The Real Sherpa Story

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Messages 1 - 14 of total 14 in this topic
Jan

Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
Topic Author's Original Post - Jul 11, 2013 - 12:00am PT
There is an excellent article in the August online edition of Outside Magazine titled, The Invisile Man, A Western History of the Sherpas on Everest. It's certainly the best article on the subject that I've ever read. It also sheds some interesting new light on the fight with Moro and Steck last spring.

http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/climbing/mountaineering/Disposable-Man-History-of-the-Sherpa-on-Everest.html?page=1
em kn0t

Trad climber
isle of wyde
Jul 11, 2013 - 01:45am PT
Interesting article, lots of detail and seems very well researched. Thanks for posting.
Todd Eastman

climber
Bellingham, WA
Jul 11, 2013 - 02:44am PT
Kinda like sweatshops in Bangladesh, eh?
Jennie

Trad climber
Elk Creek, Idaho
Jul 11, 2013 - 11:58pm PT
Thanks, Jan.


...very troubling account
BLUEBLOCR

Social climber
joshua tree
Jul 12, 2013 - 02:21am PT
had no idea

that cold stuff makes me shiver!

sure miss you over at PG&RVS
nah000

climber
canuckistan
Jul 12, 2013 - 03:17am PT
thanks for the poignant link Jan.



 “It’s the guilt of hiring somebody to work for me who really had no choice,” [climbing guide Melissa] Arnot told [Grayson Schaffer] last October in Nepal... “My passion created an industry that fosters people dying. It supports humans as disposable, as usable, and that is the hardest thing to come to terms with.”

 Since passage of the 2002 Tourism Act Amendment, Nepal’s Ministry of Tourism and Aviation has required all local trekking agents to purchase rescue and life insurance for their porters. Sherpas working above Base Camp need at least $4,600 in death coverage and $575 in medical, while low-altitude porters must be insured at $3,500. Each expedition must also cover its Sherpas with, collectively, at least $4,000 in rescue insurance... When it comes to rescue insurance, the $4,000 coverage is almost meaningless. High-altitude helicopter rescues, which became routine starting in 2011, have drastically increased the chances of surviving an accident above Camp II. They also cost $15,000 each—more than three times what the required insurance will cover.

 Reinhold Messner ... had harsh words for mountaineers who want it both ways. “Climbers who cross ladders set by Sherpas at the Khumbu Icefall,” he told the crowd, “then go up without ropes and claim to be special are parasites.”

 “I never wanted my kids to be mountaineers,” Lhamu Chhiki said. “I want to give them an education so after they are raised they can do something other than mountaineering.”



anybody who wants to discuss the ethics of climbing big oxygen depleted mountains and what might or might not be considered "cheating" within that game, needs to take the time to read this article.

for at least the widows and children left behind, mt. everest is the postmodern reincarnation of an early 1900's kentucky coal mine.
splitter

Trad climber
SoCal Hodad, surfing the galactic plane
Jul 12, 2013 - 02:52pm PT
Very timely and disturbing, it speaks volumes. Thanks for posting, Jan!
Nohea

Trad climber
Living Outside the Statist Quo
Jul 12, 2013 - 07:12pm PT
Interesting read, thanks for posting. Human action, incentives, trying to improve from current situation, and ethics, it's got all the substance needed for a good story. The answers are a bit more challenging to agree upon.
crankster

Trad climber
South Lake Tahoe, CA
Jul 12, 2013 - 10:51pm PT
Yes, excellent article. It sure clears up the matter by showing that the Sherpa's became incensed when they were shown up by Western climbers and rioted.
rottingjohnny

Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
Jul 12, 2013 - 10:56pm PT
They are taking jobs away from white people...Preposterous...!
Stewart Johnson

climber
lake forest
Jul 13, 2013 - 11:57am PT
Exellent!
Fletcher

Trad climber
The great state of advaita
Jul 13, 2013 - 12:22pm PT
Thanks for posting up. I'm in the middle of reading it and it's very worthwhile and important to learn about. Hopefully, this will help shed some light on something that seems to have been in the dark for too long.

Eric
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Jul 13, 2013 - 12:43pm PT
Hey, Rottingjohnny, whaddys say we bring some Sherpas over here to carry skis from the Mammoth parking lot to the lift base? It should be a bit safer than the Khumbu Icefall.

Ps
Jan, good article, thanks.
splitter

Trad climber
SoCal Hodad, surfing the galactic plane
Aug 19, 2013 - 04:05pm PT
http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/14/world/asia/nepal-child-labor/index,html?hpt=wo_t4
Messages 1 - 14 of total 14 in this topic
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