AIBU to be blown away by this? TW - Deaths on Everest.

I’ve just watched the film. Thank you for recommending it. I’ve never seen anything like it and I doubt I ever will again. It’s years since I cried, not even when I had cancer, I didn’t think I had any tears left in me but the story of Lhapka has made me cry. A lot.

Since she climbed Everest for the 10th time followed by conquering K2 life is better for her and her children. It’s just a shame it took so long for them.

@KeepPumping you are really missing the point. Look up Lhakpa Sherpa - she’s the female climber with the most Everest summits and the subject of a critically acclaimed and successful documentary film called Mountain Queen. She’s also illiterate and now lives in the US where she works at 7 eleven (a petrol station/ convenience store) and/ or does odd cleaning jobs. She did it - she got the deal - and look what good it did her.

And how do you get an agent? And if you are a Sherpa from Nepal and sign a deal with an agent, who is likely to be financially benefitting from that deal? So you think that this man is not going to get exploited for this too? He will have few legal protections - and again you have the problem of a man potentially with low literacy levels signing a contract in the first place. He won't have anyone to check said contract for exploitative clauses.

I think you are extremely naive about the media industry if you think a man from Nepal is likely to get a good deal if he gets a contract with a Western agent.

I was thinking more an agent, a book tour and maybe a podcast, not really sure what you are talking about TBH, obviously whoever is promoting them is going to want a cut but will deal with visas flights etc., having climbed Everest multiple times and maybe been caught in some of the big disasters is a bankable asset, it is like being a roadie for Jimi Hendrix or surviving a Great White attack or going to the Moon, someone somewhere will pay to hear you talk or read your book.

Well said @RedToothBrush, I was exasperated by that post but didn’t know how to articulate it. You’ve explained it perfectly.

I haven’t watched it yet but after watching Everest Death Zone yesterday (very interesting, and a must watch for anyone saying they should ‘just bring the bodies down’ or ‘just clear up’ - it shows the reality of that mission) I saw an advert for K2 Invisible Footmen about the Pakistani porters and some Sherpas who help people ascend K2. It looked quite shocking the work they do, the jeopardy they encounter and the conditions they live in. I am meaning to watch it when I can.

Perhaps anyone advocating for the porters or Sherpa to do more work in other countries or to be grateful for the opportunity to do this work might actually learn about their lives and their working conditions and their pay. It’s shocking.

Is this before or after they die in service?
Is this before or after they've spent years paying off their debts?
Is this before or after they've paid for expensive work visas and passed immigration checks keeping in mind they don't have the luxury of western visa free travel?
Is this before or after they've got an education to a standard where they are able to fill in all the relevant paperwork to even get a passport, arrange travel and then be able to navigate their way around a foreign country keeping in mind the very poor literacy levels in Sherpa communities?
Is this before or after they've spent years doing dangerous work and saving without supporting family so they can cover the cost of flights and hotels?

Read the numbers above about what Sherpas are paid.

Reflect on how much it costs for flights, and hotel accommodation in the UK and how doable this is for a man who has very little education even in his own language never mind a second language and having much stricter travel requirements and documentation needed.

Sherpa with Everest experience could travel to different parts of the world and make money doing guided climbs, talks etc.? God knows the talks would fill a stadium, interpreter needed maybe but no one is forcing them to stay in their home village and be human mules for rich climbers? Some must be doing podcasts etc. by now?

If you read "into Thin Air" the helicopter rescue that took place in 1996 was the highest airborne rescue on the mountain to that point, they were at the limit for the rotor blades being able to hold the vehicle up and the pilot put himself at great risk to pull that off, there was another helicopter rescue during the disaster in the 2000"s (can"t remember the year?) where they went just slightly higher, but more people lost their lives in the more recent event.

What a fantastic thread. I have learnt so much in the last couple of days. OP - thank you for starting this thread.

