Personally I think these guys are in the know but water it in for the media, seriously best example off what is required in such a hostile terrain ... forget these thrill seeking climbers on Everest for example .. its the polar caps that are the best learning curve and it will need to be Solid.
All this exploration, the moon is close enough to experiment on, plop in a few modules automated to start a dig to create a base, quit looking at the earth, learn how to survive on another planet , if one can create an infrastructure and live-able from there the moon .. lower gravity but a cheaper start than aiming for mars , get that working first , check how habitats work and see what they need , its simple.
I seriously don't understand why one wants to climb a bloody great hill just the prove themselves.
Weird thing , 35% die trying for Everest and for what .. stupid .... put a fishbowl on those peoples heads and see what they can do on the moon
