I’ll assume you’ve never been to Branson.
See what you did there, I have. I hope they paid for their Everest permits in advance.
The saddest part is that everyone can of those climbers thinks that the other person is causing the jam.
EBC is, I think at 5500m. Lukla is, I think, at 2600. If you put a cable car in between them, it would still take 8 days, because otherwise all the tourists would be too sick from altitude sickness to do any more climbing. (I am not a climber)
A traffic jam on Everest. Talk about first world problems!
Maybe they can build a pressurized dome over the whole thing. They could put in elevators and a shopping concourse.
No, they don’t. Most are aware of the situation and their impact and still elect to go.
from what I have seen that last section is the main part with actual technical climbing and it’s about 40 feet. The problem is it’s so high up it’s very hard to climb at that spot and people are very tired.
If you are interested, this is a good documentary on YouTube. Not for the fainthearted though.
People are very stubborn about getting to the top, and dont seem to think clearly under that level of stress.
So just level that top 40 feet (see other thread) and it will solve lots of problems. Maybe start an intensive breeding program for those beak-sharpening birds?
The Hillary Step has been rated Class 4. Technical climbing starts at Class 5. So if it weren’t located where it is, it would be considered simple non-technical climbing that a fit non-climber could accomplish, although with significant exposure.
With all the ropes and ladders typically in place, getting up Everest really isn’t about advanced technical skill, it’s more cardiovascular fitness and tolerance for altitude. (Although apparently there have been concerns that some “climbers” didn’t know how to put on crampons. There are some skills and experience required.)
I saw a twenty minute segment of Real Sports that was devoted to this issue. If you get a chance, see it because it is a real eye opener.
Climbing Mount Everest has become a huge money maker for the host nation but, at the same time, has become terribly dangerous for the Sherpa’s who carry huge amounts of gear and guide these climbers, many of whom have no business making that climb.
** ‘It Was Like a Zoo’: Death on an Unruly, Overcrowded Everest**
Reading Into Thin Air back in the 1990s cured me of any interest in climbing Everest.
If Into Thin Air hadn’t already done so, that pic of people waiting in that long line to get to the top would have done the trick.
What if some accountability fell on the tour operator to make sure their client had done the bare minimum of preparation? Maybe charge them with involuntary manslaughter or something for trying to haul an inexperienced climber into the death zone? I personally never had a desire to climb Everest, but if I did, I would sure as hell prepare myself for it - not knowing the basic equipment is inexcusable.
Better to regulate before a death takes place rather than afterward. Scuba divers require certification. Seems to me a certification program could be established for any peak supplemental oxygen is required in order to be issued a climbing permit.
Discovery channel did a show about 10 years back . The guy who was in charge of the climb had strict rules about being in shape. If you did not pass certain tests lower on the mountain you would not go higher than he decided you could go. Because of that up to that time he had not lost any climbers. His name is Russel Brice.
It’s not a bad idea though. Tell them that to get a permit to climb Everest, they must have successfully climbed another 8,000m+ mountain in Nepal first. They’ll need a permit for that, and also one for Everest. $11,000 for each (and each paid in advance, no refunds).
And watch Nepal’s foreign currency influx crater. What percentage of their tourism bucks come from people trying to climb Everest? What percentage of Sherpa fees come from those people? Isn’t it significant?
No one is forcing these foreigners to go spend a gazillion dollars and risk their lives climbing the thing. Is anyone claiming the climbers were mislead somehow about the risks? Especially since Into Thin Air was published? Part of being free is being free to make really stupid decisions with your own money.
I guess I don’t see the problem. Nobody up there was forced to go, and everyone who has the time and money to spend six plus months preparing for the climb, flying to Nepal, trekking to Base Camp, acclimatizing, doing the Base Camp to Camp X and back again shuffle, and getting ready to walk where airliners fly: should know the risks. I can see something like nelliebly’s proposal of quadrupling the permit fees, but my logic in doing so would be to improve the experience for those that could afford it, not solely as a barrier to entry. Find the permit cost that would be a local maximum for tourist dollars going into Nepal.
But to artificially impose some barrier to the activity because people 10,000 miles away have their sensibilities hurt by the voluntary blood sport that is modern Everest climbing? Not interested. Nor, I suspect, would the government of Nepal, nor the Sherpas who might be put out of a job.
What is the death rate for the various Annapurna summits? Isn’t it something like 40% for A2, and around a third for all of them combined? And that’s for people who say, as the old joke went, “Yes, but I know what I’m doing!”
Because it ends up risking the lives of Sherpas -who can’t always afford to be picky about clients and people that actually do the work to climb the mountain, and then end up in a traffic jam with people that don’t know how to prevent frostbite.
I have NO desire to climb Everest, but the needless risking of Sherpa lives so that some bored corporate wog wants a selfie at the top of the world is aggravating.
Alternatively, say that if you require supplemental oxygen, you won’t be issued a permit to climb the mountain to begin with.
Climbing Everest is a rivalrous good. Only a certain number of people can be up there any given year. We usually gatekeep these kinds of goods with money, but, in this case, that isn’t working well enough to achieve the outcomes we want, so we need a different gatekeeper. Being a good mountaineer is a good gatekeeper, and being healthy enough to summit without oxygen is part of being a good mountaineer.
No one is forcing them to work that job, Poysyn, and incidentally, make 5-10x the average salary in Nepal. I had thought it was an even greater difference than the average salary, but who am I to argue with the Economist.
Average salary in Houston, Texas is ~50-60,000 dollars a year. Even with the life of immense luxury I live compared to that of a Sherpa, I’ll take a lot of risks with my life for 250-600,000 dollars in a year. (And people do, if we look at things like offshore energy worker, saturation diver, and the like) Now imagine living someplace where the alternative to being a porter for Everest is not working doing document review, or selling cars, or being a researcher in the Medical Center, but trying to grow dirt on a dirt heap. Or, for the lucky, running livestock.
If I was counting on that kind of money, I’d wouldn’t be grateful if well meaning people around the world pressured the Nepalese government to restrict access to that mountain, and thereby cut most of the jobs serving that tourist population. I’d be pissed. Raise the prices, and the idea will be to cut the number of people trying to climb the thing. (I doubt any of the increased fees that would result in this situation would make their way to the Sherpas, the Third World being what it is.) Cut the number of people trying to climb, while there are still a large population of Sherpa porters used to serving a larger tourist market, and wages should fall. Even as the job would be a little safer for some of the Sherpas, because the routes would be less crowded, and a lot safer for some other Sherpas, because they’d be out of a job.