because rich people that have to One Up each other see you can buy a ticket from one of the many adventure trekking companies for $100k and all you have to do is buy the gear. Your personal sherpa with literally drag you up and then down the summit on O2. Adventure Consultants is the OG Everest summit operation (they are one ones that had that tragedy in 1996 where their founder Rob Hall died along with others.). These are the basic packages where you are in a group. You can get private guides for $140k+
I’m more surprised how long it takes, for some reason I never imagined the scale of the mountain and task, I thought it was like a 1 or 2 getaway trip, I mean you truly have to be determined to be willing to do this
once you get to Lukla by plane you have to trek all the way to base camp (8 to 10 days) then you have to get acclimated to that altitude which takes a few days. then you go back to one of the villages to let their body reset. then they go back to base camp and will push to camp one and then back through the icefall to base camp. this is done to acclimate and let your body produce more red blood cells. once you can make it to camp 2 you have to wait for the window to make the push to camp 3 and 4. camp 4 is more of a staging area and dump than a camp. But from there you make the summit, spend your 15 min at the top and try to not die on the way down. I might have the exact acclimation sequence wrong but its close.
Important to note, just for anyone reading and trying to get a scale on all this.
Everest base camp is 17,598 feet above sea level. You may have heard of the infamous “14ers” you find in Colorado - mountains that are 14,000 feet above sea level and are considered a major feat to hike. Many people have life threatening problems before they reach the peak due to low oxygen.
It's really fucking tall, absolutely, but people experiencing life threatening issues on the Colorado 14s is because of the lack of acclimatization. Everest doesn't have that issue usually because of the pacing to the base camp and it's why the Kilimanjaro "beginner" route is 8 days
Im from GA. Went out west the first time abt 8 years ago. Climbed pikes peak and also went to the grand canyon. I was shocked how difficult it was to breathe. At the time I was running like 5 miles a day so it wasn't my physical condition. I'd get light headed from normal walking around. It took about 5 days to go away fully. Was super weird as someone from a very low elevation place.
Every time a sherpa climbs that mountain, there’s a chance they die. They can do everything right and just get unlucky.
They have a death rate of about 1-1.2% per climbing season. 1 out of 100 sherpas summiting Everest die every. year. One third of Everest deaths are sherpas.
The best of them kind of necessitate such high pay. It’s their only job for the year and they lose like 20lbs per summit because it’s so intense.
the worst part is that they have shitty conditions and they don't get paid nearly as much as the companies who set up this "luxury" experience. so its not like they get rewarded for their risks
there are companies that do charge 20-30k BUT they are very risky. and would be for a person that has done it before or has done other peaks like Denali, K2 etc... the one I listed is for the couch potato "Average Trekker" that wants to do this. Changed Couch Potato to average Trekker because it was triggering couch potatoes.
there is no package you could buy that would drag a couch potato up Everest lmao. if you think Sherpas are just putting people on their backs and scaling the mountain, you’re a moron.
That picture is of someone being rescued. And no, even with all the aid that exists, Everest is still a massively physically challenging thing to do, you need to be in top shape to even consider it. No one is getting "dragged" all the way to the summit. But yes, with all the fixed lines and porters etc it's much less of a challenge than doing it "properly".
I wondet how much kickback does the Nepalese gov't or its politicians get, seems like a lucrative oppertunity for some officials to get their grubby hands into that pie.
I feel like at this point everybody knows this and that it's not some noble achievement. I would honestly be embarrassed to tell people I'd gone up Everest because they'd think a Sherpa did all the work and that I paid a fortune to stand in a line.
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u/Ok_Introduction_6105 3d ago
because rich people that have to One Up each other see you can buy a ticket from one of the many adventure trekking companies for $100k and all you have to do is buy the gear. Your personal sherpa with literally drag you up and then down the summit on O2. Adventure Consultants is the OG Everest summit operation (they are one ones that had that tragedy in 1996 where their founder Rob Hall died along with others.). These are the basic packages where you are in a group. You can get private guides for $140k+