In an age of selfies, privilege and poor ethics, Mount Everest, the world’s tallest peak has so far seen 11 deaths and numerous injuries in the first six months of 2019. The mountain is on pace to exceed the record-setting 2015 climbing year. Who should climb a mountain, climbers that can afford the pricey permit, or the physically prepared for a journey up, and down, the mountain?
Under the Best of Conditions – Who Should Climb a Mountain?
It is an understatement to say that climbing Mount Everest, even under the best of conditions has never been easy. It is an extremely dangerous ascent. The dangers have never dissipated but the inexperience and greed have grown. While only a trickle of climbers ever tried its ascent, in 2019 so far, a startling 381 permits have been issued by the country of Nepal. With every permit for every climber, there is a Sherpa guide.
The Government of Nepal does not publicly state that the reason for the deaths is due to the fact that anyone with $11,000 and a doctor’s note can be permitted to make the climb nor is it due to the extreme overcrowding. They blame the weather.
However, scapegoating the weather seems a bit disingenuous. Climbers started to navigate the mountain in 1921. In those nearly 100 years, about 290 lives have been lost. The climb is so dangerous there are still bodies buried in the ice that are too dangerous to retrieve.
Those who have recently died have done so from altitude sickness. Experts, who have ascended the mountain claim that due to the inexperience of many climbers the climb is taking longer and longer. The longer the climb, the greater the chance of pulmonary edema (water on the lungs) even with supplemental oxygen. While there has been bad weather, the blame largely rests on the government pumping out permits, competitive expedition companies offering relatively cut-rate trips and the extreme crowding.
In bad weather, with crowding and inexperienced (rather self-indulgent climbers) many have called the ascent a “death race.”
The Garbage Dump
It is said that the mountain has become more like a garbage dump than a wonder of nature. There is so much refuse because of the number of irresponsible climbers, climbers who become so exhausted they can’t even breathe to pick up what they leave behind and inexperienced guides who don’t hold either the climbers or themselves responsible. And, it is scheduled to get worse and not better. Nepal will keep issuing $11,000 permits to whoever can afford the fee. It takes no great prophet to realize that Nepal, seeing it has a good thing, will increase fees to bolster their economy.
The trip, however, is far more than the permits. Even the low-cost tour companies start at around $30,000 and of course, we’re not talking about hotels, airfares, and provisions just to make it to the base camp. It is a rich person’s folly and all too many are looking to take advantage of them.
In analyzing this game from a position of ethics and ethical behavior, we can see many fraudulent areas that turn the deaths, injuries and environmental impact from individual tragedy to fraud.
The ascent of Mount Everest is arguably the most dangerous “adventure” a person can take. It is neither a leisure time activity nor a game for the idle rich. Yet, the Government of Nepal issues permits with that imagery in mind – and they say so.
There appear to be no stringent requirements on lower cost excursions or inexperienced guides. Therefore, the inexperienced are often leading the inexperienced. This creates a deadly combination of poor ethics where unscrupulous operators, seeing an opportunity to profit from the wealthy, have opened up the possibility of just about anyone with the means and the smallest degree of experience of being allowed to climb.
Obviously, to a poor nation and fly-by-night tour operators, the huge influx of climbers signifies a great cash flow. They might rationalize the deaths in any number of ways. After all, they might say, “Well, they did sign the risk forms. They knew what they were getting into.”
They really didn’t. In a game of poor ethics, Nepal will keep issuing permits, tour guides will continue to offer low-cost, inexperienced adventures and even physicians will minimize the toll that climbing the mountain will have on their bodies.
