[Dottore]

Originally Posted by Drisump

I've been to Nepal and trekked to 18,000 ft on a couple of occasions. In doing so I have witnessed some of the extreme downsides of adventure tourism. Guides, even good ones primary job is to allow the client to achieve the goal that has been set out....in this case, summiting Everest. Convention is that if you're not standing on the peak at noon, turn around. But nowadays there are actual traffic jams at the Hillary step from which it is a very short trip to the top. People have been in line for hours waiting to get to the top. It seems that more often than not, the fatalities are on the way down, people summiting too late or burning up all their oxygen/energy reserves just getting to the top. Because the summit can only be reached a handful of days a year, the push for the top is often results in large amounts of people setting out from camp four at the same time.... and getting to the bottlenecks at the same time. Anyway, you would think that people that weren't on the summit by noon (after passing all those frozen bodies), they would respect their situation and retreat. Being a type A doesn't always carry the day....Even if it's not a highly technical climb, it's still fricking high. Cheers

Yes its crazy. I've been to Katmandu a couple of time and watched the group leaders argue about time slots etc. Of course there are permits involved and a lot of baksheesh. But its the holy grail for climbers and there seems to be an endless number willing to pay $75k +\- to be taken to the top. I'm told by a serious climber friend that 80 percent of the people that climb Everest really have no business being there. But money talks.