Firkin celebrities walking up a mountain. FFS.

[ben_reza]

It was almost as contrived as a top gear challange.. but it raised money and thats what this particular exercise is all about.

Yes i have done mountains like that and I can vouch for the effects of altitude.
Fair effort i say. Yes, they had a massive support infrastructure. They arnt quite national heroes. And to be fair in 3 or 4 months time we will all of forgot this even happened.

Echoing the words of others- if you dont like it dont watch it.

[NDA]

CooperS said:

Disco_Dale said:

NDA said:

Good for them. It's easy to knock what they've achieved - much harder to have actually done it.

Exactly.
I'm pretty sure I could do the same thing but it would take a serious effort removed from the relatively comfortable 9-5 everyday crap I deal with daily.

Much easier to text in a couple of quid to salute their effort and donate by proxy.

Moyles and his posse (because it was largely his radio show that made the stupidly large total possible) did good.

Fair play to them. What else needs to be said, unless you're just a whining sh*t?

+1

BUT they didnt recognise AT ALL in my eyes the great work done by the support team and locals which was further annoyed me when chris pulled out his fecking "life bag"...... didnt see him carrying it for the journey, some poor sod had to do that.

To be fair, we don't know what's on the cutting room floor. The 'celebs' would have had zero control of what went out after 5 days of filming. One of the could have given a moving soliloquy to his back-up team only to have it edited out.

[Davi]

I'm probably one of the most vitriolic in my hatred of celeb culture, but FFS even I have enough basic intelligence to draw a line and see the bigger picture.

Did they raise awareness of the chosen cause?

Did they raise money of the chosen cause?

Have they achieved the only important goals in a charity event?

If you can't see all three can be answered in the positive and that therefore in terms of a fund raising event it was a great success, then frankly your intelligence is too low for you to own a computer, please turn it off and throw it out the window.

[Davi]

NDA said:

One of the could have given a moving soliloquy to his back-up team only to have it edited out.

I think the programme showed if not explicitly, then through the brief glimpses of the candour of the celebrities interacting with the team that their gratitude was expressed the whole way up.

Edited by Davi on Friday 13th March 11:08

[ipitythefool]

VladD said:

ipitythefool said:

jshell said:

MacGee said:

stormrider2 said:

i certainly couldnt do it. and if chris moyles is just some fat bloke, surely it means climbing up a mountain would be very difficult for him?

well done to them tbh.

possibly shows how undifficult it is.......just altitude sickness. .......which seems like potluck who it strikes...

'Just' altitude sickness? Friend of mine, really fit guy, tried climbing Kilimanjaro years ago and had to be carried down due to horrendous alti sickness. Never even made the summit.

They've done well!

Exactly.

On the night of my ascent a couple of years back only 16 out of over 60 attempting the summit that night made it. Just a quarter made it.

Hardly a 'walk in the park'.

I bet you didn't get to meet the PM and get called a hero though did you?

Are they heroes because of the climb or because of the money raised?

If it's because of the climb, then there are a lot of heroes, most of whom do not get recognised nationally for the achievement.

If it's because of the money, then I doubt that they personally did much of the organisation (except maybe Gary Barlow).

To be honest if PH were to organise and pay for a trip to do the same thing, 90% of people on here would be up for it. I'm not saying it's not hard, but I think the hero thing is over-hyped.

Agree it's the wrong use of the word. But isn't it shown as 'heroes' rather than heroes?

[stephen300o]

I thought it was fairly entertaining, although the seemingly hundreds of people easily carrying all the celebs stuff on their head made the achievement look less than impressive.
I don't really see what people hate about Chris Moyles, sure he gets lots of money for doing nothing but so do lots of people, he seems a nice enough bloke to me, also shows you can be fat and fit(not in that way).
It not that hard for normal people but celebs are pampered people who clearly found it quite difficult.
Well done to them anyway as they didn't have to do it.

