When you decide to climb mountains, you know the risk you are taking
This isn't about the (usually wealthy, Western) tourists and adventurers who pay upwards of $100,000 for a guided ascent of Everest. Those people, for better or worse, know and accept the risks they take.
More to the point:
If you get into trouble on Everest, there simply isn't some Government-funded rescue crew to come to your aid. You are totally on your own. If you are lucky, your team-mates or other climbers
might - if conditions allow - be able to help you.
But above ~ 19,000 feet, it is impossible to land a helicopter. No powered vehicles can get within many miles of the site. A rescue team, if one could be organized, would take days to get to you -
if the weather cooperated. If you were
lucky a privately-funded effort might be able to recover your frozen remains.
But probably not.
The disaster that happened in the Khumbu icefall may well turn out to be a watershed moment (I think there is a mixed metaphor there...) in the history of Everest ascents.
Part of it is an example of the power of organized labor demanding more of a say in their work conditions. Without Sherpas to carry food, oxygen bottles, and supplies to altitude; and without Sherpas to set fixed-ropes and ladders - it would be all but impossible for most recreational climbers to attempt an Everest ascent.
To their considerable credit, most of the Everest guide companies; and a great many of their clients (who have paid tens of thousands of dollars in non-refundable fees) accept and applaud the Sherpa's decision to "strike" for better working conditions.
Anyone who knows anything about the business (and thats what it is) of climbing Mt. Everest knows there are things that need to change. Here's hoping that the Sherpa community, along with the international climbing fraternity and the government of Nepal, can come to a solution that works for everyone.
But whatever happens, please keep Fox News off the slopes. They don't understand what happens in their own country. God only knows the damage they could do in the Himalayas.
