
Sherpas, Death, and Anger on Everest  - sizzle
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2014/04/everest-sherpas-death-and-anger.html?mobify=0
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gadders
For those wondering, this is the picture by Ralf Dujmovits from May, 2012
mentioned in the article. [http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-
images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/20...](http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-
images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/5/30/1338397845911/Everest-climbers-form-
a-l-001.jpg)

~~~
NDizzle
Reminds me of Half Dome in Yosemite.
[https://ef4d62261c-custmedia.vresp.com/7f1b0b7af3/Half%20Dom...](https://ef4d62261c-custmedia.vresp.com/7f1b0b7af3/Half%20Dome%20Cable%20Photo.jpg)

~~~
taude
I haven't been to Half Dome in 25 years, and feel fortunate to have only seen
a dozen other people on the trail when I went. Wow. Time to do what they do at
Mt Whitney and have a lottery system for hiking permits.

~~~
therobot24
there is a limited number of permits
([http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/hdpermits.htm](http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/hdpermits.htm))
- a few friends and myself hiked whitney (got lucky, middle of the week, few
applications) then drove to check out half dome but was not as lucky

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gokhan
Himalayan Experience, the company mentioned in the article, publishes a nice
newsletter during summit seasons, and delivered to your inbox if you
subscribe, spam free. I find it very interesting to follow their weekly-ish
reports on all the preparation, acclimatization and summit for Everest and
other mountains during the season. This is the newsletter page where you can
read and subscribe:

[http://himalayanexperience.com/newsletters](http://himalayanexperience.com/newsletters)

This is what Russ published regarding the event in the article:

 _" Sorry for the late news, I have been a bit busy these last few days.

On the day of the avalanche we had 19 Sherpas carrying loads to C2. On their
descent they established our rescue tent at C1 with oxygen, sleeping bags and
other rescue equipment. The fact that they were busy doing this meant that
none of our staff were actually in the ice fall at the time of the accident,
so all are safe. As each Sherpa has a radio we were very quickly able to
ascertain where everyone was. Our Sherpas also all have avalanche transceivers
so they were able to do a transceiver search as they descended back to BC, but
as very few people actually use transceivers on Everest they never found any
signals.

At that time all our members were at Lobuche BC or acclimatising on the slopes
of Lobuche, and only now are they returning to Everest BC.

At this stage we do not know if we will be continuing with our expedition or
not.

Russ"_

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Mikeb85
First of all, what's the point of climbing Everest when you're basically being
carried to the top?

As someone who is into more 'extreme' endeavours, it's more about the
experience than the result. Where's the fun in having someone else do the
heavy lifting?

Second, why not climb new mountains? There's plenty of interesting places in
the world to explore, climb, and have an adventure. Plenty of peaks to ascend
(and descend on skis!), plenty of remote locations to reach, and many peaks
where you can bag a first ascent, rather than be the X climber to have been
carried up by a Sherpa...

Want to be extreme, and enrich your life experience? Learn how to actually be
a mountaineer, learn the ropes (figuratively and literally), and do something
on your own. But I guess that's too hard.

About the Sherpas on Everest - they need to decide as a society whether
depending on tourist dollars is what they want, or whether they want to
actually create something...

~~~
coldcode
Personally I can't imagine any good reason to climb everest anymore, if
hundreds do it every year. I'd rather do something original.

~~~
cobrausn
There are 7 billion people on earth, and a few hundred do this thing per year,
so now it's so mainstream it's not worth doing? Is the point to experience
something or to tell people about how you experienced something they haven't?
Odds are still that they didn't climb Everest.

~~~
figglesonrails
+1

"Things aren't fun/good/interesting if hundreds do it."

Pardon me if that doesn't sound a bit like the stereotypical hipster excuse
not to do something - a fetish for being original. To each their own, but my
goodness does that make my jaw drop.

~~~
afarrell
Yes, but what was the original point of climbing Everest?

~~~
figglesonrails
Climbing the tallest mountain in the world?

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carlob
> For the foreign climbers, to go home now will mean forfeiting most or all of
> the fifty to ninety thousand dollars they have spent to be guided up
> Everest.

