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I'm glad you brought this topic up, since this has been the discussion I've been having with others. I can't believe the "hand holding" these companies do to get there paid clients up the top. I'm sure if helicopters could fly to the top, they would use these means. The have sherpas going ahead, laying lines, setting up camps, bringing up supplies, rigging ladders, so the clients can meander up at their own pace. Very dissapointed and I would say if you spent $40k and didn't make it, you should feel ashamed. Absoulutely bares no resemblance to those that climbed it 20-30 years ago. If you have to wait in line like an amusement park ride to reach the top, thats got to tell you something. Makes you respect feats like Reinhold Messner's and these:

Sherpa's record Everest climb confirmed
THOMAS BELL IN KATMANDU

A SHERPA, whose record- breaking ascent of Mount Everest sparked a bitter row with his rivals, had his epic feat confirmed by the Nepalese government yesterday.

Pemba Dorje, 27, scaled the world’s highest summit in eight hours ten minutes in May, breaking the 10hr 56min record set by another Sherpa, Lhakpa Gelu, last year. Gelu had broken an earlier record set by Dorje only days before and challenged the new time, saying it was not possible to reach the peak so quickly.

That prompted the Nepalese authorities to order an investigation. They asked for help from the international climbing community, asking teams who were on the mountain when Dorje made his rapid ascent if they could validate his claims.

Now the country’s tourist ministry, which officiates over record attempts, has endorsed the climb

on the basis of items the Sherpa collected from the summit and produced before experts.

Dorje began the climb with a Swiss climber but went alone to the summit.

There is no way to monitor the activities of climbers above the base camp and the government usually relies on the accounts of climbers for information.

When Dorje returned to base camp on 21 May, news of his feat, which knocked about a third off the previous record, shot around the world, but doubts quickly set in. Gelu said he was at base camp at the time and claimed the weather was too bad on the night his rival made his climb.

Dorje brought flags from previous expeditions down from the summit as proof of his achievement, but Gelu argued they could have been collected during an earlier ascent.

Since then, the bitter row between the two Sherpas has continued, with neither prepared to accept the other’s claim to the title of fastest climber of Everest.

In 1953, it took Sir Edmund Hilary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay seven weeks to climb the mountain, assisted by 1,000 Sherpas. These days, most expeditions take a month to reach the top, but a Sherpa who has been able to acclimatise on another expedition in the same season, taking advantage of the ropes and ladders installed by other climbers, is able to get there faster than could have been imagined 50 years ago.

A total of 1,584 climbers have reached the top of Everest since 1953: at least 185 have died on its slopes.

Gelu says he will return to the mountain again next year. In the meantime, the debate is likely to rumble on over whether Dorje’s was one of the most stunning feats in mountaineering, or one of the biggest frauds.