After Everest Disaster, Sherpas Contemplate Strike

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After Everest Disaster, Sherpas Contemplate Strike

Postby Steve James on Tue Apr 22, 2014 1:55 pm

I'm hoping that the Sherpas get a lot more for what they do. Actually, I think that the people who want to climb should carry their own equipment. And I don't think I've ever seen a movie about the Sherpas, whose adventures on the mountain must be and have been at least as interesting as those of the people they helped.

Otoh, unfortunately, this incident stands a good chance of being made into a movie because tragedy can always be turned into profit.

NEW DELHI — The 22 Sherpas who set out together toward Mount Everest’s Camp 2 on Friday morning were “full of joy and excitement,” but Kaji Sherpa was apprehensive: They were crossing a notoriously dangerous ice field, and they were moving too slowly.

Two of the ladders used to bridge deep crevasses had broken, perhaps under the weight of ice that had fallen the previous night, and the Sherpas were backed up, carrying heavy loads of equipment for their clients. Kaji Sherpa, 39, took a wary look at the jam and sped ahead, so he was some distance away when the avalanche came.

“A cliff of snow, like a house, came directly toward us, and many were killed at the same time,” he said from his hospital bed in Katmandu, Nepal, where he was being treated for broken ribs. “There was nowhere to escape. If there was an open field, we could have dropped the baggage and escaped. But there was snow all around us that could have easily fallen if we stepped on it. So we were helpless.”

During the four-hour wait for help, he heard cries of pain from the dying, he said, and when he was able to look around he saw “the hands and legs of climbers scattered around the avalanche site.” By Sunday, he had come to a decision: He would not scale Mount Everest again, ending his life’s work of preparing the long ascent for Western clients who wait at lower camps.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/21/world ... .html?_r=0
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Re: After Everest Disaster, Sherpas Contemplate Strike

Postby windwalker on Tue Apr 22, 2014 3:23 pm

I think that the people who want to climb should carry their own equipment


I dont think you can climb Everest with out a guide.
Everest, scaled for the first time by Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953, is a key revenue-earner for the country, with hundreds heading there every year during the peak climbing season in April and May.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/artic ... z2zeiXQjWE
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To understand where Sherpas are coming from, it's important to understand who they are. For the Sherpa community that lives at the foothills of Everest, the mountain is sacred. They refer to it as Chomolungma, which means "Goddess Mother of the Land" in Tibetan language. For years, they did not climb the mountain, for fear of offending the god. Once the westerners arrived, the Sherpas saw an opportunity to maintain their livelihood by guiding them to the mountains, their own backyard.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wor ... -climbers/
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Re: After Everest Disaster, Sherpas Contemplate Strike

Postby Steve James on Tue Apr 22, 2014 3:44 pm

Actually, if you mean that you need to get permission, that's true. However, the routes up the mountain are well known. Hillary and Norgay did it before anyone else, and they proved it was possible. Nowadays, the Sherpas carry food and equipment, including oxygen, to the successive base camps before the paying climbers arrive. The problem for the non-Sherpas is that they would have to live at altitude for a long time (as Hillary did) in order to do what the Sherpas do.

Hey, it's the Sherpas who are considering cancelling the entire climbing season. Though, the Discovery Channel is cancelling a proposed show about someone jumping off Everest in a wingsuit. It's the Sherpas who are questioning whether it's worth what they get.
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Re: After Everest Disaster, Sherpas Contemplate Strike

Postby Steve James on Tue Apr 22, 2014 3:55 pm

Oh, just in case you feel plucky, here's the guide: http://www.mounteverest.net/expguide/permit.htm
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Re: After Everest Disaster, Sherpas Contemplate Strike

Postby Ian C. Kuzushi on Tue Apr 22, 2014 9:39 pm

Right on, Steve, right on.
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