[VladD]

Davi said:

I'm probably one of the most vitriolic in my hatred of celeb culture, but FFS even I have enough basic intelligence to draw a line and see the bigger picture.

Did they raise awareness of the chosen cause?

Did they raise money of the chosen cause?

Have they achieved the only important goals in a charity event?

If you can't see all three can be answered in the positive and that therefore in terms of a fund raising event it was a great success, then frankly your intelligence is too low for you to own a computer, please turn it off and throw it out the window.

I think you need to open your eyes more. Some of these people have so much money that they could have single handedly have achieved more than they did as a group on this climb. Let's deal with your points one at a time.

Davi said:

Did they raise awareness of the chosen cause?

Yes they did. However there's probably enough wealth in this country alone to permantly solve the problem. We don't need these celebrity events once every couple of years chipping away at the problem, we need the problem solved permanetly. Comic Relief could raise over £20M for charity, and there are people in Monaco spending ten times that on a boat. Don't target the general public to each give a fiver, get the 50+ billionaires in Monaco to give £10M each.

Davi said:

Did they raise money of the chosen cause?

Yes, but not enough and in an inefficient manner, see above.

Davi said:

Have they achieved the only important goals in a charity event?

No, the important goal is to make the charity redundant. Once again, see above.

[Prometheus]

Lol at the people saying "That was easy, I could do that."

Off you go then.

[Davi]

VladD said:

Davi said:

I'm probably one of the most vitriolic in my hatred of celeb culture, but FFS even I have enough basic intelligence to draw a line and see the bigger picture.

Did they raise awareness of the chosen cause?

Did they raise money of the chosen cause?

Have they achieved the only important goals in a charity event?

If you can't see all three can be answered in the positive and that therefore in terms of a fund raising event it was a great success, then frankly your intelligence is too low for you to own a computer, please turn it off and throw it out the window.

I think you need to open your eyes more. Some of these people have so much money that they could have single handedly have achieved more than they did as a group on this climb. Let's deal with your points one at a time.

Davi said:

Did they raise awareness of the chosen cause?

Yes they did. However there's probably enough wealth in this country alone to permantly solve the problem. We don't need these celebrity events once every couple of years chipping away at the problem, we need the problem solved permanetly. Comic Relief could raise over £20M for charity, and there are people in Monaco spending ten times that on a boat. Don't target the general public to each give a fiver, get the 50+ billionaires in Monaco to give £10M each.

Davi said:

Did they raise money of the chosen cause?

Yes, but not enough and in an inefficient manner, see above.

Davi said:

Have they achieved the only important goals in a charity event?

No, the important goal is to make the charity redundant. Once again, see above.

OK lets not bother with points at a time, as it all focuses around a central flawed concept, but hey ho.

If you want to be pedantic one of the main focus' of the charity could be questioned - if you eradicate all the problems in Africa that they aim to, the population explosion would put unsustainable strain on resources, so they'd have to have another charity event to raise money for food and water - only of course the corrupt leaderships of the countries ensure that the money never makes it through in the first place etc etc etc.

Hmmmm... sharing the wealth. Yes, that's a great idea - in fact we should make it compulsory, we could have all money going to a central pot so that everyone is equal and then have the state dish it out fairly and equally between one and all... I wonder if that idea would ever take off Do you not think perhaps that some of those people may already give to charity, may give very substantial sums to charity but not want to shout to the world about it?

Soo..... back in the real world, "the only important goal in a charity event". You may want to note the word "in" there - I didn't ask if there activities would end world poverty and kill every malaria carrying mosquito with a single sweep of their celeb brush, because that is not what they set out to achieve.

