I'd say they were extremely fit and bold and replaced experience with enthusiasm and continued where other wiser men with more fear for their lives would have turned back. Such is youth.

Unfortunately going into very "different"country than what you are familiar with, without any training or preparation, can be fatal. They deserve accolades for their achievements, and they also deserve Darwin awards.

I had a buddy who was a world class ice climber who soloed hundreds of peaks including all of the big ones in this hemisphere but Denali, he was more into the Andes. He laughed at death and returned time after time until he had a heart attack on an easy weekend climb.

He accomplished a lot, if climbing mountains counts for something. I guess falling in the arctic seas is something I can skip, as is being in an avalanche or rock slide. Does it make you a hero to survive something with great objective danger? If you die on your next event does it negate what you did in the first?

How bout the guy who soloed Everest in a day? He didn't carry a tent!!! or the ten essentials! Yet is he the greatest solo alpine climber of all times? A lot of people think so. Was he an idiot?
Jim