Since the pandemic, Madison has noticed an increase in high net worth individuals booking entire expeditions. “A client bought an entire trip last year to climb Mount Vinson in Antarctica for $200,000,” he says. “It’s the latest trend: billionaires wanting their own private adventure with friends; they fly to Antarctica in a private jet. It’s next level.”
While his mountain expeditions are high-end, Madison says they offer minimal comfort. The biggest luxuries he offers, he adds, is at Everest base camp: hot showers, yoga sessions and a dining tent with a movie screen are among the amenities on the $75,000 excursion. “The guys who come on my adventures ultimately want to suffer a little — that’s how they feel alive. Otherwise, they’d be staying at a Four Seasons five-star resort somewhere.”
However, a cottage industry of luxury extreme tourism also exists. White Desert Antarctica offers premier lodging near the South Pole for $15,000 a night, replete with heated, lavishly appointed pods and private chefs. Harding had done that trip too. “Hamish has been a true friend of White Desert for many years,” founder Patrick Woodhead said in a statement. “He has traveled to Antarctica with us on a number of occasions, including with astronaut Buzz Aldrin when he visited.”
In these extreme tourism companies, safety generally comes with a high price tag. Madison says his service provides networks of expert guides and logistical know-how, as well as Western and Sherpa teams who coach, assist and lead adventurers at 8,000 feet above sea level. Extra oxygen, good food and improved communication are also provided. “But you can do Everest on the cheap and climb with your own tent and without a guide,” says Mountain. “There are plenty of operators who provide a rudimentary service – and that’s where it can get really dangerous. You are on your own.”
OceanGate seems to have stood with both feet in both camps. As the only tourism operator offering tours every Titanic-And Titan one of the few manned submersibles capable of reaching depths of 12,500 feet – tickets weren’t cheap. At the same time, the conditions in the submarine were far from luxurious, and the dive involved significant risks. OceanGate’s waiver not only mentions death three times on page one, Titan was locked from the outside – forcing those inside to survive on a finite supply of oxygen and relying on outside support to get out of the submarine even after surfacing. The ship was also controlled by a modified video game controller. “No one who boarded would have been under any illusion that it was safe,” Mountain says. “That’s part of the appeal: the wreck is incredibly inaccessible, dangerous to visit and steeped in mythology. And very few people have done that.”
Grace Lordan, an associate professor of behavioral sciences at the London School of Economics, says these perilous expeditions have replaced luxuries for adventurous entrepreneurs. “Pleasure and purpose often determine happiness, and it used to be about material purchases and philanthropy. Over time, redistributing wealth still has a purpose, but pleasure is harder to achieve.
