well thank god poor people are sherpas

[AllPurposeAtheist]

I though this was kind of a shitty attitude...Thank god there are professional poor people from Nepal.

On Friday, about 6:30 in the morning, another avalanche rumbled down Everest. This one caught a group of 25 climbers at 19,000 feet near the top of the notorious Khumbu Icefall, a frightful jumble of seracs and crevasses, killing at least 12 as of Friday in the worst reported disaster in the mountain’s history.

Although commercially organized groups make up the overwhelming majority of Everest expeditions today, not a single international client or guide was caught in the avalanche. The victims were Nepalese. They were carrying supplies to aid their employer’s clients, who pay commercial outfitters tens of thousands of dollars to get to the top of the world’s tallest mountain.

... it is these professional climbing Sherpas who bear a disproportionate amount of the risk of Himalayan climbing. In fact, the odds may be worse for them than they were in the days of those grand British expeditions. ...

Most Sherpas work on a day-on, day-off rotation, and can make a dozen or more round trips through the icefall over the course of a 10-week season. Most clients pass through it twice or three times at most.

The math simply doesn’t work out in the Sherpas’ favor. For bearing such risk, a typical climbing Sherpa can expect to bring home approximately $3,000 to $6,000 at the end of the season â€" perhaps more, if their English skills are good or they climb with a big-tipping client, according to an article last year in Outside magazine by the journalist Grayson Schaffer. If it’s an unlucky season, they or their families can fall back on government-mandated accident and life insurance policies. The payout was recently raised from $4,600 to $11,000...

[stromboli]

Yeah, so its named Mt Everest by the Royal Geographic Society or something, even though it had an original native name- Sagarmatha- and hardly anybody can tell you the name of the Sherpa that dragged Edmund Hilary up the mountain, Tenzing Norgay. Yeah, fuck white people. Terribly sad that natives sherpas die on the mountain, and its unlikely any of them have anything akin to insurance and leave families behind.

Like naming America after Amerigo Vespucci, who debatedly never even saw the country. Native Americans living here for millennia? Naw, don't bother asking them.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Not many people use foodstamps to go on international mountain climbing trips.

[Mermaid]

I read Into Thin Air, the story of the author's climb, and it made me wonder why the fark people do this. You have a 10% chance of dying. That is pretty damn dangerous. If Sherpas do it for a living, I wonder how many of them live to see old age?

[AllPurposeAtheist]

I read Into Thin Air, the story of the author's climb, and it made me wonder why the fark people do this. You have a 10% chance of dying. That is pretty damn dangerous. If Sherpas do it for a living, I wonder how many of them live to see old age?

Maybe they have an 11% chance of starving to death?

[Shiranu]

I read Into Thin Air, the story of the author's climb, and it made me wonder why the fark people do this. You have a 10% chance of dying. That is pretty damn dangerous. If Sherpas do it for a living, I wonder how many of them live to see old age?

I want to do it. It's a part of the world that 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% of the Earth's population, past, present and in the future, will ever even get a chance to go to... that is pretty damn awesome imo.

Like naming America after Amerigo Vespucci, who debatedly never even saw the country. Native Americans living here for millennia? Naw, don't bother asking them.

We also call Deutchland Germany, Italia Italy, Espana Spain, Fiorentina and Venzia Florence and Venice... Zhonghua is called China, Sweden is  Sverige,  and so on and so forth. Likewise those cultures have different names for America (yes, that includes non-whites). Good luck getting anyone, regardless of what colour their skin is, to call a country by it's local name, especially in countries that have different names based on what region you are in.

[Hydra009]

I want to do it. It's a part of the world that 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% of the Earth's population, past, present and in the future, will ever even get a chance to go to...

True, but that's for a good reason.  There are many places on the world that are relatively unexplored, and that's typically because they're incredibly dangerous.  I suppose there's the potent psychological combination of exploration, thrill-seeking, and achievement, but I'll never really understood why mountain climbing in particular is the adventurer's standard rather than spelunking, desert-traveling, deep sea exploration, skydiving, whitewater rafting, etc.  It's lengthy, costly, fraught with uncertainties (weather, state of the trail), imposes all sorts of logistical problems, and any mistakes can easily prove fatal.  It's a lot of expenses, risk, and drudgery for an awfully fleeting experience.

[Mermaid]

As an adventurer, I do understand why you would want to, Shiranu. It does appeal to me.

You do, however, quite literally have to step over dead bodies to get to the summit. I guess it's not for everyone.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Yeah, it would be so awesome to have other people drag all your shit up a mountain for you, pay them almost nothing, risk their lives for you, squander untold dollars in the process to accomplish something that doesn't do one damned thing to benefit anyone else on earth.

[Hydra009]

Yeah, it would be so awesome to have other people drag all your shit up a mountain for you, pay them almost nothing, risk their lives for you, squander untold dollars in the process to accomplish something that doesn't do one damned thing to benefit anyone else on earth.

Well, yanno it's not like climbers are putting a gun to their heads and forcing 'em up the mountain.  And technically, all recreation isn't productive work,  though the price tag varies.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Justify it anyway you want.

[Shiranu]

...but I'll never really understood why mountain climbing in particular is the adventurer's standard rather than spelunking, desert-traveling, deep sea exploration, skydiving, whitewater rafting, etc.

I see what you mean there. I don't care for skydiving (though I would certainly try it), but spelunking is something I would like to do; I am built for it and it takes you to places even less explored than mountain climbing does. Same for deep sea... as for desert traveling, actually never got to do that in New Mexico besides going out to White Sands... but didn't go too far into the place.

I agree that mountain climbing is maybe a bit over-hyped.

You do, however, quite literally have to step over dead bodies to get to the summit. I guess it's not for everyone.

I suppose so. I figure for the most part you would never see them so it wouldn't be too bad; almost all forms of exploration you are going to have to go where someone died.

@apa: I'm sorry, but who gives a shit if it doesn't benefit anything to the world? I'm not sure when entertainment and personal challenge suddenly had an obligation to provide anything for anyone else. We might as well cancel the Boston Marathon, shut down the NBA and close all game developer's doors because they don't provide anything to society either.

I use to be part of that camp, but seriously... piss off. Sports are not the great evil destroying the world, nor are people who want to go through an extreme physical challenge. There are alot better targets to grind your teeth on than them.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Justify it however you like shiranu. If paying someone else to carry your gear makes you the man then go for it.

[Hydra009]

Justify it anyway you want.

Pointing out that it's a service provided voluntarily =/= justifying it.

[Atheon]

$3,000 to $6,000 (US) for a 10-week season is actually a huge amount of money in Nepal, one of the poorest countries on the planet.