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- Written by: Jack Clayton
We’ve spoken before about how Everest has turned into a theme park, we’ve spoken before about the ways in which we can solve a problem like Everest, but we have never, not once during the entire existence of Mpora, ever talked about a keyboard player playing a tune up on the summit of the highest mountain in the world. Feels like you’re losing your mind a bit, these days, doesn’t it? Feels like you ate an entire block of cheddar about 36 months ago and everything that’s happened since then has been one long, wild, fever dream. A keyboard solo? In the Death Zone? It’s just… what? What is it?
In short, the mountain-climbing-keyboard-player in the video is a Mexican man by the name of Juan Diego Martinez Alvarez. He’s 19-years-old and paid $350,000 (approximately £300,000) for a full-service Everest expedition which also included an extra Sherpa to carry his keyboard (doesn’t feel like great optics that, but we’ll let you make up your own mind about it).
Alvarez, it’s been reported, had no 8,000-metre mountain experience before setting out on his musical adventure. He wanted to play a song at the world’s highest point, and did so when he summited and got his keyboard out for his concert-of-sorts on the 15th of May 2022.
The weird world record will not stand however, with Nepalese authorities taking steps to reject his summit certificate. Permission wasn’t given in advance for the stunt, they stated, and so the peak performance has been dubbed null and void.
WATCH THE KEYBOARD VIDEO HERE
In the grand scheme of things, and in the face of so many major global issues, these keyboard-on-a-mountain-top shenanigans are pretty minor. As far as we know, for example, all the equipment was brought back down and the summit returned to its pre-small-stage-at-Glasto aesthetic after they left. The incident though does perhaps underline just how incredibly silly Everest has become in recent years. Formerly one of the ultimate challenges in the field of mountaineering, and still certainly not one to be sniffed at it should be said, stuff like this clip does nothing to enhance its credentials as something more than a playground for the wealthy.
