Every May for about two weeks, a brief window of time opens up when climbers from around the world to take on a challenge of legendary proportions— summitting Mount Everest. As temperatures drop and monsoon season sits on the horizon, climbers, who have already spent weeks adjusting to the altitude, weave their way up the mountain through Icefall and four separate campgrounds. They venture into the death zone, where each breath provides only ⅓ of the oxygen we receive at sea level, and finally reach the summit, standing for a moment on the highest point on Earth.
The mythical nature of Everest has long captured the imagination of the humanity, but 2019’s deadly season, which took the lives of eleven people, has once again revealed the controversies surrounding the industry of Everest mountaineering. A litany of issues have converged to create a political, racial, and environmental debate. Overcrowding, climber’s inexperience, environmental mistreatment, and socioeconomic complexities are just a few of the issues guiding the conversation surrounding the politics of the highest place on earth.
There are two sides on which one can attempt Everest, one starting in Tibet and the other in Nepal. Nepal’s historically relaxed regulation on the mountain’s industry has allowed them to dominate this industry while, Tibet attracted only half the number of climbers in a typical season.
In the 2019 Spring Season, Nepal issued a record 381 climbing permits, not including Sherpas and support staff on these summits. Experts link the lack of regulation and the steady increase of inexperienced climbers as the cause of Everest’s increasing danger. In response to the 2019 season, the Nepalese government is drafting legislation to control permits, including requiring climbers to have experience climbing over 21,300 feet.
The increase of climbers on Everest has also created a major environmental issue. This past June, the government of Nepal removed 24,200 pounds of garbage from the mountain, including plastic, human waste, and climbing equipment such as oxygen containers. There has been a noticeable darkening of the snow at the base of the mountain, a sign that snow is trapping pollution and pulling it down the mountain. Human waste is a particular problem as it can travel to base camp and into the local communities. This creates a potential point of contamination as those living at base camp use melted snow as drinking water.
There’s also the issue of Everest’s tourism industry affects the local population, namely the Sherpas. For many people, Sherpa is the title given to the guides that help hikers up the mountain, but the name actually belongs to an indigenous Himalayan ethnic group. For Sherpas who do work on the mountain, their profession is physically taxing, as they simultaneously carry heavy loads on expeditions and guide hikers through the deadly terrain. They prepare months in advance for climbing season and also attempt to clear the masses of garbage left by tourists. Although Sherpas’ salaries can equal 10 times what an average Nepali makes, the job that carries their namesake is also incredibly dangerous. From 1905 to 2018, just over a third of the 290 people who died climbing Everest were Sherpas. Their salary, already low given the physicality and peril associated with their work, diminishes even further when compared to western guides. A Sherpa can make anywhere from $2,000 - $10,000 while western guides can earn up to $20,000 per climb.
This huge pay discrepancy reflects the racial discrimination that permeates almost every part of Everest’s tourism industry. For example, there also exists a strong history of disrespect and even violence against Sherpas by Western climbers. Accounts of threats and physical altercations are not uncommon, perhaps worsened by the conditions and lack of oxygen on the mountain. As summarized by University of California, San Francisco anthropologist and Sherpa scholar Vincanne Adams, “[The West doesn’t] want [Sherpas] to be assertive or to put their interests ahead of [those of] foreigners." This creates an environment where Sherpas are often put in overly dangerous positions with little to no say in the matter. This is only made worse by the Nepalese government; many Sherpas believe, as explained by Sherpa guide and world-record-holder Kami Rita Sherpa, that “the government has to trust [the Sherpas] and make our profession a secure one.” Kami’s call for change was inspired by this year’s deaths, but also by the events of April 18 2014, when avalanche at the Khumbu Icefalls killed 16 Sherpas. It was only after this disaster that the Nepalese government took action and implemented medical and life insurance policies for Sherpas working on Everest.
Despite all of these controversies, Nepalese economy needs tourism to Everest. In 2012, The government received $3.3 million from climbing-licenses alone. Tourism revenues were nearly 3% of Nepal’s gross domestic product in 2014. Yet these many controversies have begun to shift the perception of Everest, from a once natural wonder conquered only by the most skilled climbers to a capitalist nightmare. Unless major structural changes are made, hopefully beginning with the limiting of climbing permits, tourists will continue to flock to Everest en masse leaving exploited labor, trash, and death in their wake.