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Why Everest is still cheap?
Well, the Everest season has begun after weeks of uncertainty as our Sherpa brothers have finally finished the rope-fixing mission and reached the top a few days ago. Now, everyone who have gotten their permit can attempt to climb Everest the easy way as usual. Our 'Icefall Doctors' as they are known, had been fixing ropes and ladders for the past month but a block of glacier ice along the way made it difficult to get the job done then.
This year, we have issued 492 permits and when you add our guides and stuff then the number will reach a thousand and more. And expect the usual traffic jam along the way this year as well. And it's not only about the jam but the amount of waste dumped around Everest and we still haven't figured out how to manage it better, except for the Army wallahs doing their annual cleanup programs with the help of the folks there.
Our media reports tell us that we made a measly US$ 7 million from the permits. We talk about how our mountains are the major sources of revenue but I think not because most of the money spent on Everest Expeditions by our foreign climbers actually goes to the foreign travel companies while our Sherpas get peanuts.
It is about time, our Balen government makes Everest more exclusive and charges US$1 million for the permit. Well, isn't that too steep? Nope. Maybe we will get only billionaires from the West, China and the Gulf nations climbing Everest, but professional mountaineers can use crowdfunding to reach the top of the world. And it's time our Sherpa guides, who literally carry these climbers up there, get paid more. The permit today costs only US$ 15,000. If you are from the West, you can make that money in four months even if you work in a gas station and add another four for a few months in Nepal to get used to the air as well!
I think a Sherpa Guide should be making at least US$ 10,000 per climb. At least that will be enough to live a lower-middle-class life in Kathmandu during the off-season, which is literally like 9 months in a year. Yes, Kathmandu is an expensive place even though we are one of the poorest nation on Earth with our GDP per capita at barely US$ 1,500. For a famiy of four, you need at least a US$ 1,000 per month to afford basic food, shelter and tuition fees for your kids.
And it's about time we also had a criterion for anyone who wants to attempt to climb Everest. All potential Everest warriors should at least take six months of mountaineering training in their homeland or here and should have successfully summitted at least one 7,000+ meters mountain somewhere.
With due respect to Prachanda's late son, Nisha Adhikari and our baini Kabita Nepali, who have done it, but if every Ram Hari Shyam and Sita, Gita and Mina are climbing Everest like we climb Pulchowki, then where is the fun or I should say, the challenge to conquer the roof of the world?
Nothing against them but more than 80% of the folks who climb Everest every year are not trained climbers. They are 'tourist' ones who, in many cases, endanger the lives of our Sherpa guides when they do not want to follow instructions diligently. Sometimes, you do have to give it up due to bad weather or lack of logistics or something but tourist climbers think the Sherpas are like our fellow brothers who carry tourists up Kedarnath.
Carrying someone in a doko is very tough, and you do that for twenty kilometers, but climbing Everest is a gamble because you never know if you are coming back. Even successful climbers have died up there, not because they didn't have the skills, but due to adverse weather conditions or some unfortunate incidents.
Let's hope we don't have to read about the Everest rescue scams this year again. I think we really need to deal strictly with our scammers. They give our country, our Sherpas, and our travel industry a bad name. Maybe they should be forced to listen to Bon Jovi for 48 hours straight and have their faces plastered on billboards at EBC as part of the 'Hall of Shame' thing!
Let us wish all the climbers and our guides a successful Everest season this year. Let us hope there will be fewer accidents and all the permit wallahs will get their chance to be on the top of the world. And hope one day, we will read about the Everest region making at least a billion US$ dollars a year from tourism revenue instead of a few million!
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