 14 in one year and all he says about it is: I did that for these poor kids.
Personally wish him good luck.

I have a buddy who worked for this lick-knob at UA. Total, unmitigated, kingdouche.

We should make an elaborate bingo board with all the possible outcomes and start buying squares. Does he fail to climb a single peak? Gets caught violating a yak on the way into Everest? Mistreats his sherpas and gets gutted in his tent while he sleeps?

This is going to be a high-altitude gong show...bets on when they pull the plug and how they spin it?

All-time lowest moment in corporate alpinism?

RC!

Allen, that is an awesome letter!

Lukasz Czyz wrote:Wish someone could ask Nicaraguan kids and their families how to help, oh wait, what they need might not be tax deductible dear sponsors. Pretty sure that they would feel lot better with Mr C and over 3000 peeps helping building houses, working on farms, bringing food to local "dumps" and maybe waving their ice axes when anyone want to hurt them instead of watching pictures from Himalayas.

+1 to that.

The more I think of this, the more I am really shocked that UnderArmour would spend its marketing dollars on this. The board and management team must not be paying very close attention to how the company's money is being spent. I guess there is a sucker born every minute. What a waste.

BTW, did any of you catch how he professes to be a christian and that his "faith" is allowing him to accomplish this...

And god said, "go climb the mountains and spend $5.6 mil so that the children will be saved!" I am not a christian, but IMHO, this is not what jesus would do.

Mr & Mrs. Cienski's website said:
"The significant challenges of the expedition will mirror the challenges that face families living in poverty across the world: in places like La Chureca, a garbage dump community in Nicaragua,"

That one statement tells me all that I need to know this guy. What a douche.

Three Cups of Cheese.

Ben Beckerich wrote: It's good functioning underwear for athletic activity... how can you possibly have a problem with UA or people who wear it? Do you think it's a fashion statement or something?

It depends on how they wear it -- some people do think it's a fashion statement (e.g., bro wearing UA shirt, shotgunning a beer, then shouting "BRO... remember (that one thing he did or didn't do) and how sickly cool it was?!"). I agree that they make very functional base-layer products, and have used them throughout my athletic life. But, legitimately, they could change their name to "Tool Armour," and have a similar following in most cases. I don't think that they are the embodiment of douchebaggery, but their following and stunts create a pretty strong odor of it around them.

I lived in Baltimore and thought some of those camera shots were funny. Some of the shots of row homes and run down houses were from Baltimore NOT Nicaragua!

gkoz wrote:I lived in Baltimore and thought some of those camera shots were funny. Some of the shots of row homes and run down houses were from Baltimore NOT Nicaragua!

one of their "missions" is in baltimore

Ben, I was probably exposed to more of this toolishness than most while playing college football, which is a haven for major tools. I also know a lot of hicks who always go out and get hammered in their camouflaged UA gear, a very strange niche. It's not nearly as bad as Tapout. That's really hell.

They really do make good gear for what it's made for, and I'll continue to wear it. This guy's attempt doesn't offend me.

As for the summiting feat: The cause would have been more convincing if this were for poverty in Asia, then at least they would have had the continent correct. Maybe afterwards, if burning through their 5.6 mil hasn't proven as easy as they thought, they'll take their thousands of sherpas and porters over to Nicaragua to build some houses (improbable).

I wish I had the free time it takes to write a letter excoriating a company for a dopie publicity stunt.

Love, love the dubstep music put into the Youtube promotional video. That is cutting edge.

I am so exicted now to find out how this all turns out.

No, wait. I just have to go pee.

In all likelyhood, he'll fail and fail quickly. That will be fun.

I sure hope nobody gets hurt in his attempt though.

Yer gonna die! And good riddance.

What I really hope is that as this fiasco gets more publicity and (hopefully) the negative response grows, UnderArmour will withdraw their financial backing and donate the money to charities that are actually working to support the causes this ass-hat is talking about.

Funny. Reminds me of what I was listening to yesterday; Fresh Air -- Sherpas

"Sherpas do everything. I think a lot of people are quick to recognize that. Climbers often talk about risk mitigation — that they are constantly trying to mitigate the risk. And one of the dirtiest secrets of that, I think, is that the biggest thing that you can do to mitigate your risk on a mountain like Everest is paying somebody to carry your tent and your stove and all of your equipment up the mountain, doing all of those laps for you. Because if the death rate is 1.2 percent for a climber going up Everest, just making the minimum number of trips, you can imagine how high it would be if you also had to do all of the laps."

Ray Pinpillage wrote:I wish I had the free time it takes to write a letter excoriating a company for a dopie publicity stunt.

Actually, you might be surprised at what such a letter results in. I have written similar letters in the past. They take only a few minutes. Some get a response some do not. I never expect one but more than once the CEO or another have contacted me directly. The trick is to write a serious but concise letter. FWIW I got a very nice response from the CEO of Cocona this afternoon - he even was willing to supply some whisky for my expedition.

Allen, I would be very interested to know what the CEO had to say. You don't have to post his e-mail, but I would like to know how, in general, he felt about the issue.

He was actually very supportive of their endeavor and said that there is lot more behind the scenes. Which may well be the case. Unfortunately, it is not what the rest of us are seeing at this point in time. I certainly hope that is the case as social issues such as human trafficking are serious. Which I do not think any one would say is not a worthy project. The question is how best to draw attention to it?

As I posted, such letters often result in good exchanges. I feel this will be the case. In the end we may not agree but we will have a chance to exchange viewpoints.

Stich wrote:Love, love the dubstep music put into the Youtube promotional video. That is cutting edge. I am so exicted now to find out how this all turns out. No, wait. I just have to go pee.

Meme Masters Ray and Stich..... Can you please put something together on this DB?

It's cool, they are climbing with "only Sherpa support..."

Also-they disabled the dislike button on the youtube.

What a joke.