Well this is a surprise. A British sports car forum where we're talking about mountaineering. Does Sir Edmund drive a Triumph?
Its a shame what has happened on Chomolungma. Whana'be climbers with $25,000 burning a whole in their pockets. What you don't see in the photo are the piles of **** the size of a two-man tent, the piles of discarded O2 bottles that people were too tired to carry back down and the bodies on the route that you have to step around. There are several of them now. And many others under the ice that we'll never see again. It takes four strong climbers to remove one body. You have to carry it all the way down to base camp where it can be picked-up by a chopper. Please correct me if I'm wrong but, I don't think choppers can fly much above 18,000ft.
Its become a major source of income for the Nepalese government and there are no plans to start limiting the number of permits sold every year. So, this is what you'll get if you want to climb the big fella'. Too bad for Alpine purists like myself. The situation is such that a small party of serious climbers couldn't even get on the peak. Even if you could pony up the $100,000 peak fee, you'd be last in line. If I went to Everest I'd be quite happy just bagging up some of the garbage and hauling it off. Would it be dangerous? Yes. Would it be sporting? I'm not sure. Is picking up dukey at 25,000ft. mountaineering? Yes and No.
I've had to retire from the sport that I lived for due to skeletal damage. I declared war on gravity when I was twelve. I won some battles but Gravity won the war. That's why I need horsepower and braking. I'm off to finish installing the new wiring harness on my '67 TR4A.
Peace, Nils.