When i started climbing 26 yrs ago, there where no waivers to sign. No cell phones to call for help. If you f#*ked up, u dealt with it. But back then, the majority of people that climbed work thier way up the ladder in very small steps. Now every rich yuppie with a Gore-tex jacket thinks they are Edmund Hillary.
I started out hiking, then got into some rock and then techincal rock and worked my way up to mountaineering. Granted the toughest ive done is Hood and Rainer a bunch of times, and some Presidential Range winter climbs. No way does that qualify me for anything even close to a Himalayan attempt.
The problem of all this lies within the guide services that allow these " climbers" to participate. All in the name of a few $$.
