The Happiness Quotient

In this video we recount a tragic climbing incident in China's Sichuan province, where a hiker's selfie accident led to an accidental death after unhooking his safety rope. We also explore the story of the "bikini climber" GiGi Wu, highlighting how some seemingly innocent actions can go wrong in extreme environments, often due to the carelessness of people. This horror story serves as a stark reminder of critical safety precautions needed during any adventure, focusing on the circus that we see on Everest these days. 

We also share an update on the massive serac stopping all work in the Khumbu Icefall and a workaround that the Icefall Doctors think might save the season. 

**THANK YOU TO OUR CAMP FOUR SPONSORS HERE AND ON PATREON**:
Barbedwire 
Henriette Pi
Mike Nicholson
Tom McLeod
Geoff (mountain climber)
Ursula Dimberger
Noelle Dud13y

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"I'm not doing too good at Everest Base Camp, " says a reclining Ryan Mitchell behind an oxygen mask covering his face. 

Ryan Mitchell is on oxygen at Base Camp with an SPO2 of 35. And the Icefall Doctors have stopped cold in their tracks. A serac the size of a building is blocking the only route up the mountain. And 3,500 people are waiting at the foot of Everest with nowhere to go.

The 2026 Everest season hasn't really started yet — but Tyler Andrews and Karl Egloff — gunning for the fastest no-oxygen ascent in history, the growing army of no-O2 no-Sherpa alpinists, and the looming regulatory changes that could make this one of the last seasons this style of climbing is even legal.

**THANK YOU TO OUR CAMP FOUR SPONSORS HERE AND ON PATREON**:
Barbedwire 
Henriette Pi
Mike Nicholson
Tom McLeod
Geoff (mountain climber)
Ursula Dimberger
Noelle Dud13y

RESOURCES FOR MORE RESEARCH

Everest at 19! YouTube Influencer Ryan Mitchell's Path to the Top
https://youtu.be/w1mJsdeE81Q

Everest 2026 - Without These HUGE Changes We're Screwed
https://youtu.be/NKKMUvesAmE

Can Anyone Save Everest? 2026 Is The Biggest Test Yet
https://youtu.be/676yCestIKg

Everest 2026: More Dangerous Than Ever — But Now There Are Drones
https://youtu.be/Jqh3UA_ml1Y

Ryan Mitchell's Instagram post - SEND HIM SOME LOVE:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DXJ2yKVEXlL/

=======================

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I want to start with a number: 31,797 kilograms.
That is the amount of human waste that was removed from Mount Everest in the spring of 2025. One season. One mountain. 

Can anyone save Everest? That question has never felt more urgent than right now. With the Tibet side closed, record numbers of climbers heading for the summit, and a waste crisis decades in the making — 2026 is the year that puts everything to the test. Here's what's really at stake.

**THANK YOU TO OUR CAMP FOUR SPONSORS HERE AND ON PATREON**:
Barbedwire 
Henriette Pi
Mike Nicholson
Tom McLeod
Geoff (mountain climber)
Ursula Dimberger
Noelle Dud13y

This video discusses new regulations for climbing Mount Everest, requiring climbers to first ascend a 7,000m peak in Nepal. It highlights significant environmental concerns and the potential impact of climate change on the mountain. These changes could alter the appearance of Mount Everest, addressing issues like pollution and ensuring a more sustainable future for mountaineering.

FOR THE LINK TO THIS EPISODE ON EVEREST MYSTERY FOLLOW THIS LINK:

https://youtu.be/676yCestIKg

RESOURCES FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

POLL QUESTION about most important issues facing Mount Everest today:
https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxtVWxuLgVI4Fe8mCF8G8EENzuj3MsEK5l

Everest 2026: More Dangerous Than Ever — But Now There Are Drones:
https://youtu.be/Jqh3UA_ml1Y



=======================
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Everest is changing—faster than most people realize.

For decades, the mountain has been quietly “dialed in.” Better forecasting, supplemental oxygen, fixed ropes, and accumulated experience have made it safer—even as more people attempt it than ever before.

Now, a new wave of technology is accelerating that change. Drones, AI systems. and the possibility—real, not theoretical—of lighting Everest from space.

**THANK YOU TO OUR CAMP FOUR SPONSORS HERE AND ON PATREON**:
Barbedwire 
Henriette Pi
Mike Nicholson
Tom McLeod
Geoff (mountain climber)
Ursula Dimberger
Noelle Dud13y

Send us Fan Mail

If you've been enjoying the podcast and find value in the content, we'd be incredibly grateful for your support. Your monthly contribution helps ensuring that we can continue delivering great content for you to enjoy.

Click on the link below:

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Thank you!
Thom Dharma Pollard

Support the show

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From New York to the top of the world in just three days, twenty-three hours, and seven minutes. That’s not a myth. That’s Andrew Ushakov.  An American who quietly, stealthily went about his goal to climb Everest in a matter of days and  has shocked the world with his historic ascent.

Mountaineering news was focused on a team of four special forces elite from England - the Mission:Everest team - who’d made news with their splashy PR effort, a line of clothing for men and women, and their controversial use of  xenon gas to boost their epo. They accomplished their goal of leaving London, summiting Everest and returning back to London in seven days.

And then: Andrew Ushakov slips in there with a faster ascent, without the use of xenon.

Will mountaineering forever be changed by his climb?

I had the opportunity to interview Andrew from his hotel room just two days after his  climb. Yes, he did the unthinkable—launching from sea level in New York to standing on the summit of Everest in under four days. 

