UKC

Another Virgin Strive challenge and another descent from the summit by helicopter for Sam Branson, after the Matterhorn in 2014 this time it was Mont Blanc with dad Richard along for the ride:

https://metro.co.uk/2018/09/30/richard-branson-seconds-from-death-after-ava...

Seems that they had a dicey crossing of the Grand Couloir - or 'The Gully of Death' as the Metro reports it!

Bl**dy hell. Grudging respect...

For what? 

Not sure how many billionaire 68 year olds are prepared to put in the effort necessary to climb the beggar...

Your case for Branson may have been helped if he'd walked back down like the other punters rather pull out the chequebook for a helicopter...

Personally if I could I'd do the same. Coming back down was f*cking boring.

Carry a paraglider up and jump. (I was envious) 

Is it the billionaire bit or the 68 bit or the combo that earns grudging respect?

Haha! To be fair I think the problem was going up and down the Gouter Route. Sadly it was 14 years ago... I was 16 so I had no choice. Parents made the choice for me. Next time it will be a more interesting line!

Does anyone know why their ropes are threaded through the chest straps of their rucksacks?

At a guess, to prevent inversion during a cravasse fall due to the weight of the sacks.

If that is the case they must be some high spec rucksacks they're wearing - with straps that can withstand a fall.

I'd have thought the rotational forces needed to be resisted by the sack straps to prevent inversion would relatively small.

To be fair it's probably equally likely the guide was just trying to keep his rope clean and off the ground.  

This isn't the first time the younger Branson been winched off a mountain irrc (Matterhorn a few years back). 

Pretty cool that they went all that way using human power, that's fair old distance! 

I don't really understand the hate for Branson and, yes, I use the Virgin west coast service quite often.

Here's another reason for some respect: 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45833910 

How about the fact he is driving force being increased NHS privatisation and is constantly suing them when he's denied contracts?

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jun/22/nhs-trusts-win-legal-challe...

https://www.ft.com/content/297e7714-089f-11e7-97d1-5e720a26771b

And let's not get started on his off-shoring exploits.

https://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n06/david-runciman/the-stuntman

So you say, but there's nothing about that in the Guardian story you reference.  I don't know any of the background but the piece is about the local NHS trust challenging the county council about the way they ticked the boxes in the tendering process.  There's no suggestion Virgin did anything wrong.

If you are saying that such open tendering shouldn't be happening at all, I would say that (a) as a quote in the piece says, the council was legally obliged to do this, and (b) I'm not at all surprised that an NHS Trust was found to compare unfavourably in a comparison with just about any other way of organising just about anything.

Apart from anything else, success in business and making money is something that a lot of people on here have a problem with, not just at Branson's level but at all levels.

So, quite a long piece criticising Branson's style whilst being pretty short on examples where Branson has crossed any kind of legal line in the course of his business.  The accusation is that Branson doesn't like competition on the evidence of lots of examples of his competing, sometimes successfully (which must mean he's done something unfair) sometimes not (which shows how poor his judgement is).

My dislike for the Bransons' mountain adventures stems from quotes like this (taken directly from the Virgin Strive website):

Yours truly and Karl jumped in a helicopter to cheer them on

That sort of shite can take a running jump off the edge of the nearest serac as far as I'm concerned. Buzzing around the Hörnli Ridge in a helicopter to watch your son climbing is neither an attitude I ever want to see in the mountains, nor a great use of a few hundred kilos of Avtur and CO2 emissions.

Of course, being unpleasant, deceitful and hypocritical is not illegal (who mentioned legality?), but it does explain the hate for the guy, which is the thing you said you didn't get.

I'm not saying he's perfect, and anyone in business at that level will make some enemies and be associated with some controversy but I would suggest that he compares pretty favourably with most people in his position in terms of his ethical position and philanthropy, however easy it is to snipe at someone as visible as he is.  He's not Bill Gates, but he's miles ahead of Donald Trump.  Or, indeed, the FCO, in terms of sending Saudi Arabia a message in a language they understand.  

It's like with bent cops. No one likes a fake hippy.

Fair enough.  Although aren't they all? 

He did live in a squat, set up student helpline when his girlfriend got pregnant and give the world Tubular Bells.

Like Christianity, it does make impossible demands. But that's another discussion!

He shafted Oldfield by retaining all the rights, mind...