{"id":87908,"date":"2023-10-29T14:56:31","date_gmt":"2023-10-29T14:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/explorersweb.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=87908"},"modified":"2023-10-30T10:05:25","modified_gmt":"2023-10-30T10:05:25","slug":"guinness-world-records-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/explorersweb.com\/guinness-world-records-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Guinness World Records Have Become a Problem for the Adventure Community"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last month, Guinness World Records (GWR) kicked up a media storm when it decided to alter the record books and relegate Reinhold Messner’s achievement<\/a> of being the first person to climb all the 8,000m peaks to that of a “legacy” record. Based on extensive research on summit topography by the expert team at 8000ers.com, Guinness now states that the first person to summit all of them was American Ed Viesturs.<\/p>\n

Guinness has never held much sway in the mountaineering world, and Viesturs himself dismissed the record change as “ridiculous.<\/a>” So did much of the wider climbing community. But for the general public, achievements from Messner and many others climbing luminaries have now been thrown into doubt.<\/p>\n

Historically, Guinness has done a reasonable job at cataloguing major exploration records, such as the first to climb notable mountains, cross deserts, or ski to the Poles. But in recent years, as guided adventure tourism has allowed relative beginners to take on more extreme challenges, the record chronicling organization has begun rubber stamping an endless number of adventure records, many of which are tenuous and contrived.<\/p>\n

See, for example, the fastest ascent of the top three highest mountains with supplementary oxygen (female) <\/a>or\u00a0fastest time to climb the Seven Summits and ski the polar last degrees (male).<\/a><\/p>\n

When did the contrived records begin?<\/h2>\n

Before changing its name to Guinness World Records, the organization began as the Guinness Book of Records from 1955-1999<\/a>, with a primary focus on its famous reference book. Over the years, GWR has become an international franchise that is considered the global authority for chronicling and verifying world records of the human and natural world, as well as creating museums and even television series.<\/p>\n

In 2008, the franchise was bought out by the Jim Pattison Group, which also owns the Ripley’s Believe It or Not!<\/a> museums. Some media sources have suggested that since 2008, GWR has moved its business model toward helping individuals and companies create records to garner attention<\/a>, while the company generates income via a consulting fee for would-be record breakers.<\/p>\n

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The Guinness World Records Museum, Copenhagen. Photo: Ash Routen<\/p><\/div>\n

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Seven Summits<\/h2>\n

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when the rash of contrived adventure records linked to Guinness started, but it may have its roots in the wider commodification of adventure. In the 1980s, American businessman Dick Bass dreamed up and completed the\u00a0Seven Summits. <\/a>Bass’s quest helped kick-start commercial guiding of rich amateurs on major peaks such as Everest and Mt. Vinson in Antarctica.<\/p>\n

A decade later, British businessman David Hempleman-Adams ushered in the era of the Explorers Grand Slam<\/a> in 1998. These listicle records were at the time considered second best to a true polar first or an unclimbed line on a Himalayan wall, but they were still thought of as significant challenges.<\/p>\n

In hindsight, however, they were a means for adventurers to create a record and a claim of originality that may have paved the way for feats that included increasing numbers of qualifiers. This became common in the early noughts e.g. Fastest time to climb the Seven Summits (both lists) by a married couple<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Looking back at early versions of the Guinness Book of Records, you can find references to adventure and exploration. For example, in the 1984 edition, Ranulph Fiennes was rather grandiosely proclaimed as “the greatest living explorer<\/a>.” And the 1985 edition (see below) details key mountaineering records on major peaks such as Everest.<\/p>\n

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The 1985 Guinness Book of Records.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Not a mountaineering authority<\/h2>\n

Historically though, Guinness was never a reference for serious mountaineers. Instead, preference was placed on The Himalayan Database<\/a> or nowadays, 8000ers.com. Yet in the last five to ten years, mountaineering — particularly on the 8,000m peaks — has become infested with contrived records by commercial climbers. It could be argued that climbers such as Nirmal Purja and his 14×8,000m speed record, and the associated glut of GWR certificates, started this trend. See for example his record for the “fastest triple header of 3x8000m peaks.” <\/a><\/p>\n

Himalayan outfitters have latched onto this, and both Sherpas and guided clients have ticked off everything from the youngest female to climb Everest and K2<\/a> to the most ascents of Makalu in a season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s not just mountaineering and polar travel that are affected. In 2010, British TV presenter Helen Skelton broke the Guinness World Record for the longest distance kayaked by a woman<\/a> in 24 hours (75 miles). Seasoned kayakers dismissed this claim as a “long training run,<\/a>” and Katie Pfefferkorn-Mansker promptly more than doubled the distance in the same year.<\/p>\n

Get famous-quick-adventurers<\/h2>\n

Many adventurers now clamor for their own framed GWR certificate, in the hope it will lead to greater publicity. These are ready-baked for the Instagram generation of heavily guided climbers or polar skiers to wave aloft. If you can dream up a record, Guinness will likely endorse it, as long as you can prove you did it. This is a problem for several reasons. First, it creates the perfect conditions for get-famous-quick adventurers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That is someone who is a relative beginner in his or her discipline and who targets a record — usually low-hanging fruit that has not been previously attempted often, if at all. Typically, they get a lot of guided help. The more canny marketers are able to leverage significant publicity for commercial gain. Rarely do the guides get much credit. Often, this diminishes the credit of those adventurers who are truly on the cutting edge. This happened with Borge Ousland after Colin O’Brady’s partial crossing of Antarctica<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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