Lance Armstrong and Overcoming Obstacles Essays

The modern tragic hero, Lance Armstrong, created his own tragedy. He is flawed in many ways. His tragedy was created by his love of lying and dishonesty. He is comparable to Macbeth. They both knew what they wanted; Lance to win, Macbeth to be king, and they were willing to do whatever it would take to get there. Lance Armstrong was a role model to children, cyclists, and cancer survivors. He took it upon himself to create a tragedy.

Many people can relate to his personal battle with cancer and his dedication to cancer research. His speech was full of emotion. He gave examples of his anguish during a seven-day stay before the awards ceremony, explaining his liver complications, kidney failure, and multiple surgeries. This provided the audience with real life experiences to understand the depth of what this award stands for.

“A trans-like state settles over your efforts, the climb becomes a clear eyed dream.” Stated Krakauer in The Devils Thumb. Mountain climbing has become a popular interest for thrill-seekers in modern times. It is an immensely challenging activity, involving strength, determination, and the proper mindset. There are many accounts of mountain climbers heroically reaching the summit of mountains, but none more striking than that of Everest and The Devils Thumb. These are gut wrenching, first hand accounts of some of the greatest feats performed in mountain climbing history, although they are each different in their own way. Krakauer was climbing to find himself amongst the frozen rocks and chest deep snow, and Weihnmayer climbed to push his limits, and to accomplish what many thought to be the impossible.

As said by Zopa, “You can never tell who the mountain will allow, and who it will not.” Peak needs to reach the top of the mountain as soon as possible, before he turns 15, in order to break the world record of having the youngest person reach above 29,000 feet. To do this, though, he endangers his life with the cold, getting oxygen, and just the climb itself. As they say, “Climb high, sleep low,” to get acclimatized, that way your lungs will be caught up with your body, or else they would collapse and you could come down with a serious case of HAPE. With the climb itself, Peak faces quite a few difficulties. At one point, when he was climbing up a steep slope with his axes, one of Sun-Jo’s slipped, and he was dangling. But, being the hero he is, Peak climbed sideways towards the rope that was hanging there, grabbed it, and swung down to Sun-Jo, saving him just as his crampon was slipping. There were other things like avalanches that happened, but the most killer thing was the so called death zone. In it, you have to get in and out in under 18 hours, or else you will meet certain death. Oxygen or not, there’s only a certain time limit you can survive it. Of course Peak made it out in time, but he did not, in fact, reach the summit, which was actually rather

Despite his impressive record he had never attempted anything close to the scale of Everest, whose summit is at an extremely dangerous altitude. He even admits to his relative inexperience with high altitude saying, “Truth be told, I’d never been higher than 17,200 feet--not even as high as Everest Base Camp”(28). Krakauer also mentions how he has gotten out of shape over the years partially because of the lack of climbing in his life, making him even less prepared for the assent. Krakauer shows a definite fear of such a high mountain, referring to climbers who have perished in the past. He states that, “Many of those who died had been far stronger and possessed vastly more high-altitude experience than I.” (28). Even though Krakauer’s experience may be more relevant to the Everest assent than some of the other tourist climbers, it is nowhere near the level needed to be considered an elite climber.

“Once Everest was determined to be the highest summit earth, it was only a matter of time before people decided that Everest needed to be climbed” (14)

The entire journey up the mountain is full of danger. You constantly have to worry about the oxygen you are getting and people around you are dying. The air is thin and if there is any air, it’s contaminated. You have to worry about getting the disease H.A.P.E. You have to worry about your health 24/7. You have to get past impossible obstacles. You just have to be strong. Climbing the mountain is an endless, painful battle. No matter what is happening outside of the mountain, on Mount Everest all that matters is Survival.

Mt. Everest’s summit has always seemed an unattainable goal for most people. The idea that most people have is that if I can climb Mt Everest, I can accomplish anything. To have the money and desire to try to attempt it is one thing, but being able to endure the punishment is quite another. Beck Weathers, one of the climbers on this particular expedition, had such severe frostbite that he had to have his right arm, nose and the fingers on his left hand amputated. Everyone on the expedition suffered the rigors of Everest. The two expert guides, Rob Hall and Scott Fischer, lost their lives due to a violent storm that ripped through during their descent from the summit. Their impaired judgment also contributed to their demise. Everest is no respecter of persons. Mt Everest is the most respected mountain in the whole world and if

In 1996, at the age of 25 Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with testicular cancer that spread to his brain, lungs and abdomen. He educated himself about the cancer and its treatment. While combating with cancer he recognized the resources available for people combatting this cancer were very less. Therefore, he created a foundation with the purpose of helping others who are diagnosed with cancer. It is a non-profit organization.

The expedition guides show arrogance and pride while trying to climb Mount Everest. At one point Scott Fischer states that he has "built a yellow brick road to the summit" (Krakauer 86). Fischer has great pride in his ability to climb Everest he developed arrogance towards the mountain. It is foolish to think that someone

Many people have dreamed of climbing the tallest mountain on earth, Mount Everest. However one must possess certain physical and mental attributes to accomplish this giant feat. “Courage is not having the strength to go on: it's going on when you don't have the strength.” Ed Viesturs knows first-hand what having courage is all about although you’ve used all your strength. He kept going to reach his goal even after he faced life threatening obstacles.

Have you ever wondered what kind of hardships come with climbing the tallest mountain in the world before? Expectantly, the book Peak by Roland Smith and the movie Everest have a lot of similarities with some exceptionally prominent differences. From personal conflict and character conflict to the general aspect of climbing Mt. Everest, the book and the movie explore all different types of similarities and differences. Being similar, in both the movie and the book, the mountain always decides. The morals were constant and everyone experiences the same deal in similar ways. One significant difference came between Peak, the main character in the book, and Rob(5th summit attempt), the main character in the movie.

Cancer on the one hand can be called as a disaster of life for most people;it affects brings death to some and depression and sadness for families and friends who were involved.Lots of people are mentally broken down by such a terrifying disease but some chose to fight against it.Terry Fox is a great example of a hero which has such life threatening illness still remains positive towards and always inspires other to cherish their lives.He tried to run all across the country with an artificial leg after his right leg was amputated six inches above the knee. He showed the whole world that it is still possible to gain hope and happiness even when life is dogged with illness or cancer; he raised money for cancer research in order to improve the medical techniques as same as to figure out a possible cure to save people’s life and to lessen their pain; he motivated people just

Even though it is an exceedingly risky climb, he chose to attempt to conquer the mountain. Knowing the weather conditions could be unpredictable, he had to trust that his group of climbers would make the correct decisions. It takes courage to leave your fate to other people. His mother was very worried about him, she even said “People die up there Peak. You might die up there.” (Pg. 179) Peak could have died of HAPE, which stands for High-altitude pulmonary edema, meaning your lungs could not withhold the strain from the high altitudes, he could have been buried under snow from an avalanche, or killed from some other type of storm. Either way this would not stop Peak from following his

With death being an inevitable conclusion to life, it can be said that the true value of a life is not determined by how long it was lived or what was done during its time, but from what it left behind. In a sport of pushing the physical and psychological boundaries, climbers seek recognition in their achievements, whether it is by finding a new climb that will measure its test of time or being the first to climb a daunting line