With pay-to-play mountaineering on the rise, many inexperienced climbers put themselves and others in grave danger, says mountaineer
On his chaotic descent from the 29,000-foot peak of Mount Everest, Bruce McAdie had to clamber around the lifeless shells of climbers who didn’t make it.
“You’ve got two safeties coming in. So you have to take one off, like hug the other person, clip around, take that one off, clip around again. And then you’re looking at this guy like, ‘Holy shit, this guy’s dead?’” McAdie said. “This was a bad year.” Now, as he regales friends and family with tales that echo the expeditions undertaken by legendary mountaineers, McAdie is also taking the opportunity to dissuade anyone except for seasoned climbers from attempting the feat.
The fee to do so may look eyewatering at first, but when you consider that the overall journey takes more than a month to complete – with multiple guides, a $13,000 permit, high-end weather reports and fairly paid sherpas, who pack a vast amount of supplies and life-preserving gear through the treacherous terrain – you start to understand why McAdie questions any operators that charge less.
“It’s that whole Type A thing where it’s like, ‘This is the highest in the world,’ and you get all these really driven business owners,” he said. The final ascent above 26,000 feet takes place in what’s known as the “death zone” where most people can’t survive for more than a couple minutes without supplemental oxygen. When McAdie’s crew was returning from the summit, someone had stolen their oxygen tanks that were cached below, so his guides had to negotiate for more with another group going up.
“The advent of pay-to-play and guided climbing started in the mid ’90s. Before, you had to be sponsored by The North Face or National Geographic or something to go, and now if you want to do it you’ll find somebody to go,” he said.
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