I had, obviously, heard of Mount Everest and would have thought that anybody that had climbed Mount Everest must be super fit, rich, 95% males : 5% females and under 30 years old. I would have estimated that around 200 to 250 of these fit, rich, young people reached the top each year. I hadn’t heard of anyone dying so I would have assumed that over 99% of people failed to reach the top (with a lot of successful rescues), less than 1% succeeded. Very few deaths in recent decades.

OMG - I had never heard of Green Boots, Sleeping Beauty, Hannelore, the Sherpas, Death Valley/Rainbow Valley, the huge, huge queues towards the summit, the tonnes and tonnes of rubbish. I was so ignorant but this thread made me want to learn.

I have researched all the names and nicknames referred to throughout the thread. So very interesting. I have researched the statistics. Shocking.

Yesterday evening I downloaded Thin Air by Michelle Paver (it’s currently free on Audible) and it is 6 hours long so I thought it would take me about a week to listen to it. I started it around 6pm whilst sitting in my garden waiting for the eclipse (wearing my correct eclipse viewing glasses), eventually pressed pause around 10.30pm because it was getting so detailed and I was tired and didn’t want to miss any detail. Finished it this morning.

Amazing story. I 100% recommend.

I only clicked on the thread a couple of days ago to fill a few minutes of time but - wow - how much have I learnt in such a short space of time 😮🙂

To be fair, probably Mars as you’ve got to get the thing there in the first place; I would think a bit more of a challenging task.

This footage is pretty awesome though

One of my favourite ever books! The audio version is one of the creepiest things I’ve ever listened to.

Dark Matter by the same Author is also very good

AI says it’s harder to fly a drone on Mars!
The atmospheric density at the surface of Mars is equal to an altitude of about 87,000 to 100,000 feet on Earth—more than three times higher than the peak of Mount Everest (29,032 feet).

A serious question is which is more impressive though ? NASA may well be more impressed with droning on Everest than Mars.

I knew that, so I should’ve realised they could fly on Mount Everest!! 🤣

Drones can fly on Mars.

Just looked it up! Specialised high altitude consumer and commercial drones can reach and fly over the tip of Mount Everest.

@GasPanic I think drones are starting to be used to ferry equipment up and down the mountain. Maybe soon they will start being used to take rubbish down as well. The same drone that can take 30kg of oxygen cylinders up the mountain can take 30kg back down

How woudl drones work at such high altitudes? The air is significantly thinner, surely that would affect the flight?

My daughter climbs and I know how much enthusiasts love it. Harsh though it is, I do think you should get it out of your system and then have kids, and maybe do it at a much lower level or put it on hold until the children are older…oh, and take out good life insurance!

I’m talking about very ambitious and hazardous climbs with poor safety records - such as climbing Everest.

You cant compare surely? fireman or deep sea divers arent doing it for kudos and fame are they. Its a job that serves society

I would say the climbers are ego driven. It’s a selfish endeavour to climb Mount Everest.

Yes, you can! You can be very fit and be lots of things. How clever of you to realise this.

Having a bad personality, however, does not make it any less of an achievement.

And as I said in the rest of my post, I do think people should be adequately trained and bring down their rubbish. I would not see such a person as being egotistical.

Disrespecting what they actually do for people that don't give a shit about other people's lives.
Hand wringing 😂 oh do give over you buffon, just stating facts in an interesting conversation.

Yes, obviously.

Sherpas guides get paid 5 to 10 times more than the average Nepalese worker.

This is about $4,000 to $10,000 take home pay, but they have to invest in their own equipment which can cost up to $7,000. Their pay is often significantly impact by whether they summit or not - they get paid significant bonuses for summiting (which obviously Incentivises risk taking) They have to high altitude life insure by law by their company. Given the cost of investing in becoming a guide, they are effectively locked in for a number of seasons due to the costs involved.

Western Guides doing the same work but under less hazardous conditions earn $30,000 to $50,000 and will have the opportunity to work elsewhere during the rest of the year (given the work is seasonal) unlike many Sherpas who will not have other working opportunity available.