Send us Fan Mail

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Thom Dharma Pollard

Support the show

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In this awesome episode, we speak with musician and radio host Jonathan Sarty, the creative force behind the Cold River Radio Show — a live variety show bringing music, literature, and storytelling to life in a remote mountain tourist town where culture can feel hard to come by.

We talk about the need for artistic connection in small places, and our new collaborative segment: Within the Zone.

Whether you’re a longtime listener or hearing about Cold River for the first time, this episode is a reminder that creativity thrives wherever we make space for it.

🎶 New season of Cold River Radio opens May 18, 2025
🌲 Learn more/tickets for in-person or virtual live: 
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/may-18th-season-premier-of-the-cold-river-radio-show-tickets-1200252630929?aff=oddtdtcreator&fbclid=IwY2xjawKQae1leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFKVWJXcHNheXI5MUVqRGJIAR5VrkLj_L2LCYV2FFM1BBil74tH_PgLMyG1We8gNsfZqcgPsf4Jxy74-apCAg_aem_lYvub0w_eUXPXWFI_tjbfg

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In this episode: Prof. Sam Vaknin explains narcissism as a disruption in early childhood self-formation, leading to a lack of boundaries, empathy, and a false self. He describes narcissists as having an "empty schizoid core" that feeds on others to maintain a fantasy of grandiosity. Vaknin highlights the narcissist's ability to manipulate others through shared fantasies, exploiting their vulnerabilities. He contrasts narcissism with other mental illnesses, noting its unique blend of emotional dysregulation and controlled behavior. Vaknin also critiques social media's role in fostering negative emotions and isolating individuals, contributing to a broader societal disconnection from reality.

Attend the free 3-day seminar on healing and recovery from narcissistic abuse. Contact Prof. Sam Vaknin at [email protected]

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Thank you!
Thom Dharma Pollard

Support the show

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A vast number of those under the age of 35 spend between six and eight hours a day using computer simulated games, essentially in a world far from reality. And, what's worse, the vast and expanding realm of social media are designed to bring out and leverage the worst in their users, all negative affects such as anger and malicious envy. It is a toxic environment. The core philosophy of social media is asocial. They want you divorced or with no friends. They want your eyeballs on the screen at all times....more eyeballs, more advertising, more money for them.

There is malice in social media platforms, they leverage elements of narcissism and violence, that is why there is so much trolling and hatred. 

Today I have with us Professor Sam Vaknin, professor of psychology and author of over a dozen books on narcissism including Malignant Self Love: Narcissism Revisited, The Narcissist on Instagram: Epigrams and Observations, and Toxic Relationships: Abuse and Its Aftermath.

Prof. Vaknin's youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@samvaknin

How I "Became" a Narcissist by Sam Vaknin: https://samvak.tripod.com/narcissisticroots.html

Put everything down, especially that tiny screen in your hand, and listen. 

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Thom Dharma Pollard

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She woke in the dead of night, unsure if she’d succeed, fail… or die. Because the last person to attempt what she was doing did die. Melissa Arnot would be walking right past one of Everest’s most infamous bodies—Sleeping Beauty on her sixth, but most perilous climb, of Mount Everest. She was climbing without bottled oxygen, a feat only a handful of women have ever accomplished.

In this inspiring interview with Melissa Arnot Reid, she discusses her beautiful memoir - Enough: Climbing Toward a True Self on Mount Everest - a journey into the soul of one of the world’s great climbers, from the rarified heights of Chomolungma to the dark depths of her personal demons. It's a story familiar to anyone who has struggled to find compassion for themselves.

About Enough
A searching, uplifting memoir by the celebrated, groundbreaking climber: a journey of overcoming where the mountain’s highest peaks can only be reached by traversing the dark crevasses of the soul

At twenty-seven, when Melissa Arnot Reid accepted a tank of oxygen just short of the summit of Mount Everest, she felt ravaged by defeat. Driven by a relentless, lifelong quest to prove to herself, her family, and the world that she was enough, she had set herself an incredible goal—to become the first American woman to summit Everest without supplemental oxygen. The failure battered her spirit and left her struggling to keep her tenuous grip on hope.

In the candid and adventurous spirit of Cheryl Strayed’s Wild, Enough is a story of a life in which the most dangerous mountain faces became a refuge—until suddenly they, too, no longer seemed safe. From a childhood marked by conflict, betrayal, and predation, Reid propelled herself to the top of the mountain climbing world, summiting and guiding on the world’s most challenging peaks and establishing herself as a woman unafraid to throw elbows in a milieu dominated by men. And yet for every summit she reached, her valleys of inner turmoil—over her estrangement with the family she believed she’d destroyed as a child; over relationships that cycled through deception and infidelity—grew deeper and more self-destructive. Eventually, she could not keep these worlds from colliding, especially after a series of tragedies at dangerous elevations took the lives of her mentors and friends. Forced at last to face herself, Reid made her most perilous climb yet—toward the uncertain promise of forgiveness and self-acceptance.

A beautiful, aching memoir of a journey with life-and-death stakes on the mountain and off, Enough bares the soul of one of the world’s greatest climbers, from the rarified heights visible only at thin-air altitudes to the dark depths home to demons familiar to anyone who has struggled to find compassion for themselves.

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Thom Dharma Pollard

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What a world it would be if we encouraged just one human being once each day, what a world it would be, if we followed the core spirit of our being.

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