Everest Base Camp: Everest is the ultimate mountaineering ‘trophy, but with the fees getting ‘cheaper’ the number of fatalities are bound to while attempting to scale the 8,848 metre (29,030 foot) mountain peak, experts have said.
Critics warn bargain operators – who have slashed the price of an Everest ticket to as low as $20,000 – accept even the most inexperienced climbers.
“It’s a huge goal and a dream of mine to stand on top of the world,” said Matt Brennan, who runs a construction company in the United States, and paid US-based Alpine Ascents $65,000 to try his first 8,000 metres climb. “I always wanted to climb the big ones and I felt that if I’m going to do it now is the time,” added the 57-year-old.
Meanwhile Odisha’s own expert mountaineer Debidatta Panda who has himself conquered the Everest twice in 2005 and 2011 while supporting the decrease in climbing rates stated that both the Nepal and Chinese government should lay down stringent fitness rules.
“Fatalities and injuries are bound to increase if the fitness level is not there,” Debidatta who is the principal of the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute said over the phone from Darjeeling. “Both the governments should test the fitness level of the climbers before giving them the permission to climb the Everest. You just can’t stand in front of the Everest and say ‘I will conquer it’. It requires years of preparations,” he added.
In the 1980s the Nepal government only allowed one team per route on Everest. Since the limit was scrapped in the 1990s operators have crowded the slopes for a slice of the lucrative industry.
This year there are 346 paying climbers on the south side in Nepal – just shy of the record 373 permits granted in 2017 – and another 180 climbing from Tibet, foreshadowing a bumper year. Last year six people died.
Guy Cotter, who has been guiding on Everest for 27 years, warned that many new climbers lack experience. “Nowadays people can go on the internet and buy the cheapest expedition onto the mountain. But there is no criteria for experience with some of these operators,” said the owner of New Zealand-based Adventure Consultants.
“They are not mountaineers. They are just people who want to claim the prize of climbing Mount Everest. They are hunting for that trophy,” he added.
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