> Among the Sherpas’ demands are that the government […] require the guiding
> companies to pay Sherpas their salaries, even if they call off the remainder
> of the 2014 Everest climbing season;

So basically if a guiding company calls an expedition off they don't even have
to give a raincheck, but they withhold the Sherpas pay? That seems predatory
even if you workers are not dying like flies!

~~~
lnanek2
The way the article was written made it sound like Sherpas are paid for their
time. So if the climb is called off and they are used for the rest of the
season, then they don't earn pay for the weeks they are no longer employed. If
a beach is closed you don't keep paying your lifeguards the rest of the season
for work they aren't doing.

Seems fine to me. It's actually worse for them if they were paid the entire
season even when a cancelation happens since then there's less reason to call
it off.

~~~
kalleboo
But the expedition companies don't refund any of the money they collected from
the climbers that would have gone to the Sherpas, instead pocketing it for
themselves. They should either refund the money to the climbers, or pay the
Sherpas what they were planning on paying them. Not just go "oh well, it's our
money now!"

~~~
ars
Are you sure that money goes to the Sherpas? I think most of it actually goes
to the government (hence the anger) and to supplies.

~~~
michaelt
I think the $50,000-$90,000 is the 'all inclusive' cost covering a $10,000
Nepali government fee, sherpas, western guides, accommodation at base camps,
food, drugs, bottled oxygen, trash removal, travel company profit margin and
so on.

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bambax
"Into Thin Air" (1996) from the author of this article is one of the greatest
books I've ever read; I highly recommend it for its great storytelling and its
description of the Everest microsociety.

~~~
susi22
I much prefer "Abstieg zum Erfolg", "Bergsüchtig" (Hans Kammerlander) and "Der
nackte Berg: Nanga Parbat" (Reinhold Messner). They explain very well what you
have to go through and what they did to climb in alpine style. Though, they're
in German and I don't think there is an English translation form them. (Looks
like Messner has some in English like "All Fourteen 8,000ers")

Best of them was probably "Abstieg zum Erfolg".

~~~
waterlesscloud
Many of Messner's books are in English. [http://www.amazon.com/Reinhold-
Messner/e/B000APEVL4/](http://www.amazon.com/Reinhold-Messner/e/B000APEVL4/)

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jzwinck
Why does the author repeatedly refer to the clients climbing Everest as
"Westerners?" There are a lot from Japan, China, South Korea, and India. Is
the implication that the Westerners are somehow responsible while the
Easterners are not? Are Sherpas more likely to recede from danger when their
climbing party is from Japan than when it is from Germany?

~~~
NamTaf
I think the intention is to deliniate between 'western' and 'eastern'
standards of living - in that context, Japan, South Korea and to an extent
China are quite 'western'. This is as opposed to the Nepalese, who as the
article says live on an annual income of ~USD$600.

This opens up another can of worms in implying that 'eastern' civilisations
are poorer than western ones. I agree it is not a good use of the term but
it's arguably better than 'first world' and 'third world' and I cannot think
of a better equivalent.

~~~
abbasmehdi
This is exactly right. "Westerners" has less to do with the exact geography
and more with economic indicators including standards living/income. I was
traveling with Singaporeans who kept being referred to as "westerners"; it was
odd initially, but to the locals it was about the group's purchasing power,
expectations of luxury/comfort, and nothing else. It was their way of
identifying big spenders from the rest.

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001sky
Before making any conclusions about the role of Everest in this tradgedy, its
worth looking at the very similar event on k2 in 2008.

>
> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_K2_disaster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_K2_disaster)

This event had a similar death toll (11x), a similar pysical situation (ice
sercac avalanche accross main summit route), and overall was in a place made
people similarly nervous for many years.

~~~
T-zex
I don't think these two events are similar. Most of the fatalities on K2 in
2008 where due to poor planning or preparation of the climbers themselves.
While recent tragedy on Everest was simply an ice-fall and avalanche.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zkC9IMQmYA](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zkC9IMQmYA)
is a very good video of Chris Warner talking to Google employees about
leadership. He has climbed K2 in 2007 and gives his opinion on the events in
2008.

Also The Summit [0] is a nice film about this tragedy.

[0][http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2363471/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2363471/)

~~~
ericcholis
I hate to speak ill of those that lost their lives, but they made very poor
choices that directly resulted in their deaths.