[anonymous-user]

what i find interesting is the people who say "they aren't heroes" are the first people to use the term "hero" in the thread. no one who is supporting the climbers have labelled them "heroes", just thouse who deem it necessary to describe what they are not. Deep down i think those people who claim they are not heroes are secretly humbled by the expolits of moyles etc and somewhat jealous. as i said before, regardless of salary etc, those people were out of their comfort zone and coped well given the circumstances. how many of use even consider venturing out of our comfort zone let alone would agree to have the experience filmed?... or is it far easier to moan and whinge on the internet...
the people claiming that moyes et al are not heroes are digging deeper and deeper into a pointless argument and failing to see the benefits of the climb.

and please, all those people mentioning the private jet, it was paid for by Barlow and flew from Amsterdam to Northolt. Its not like it was for all the crew and from Nairobi...

and anyway, even if they did fly commercial, you can bet that someone here would be on the same flight and only too happy to post a message along the lines of "i was sat waiting to board a plane from Nairobi but my journey was delayed whilst fatty moyles and his celeb friends got all the attention and turned boarding and the check-in area into a farce as there was press everywhere moan monan fking moan...."

remember everyone, its on bbc1 tonight so if you dont like generosity and good will to those less fortunate, you might like to WATCH SOMETHING ELSE!!!!

[NDA]

VladD said:

I think you need to open your eyes more. Some of these people have so much money that they could have single handedly have achieved more than they did as a group on this climb. Let's deal with your points one at a time.

Etc

No offence, but that all sounds a bit chippy and naive (however that pesky word is spelt).

Charities will always exist, it's just a fact of life.

Those celebs don't have THAT much money, a few million maybe, but what they've done is galvanise others to contribute and focussed attention on the issues in a light/watchable way.

Point is, they've done something and it's fairly typical that 'we' just try to knock others down all the time.

[Tony*T3]

VladD said:

Davi said:

I'm probably one of the most vitriolic in my hatred of celeb culture, but FFS even I have enough basic intelligence to draw a line and see the bigger picture.

Did they raise awareness of the chosen cause?

Did they raise money of the chosen cause?

Have they achieved the only important goals in a charity event?

If you can't see all three can be answered in the positive and that therefore in terms of a fund raising event it was a great success, then frankly your intelligence is too low for you to own a computer, please turn it off and throw it out the window.

I think you need to open your eyes more. Some of these people have so much money that they could have single handedly have achieved more than they did as a group on this climb. Let's deal with your points one at a time.

Davi said:

Did they raise awareness of the chosen cause?

Yes they did. However there's probably enough wealth in this country alone to permantly solve the problem. We don't need these celebrity events once every couple of years chipping away at the problem, we need the problem solved permanetly. Comic Relief could raise over £20M for charity, and there are people in Monaco spending ten times that on a boat. Don't target the general public to each give a fiver, get the 50+ billionaires in Monaco to give £10M each.

Davi said:

Did they raise money of the chosen cause?

Yes, but not enough and in an inefficient manner, see above.

Davi said:

Have they achieved the only important goals in a charity event?

No, the important goal is to make the charity redundant. Once again, see above.

Really. The rich should be donating and the ordinary people shouldnt?

[sevros1981]

I think they should change ideas for raising money. I for one would pay far more than a fiver to see Piers Morgan fight an angry and hungry silverback gorilla.

Edited by sevros1981 on Friday 13th March 11:42

[VladD]

NDA said:

VladD said:

I think you need to open your eyes more. Some of these people have so much money that they could have single handedly have achieved more than they did as a group on this climb. Let's deal with your points one at a time.

Etc

No offence, but that all sounds a bit chippy and naive (however that pesky word is spelt).

Charities will always exist, it's just a fact of life.

Those celebs don't have THAT much money, a few million maybe, but what they've done is galvanise others to contribute and focussed attention on the issues in a light/watchable way.

Point is, they've done something and it's fairly typical that 'we' just try to knock others down all the time.

It is naive I'll admit, but all we're doing is treating the symptoms without curing the illness. Either do it properly or not at all is what my point is.

[ewenm]

Prometheus said:

Lol at the people saying "That was easy, I could do that."

