The commercialization of Mt. Everest can be deadly Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit **The commercialization of Mt. Everest can be deadly** (Reprinted from the January 31, 1998 issue of the People's Weekly World. May be reprinted or reposted with PWW credit. For subscription information see below) Into Thin Air - A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster, by Jon Krakauer, Villard, N.Y. 1997. By Nick Bart We were on our way down the west side of Mount Washington, New Hampshire, when it happened. A cobalt sky quickly turned an ashen gray, then a murky black. Sharp pellets of hail stung our skin. The huge boulders around us glazed over with ice. And we had broken one of the cardinal rules of mountain hiking. We had meandered off the trail in the Alpine zone. After 30 anxious minutes of scrambling while engulfed in a rolling fog, we stumbled upon the trail and, eventually, shelter. In the process, I slipped and banged my knee on a boulder. It took years for the cartilage to heal properly. Now, 28 years later, as I read Into Thin Air - A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer, I understood why the author started his book with a description of his summit arrival. Getting up a mountain is, somehow, less than half the battle. It's the getting down, safely, that's the real challenge. Krakauer thanked his team leader, New Zealander Bob Hall, and safely descended to the high altitude campsite on that day in May 1996. Anxious moments occurred when he had to wait for climbers still ascending the mountain using the ropes he needed to descend. Valuable time and oxygen were consumed. Six climbers never made it back to their tents that night. Five perished along with the team leader. What went wrong? Let's back up a bit. Many have experienced the "development" of their neighborhood with a strip mall or the privatizing of cyberspace. Most have heard of globalization. What many may not be familiar with is the commercialization of mountain climbing. That's right. There's profit in "them thar hills." Groups like Adventure Consultants Guided Expedition, headed by Hall, and Mountain Madness Guided Expedition, led by noted U.S. climber Scott Fisher, who also died, charge up to $65,000 to experience the thrill of peaking the world's highest mountain. While one may argue that mountain climbing of this sort has always been the domain of the wealthy, there are now significant changes with the commercialization of these high peaks. * It has significantly heightened the exploitation of the Sherpa workers. Besides carrying up to 80-pound packs with tents, sleeping bags, food and oxygen for the clients, they also lay down ropes for the clients in order to overcome the more technically challenging spots along the route. In fact, the climbing Sherpa "sirdar" actually leads the climb. And their pay is nowhere near that of the foreign guides. * Clients go up the mountain carrying little more than their oxygen for the day and a snack. The Sherpas have tea ready for them as they reach the various encampments on the mountain. One of the more poignant moments occurs when the author volunteers to collect ice for water at one of the high camps. As the clients begin to make various and escalating demands on him, he reflects on what the Sherpas must face minute by minute. * Ropes are usually used on a climb as a safety device against falling. But with Sherpas laying rope over the technically-demanding areas, clients simply attach a hand- held mechanical device and pull themselves up. Some question if this is akin to climbing a tree with a cherry- picker. Krakauer was shocked at the lack of technical skills of some clients and the absence of high altitude experience in others. Some clients had to be short-roped and pulled up the mountain, usually by the lead Sherpa. The author was stunned when a client needed help putting on crampons. (These are spikes that are strapped to one's climbing boots to handle icy conditions. It is one of the first steps taken when one attempts winter mountain hiking, even at low elevations.) There were other noncommercial climbing teams on the mountain at the same time as Krakauer. A Taiwanese team lost a climber on the ascent. Chen Yu-Nan, a 36-year-old steelworker from Taipei, died from injuries after falling into a crevasse (gaping holes in the snow and ice, often hidden). An interracial South African team was also attempting Everest at that time. Problems on this team, including leaving the name of the only Black woman climber off the Nepalese climbing permit, prompted a letter from President Nelson Mandela. The upshot of all the above is that when a sudden storm hit Everest in May 1996, leaders, guides and clients lost contact with each other. When leaders Hall and Fisher talked about the possibility of a disaster, they didn't realize those "waiting" lines of climbers would cost them precious time, too. The area above 25,000 feet, called the death zone, would once again earn its name. How much of a role did the disorienting effects of hypothermia (low body heat) and hypoxia (low oxygen) play? Did the attempt to "peak" as many clients as possible cause the leaders to violate their own rule concerning the safe "turn around" time and precipitate the disaster? The pundits of free enterprise haven't had much to say about the events on Everest. I wonder why? -Nick Bart is an environmental activist from Connecticut. ##30## ************************************************************ *** * Read the Peoples Weekly World * ********* **** * Sub info: pww@igc.apc.org * **** * **** 235 W. 23rd St. NYC 10011 *** * ** **** * $20/yr - $1-2 mos trial sub * **** * *** * * ********* ************************************************************ Tired of the same old system: Join the Communist Party, USA Info: CPUSA@rednet.org; or (212) 989-4994; or http://www.hartford-hwp.com/cp-usa ************************************************************ ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytas-02.05.98-00:21:04-14906