Poor coordination with other teams, leaving 3 hours later than intended,
missing or forgetting gear, and dangerous decisions in very dangerous
situations.

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healsjnr1
This has brewing for so long. One example is the incident with Ueli Steck last
year [0]. Regardless of what you think of what happened, it really highlights
how much tension there is between the Sherpas and the 'western' guides.

[0] [http://www.climbing.com/news/ugly-incident-on-
everest/](http://www.climbing.com/news/ugly-incident-on-everest/)

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Theodores
Unionised labour and a $500 refundable deposit on those oxygen cylinders would
solve a lot of problems on Everest.

~~~
gwern
Certainly sound and act like a union:

> Nevertheless, on April 20th, after holding several emotional, contentious
> meetings at Everest base camp, the climbing Sherpas announced that they
> would go on strike unless the Nepali government agreed to meet thirteen
> demands within a week.

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dschiptsov
In last 10 years the business have changed a lot. Nowadays even pop-starts
were "carried to the top" by Sherpas, for whom it is just a job.

I meet one of such Sherpa guides, who already had 5 ascendings, in Periche
village on 31 March. He told me that the number of tourists is increasing each
year, that supply chain is robust enough so that tourists could have ordered a
spaghetti or noodles or even pizza at the Camp2, etc. (30kg. gas cylinders and
food supplies were carried to the Camp2 by Nepalese potters).

Actually it is ugly, greedy, very arrogant and selfish world of those rich
"tourists" who brought their "safe" trip to the top. One just have see them
for a few minutes or how potters are carrying innumerable boxes and bags with
tourist's stuff. Just business.

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johnwyles
Everest is kinda getting ridiculous. If you do any reading or watching on
treks up the mountain you know the only way 90+% of these "mountaineers" get
up to the summit is because of the hard work and ascents of sherpas. I'm happy
to hear about the strike and hope it turns away the popularization of
something I think isn't as novel as we make it out to be. Why not explore
space instead? My $0.02...

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madnote
Is it possible to go to Everest and climb the mountain without the use of
Sherpas? How often are expeditions mounted where the members rely only on
themselves to accomplish all the required tasks: gear ferrying, rope and
ladder fixing, acclimatization etc? Do such expeditions ever encounter
resistance from the companies or Sherpa collective?

~~~
lutusp
> Is it possible to go to Everest and climb the mountain without the use of
> Sherpas?

Perhaps, but in modern times it's more complicated than that. People who
arrange their own expeditions often come into conflict with established tours
and organizations. You often hear stories of someone who doesn't belong on the
mountain for one reason or another, who can't keep up with the traffic flow --
in certain places on the route a weak or unprepared climber can produce a
bottleneck that prevents people from completing their summit, on one of the
few days of the year when that's even possible.

It's not as though Everest is a big cone with dozens of available routes where
people can choose to walk up to the summit any way they want. There are
serious traffic and coordination problems, and the more independent agents,
the more ways things can go wrong.

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thearn4
The Discovery Channel series "Everest: Beyond The Limit" covers a few of
Himalayan Experience's seasons, including the infamous incident with David
Sharp. It's on Netflix, and I would definitely recommend it if you're
interested in the politics and logistics of modern day Everest expeditions.

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asurty
Why don't the sherpas form a union?

~~~
amalag
Its funny, in these countries communist parties are strong, the Maoists in
Nepal have been staging armed uprisings for many years and there is still such
strong labor exploitation.

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king-coconut
If interested in the topic I can recommend Alan Arnette's blog
[http://www.alanarnette.com/](http://www.alanarnette.com/) I've found it one
of the best sources of what's happening on Everest.

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iamthebest
They probably got what they deserved.

[http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/apr/30/everest-
climber...](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/apr/30/everest-climbers-
sherpa-mob-attack)