Off you go then.

It's the internet - everyone can do everything.


I really don't understand the vitriol directed at this trip. Vitriol directed at the celebrity culture in which we live - yes, that I understand and share. However, given that is where we are now, this seems to be just about the best (or "least bad" I guess) thing for which this lot could have used their (deserved or not) celebrity status.

For those saying they could have raised just as much by donating half their salaries Have you donated half your salary to charity?

A few things that some seem to have missed:

• The costs of the trip were covered by the main sponsor (BT).
• The use of porters and guides is the standard way to do this - they get well paid for it and are extremely good at it.
• Altitude sickness is not something to be laughed off. It can kill and isn't easy to predict who will suffer from it.

As for the moniker of "Heroes" - this I disagree with but, as we all know, it's a heavily overused and sadly devalued word nowadays. Saying that I haven't actually heard them described as heroes.

If you particularly want to be vitriolic about something, how about picking Comic Relief does the Apprentice - now that's truly rubbish

[Davi]

NDA said:

they've done something and it's fairly typical that 'we' just try to knock others down all the time.

The most pertinent point with regards to this thread, because that's all it is.

Bash celebs for being arrogant, slate them if you don't like their style, dismay over the idolisation culture of the UK, but FFS once in a while even the most insipid of these creatures will do something positive. If you don't want to acknowledge that fine, but to try and belittle their effort is just a tad sad.

[VladD]

Tony*T3 said:

VladD said:

Davi said:

I'm probably one of the most vitriolic in my hatred of celeb culture, but FFS even I have enough basic intelligence to draw a line and see the bigger picture.

Did they raise awareness of the chosen cause?

Did they raise money of the chosen cause?

Have they achieved the only important goals in a charity event?

If you can't see all three can be answered in the positive and that therefore in terms of a fund raising event it was a great success, then frankly your intelligence is too low for you to own a computer, please turn it off and throw it out the window.

I think you need to open your eyes more. Some of these people have so much money that they could have single handedly have achieved more than they did as a group on this climb. Let's deal with your points one at a time.

Davi said:

Did they raise awareness of the chosen cause?

Yes they did. However there's probably enough wealth in this country alone to permantly solve the problem. We don't need these celebrity events once every couple of years chipping away at the problem, we need the problem solved permanetly. Comic Relief could raise over £20M for charity, and there are people in Monaco spending ten times that on a boat. Don't target the general public to each give a fiver, get the 50+ billionaires in Monaco to give £10M each.

Davi said:

Did they raise money of the chosen cause?

Yes, but not enough and in an inefficient manner, see above.

Davi said:

Have they achieved the only important goals in a charity event?

No, the important goal is to make the charity redundant. Once again, see above.

Really. The rich should be donating and the ordinary people shouldnt?

I didn't say that, read it again.

[anonymous-user]

the other issue is one of awareness rather than money. if the celebs had just donated a wage packet and not bothered with the climb, no tv/radio coverage etc etc then i, and millions of other people wouldnt know that malaria is still such a big issue in africa and i would probably crack on in life oblivious. now its been brought to my attention and i dont want it to be an issue so i am happy to donate even more. charities fight with each other for funding which is fine, its effectively a free market in terms of where peopel choose to donate but the fact is that charities rely on normalfolk far more than the celebs. the celebs are used to raise awareness, we make the donations. if you dont like the conept dont donate. simple as.

as for the tax the millionaires comments, i dount anyone owning a yacht worth millions of pounds has the moral conscience necessary to give a flying about a kid in africa...

[NDA]

Off topic but Jack Dee was funny on the Apprentice thing though.

[VladD]

ewenm said:

As for the moniker of "Heroes" - this I disagree with but, as we all know, it's a heavily overused and sadly devalued word nowadays. Saying that I haven't actually heard them described as heroes.

PM called them heroes at the Downing street meet and greet.