Mount Everest Argumentative Analysis

Mount Everest is a huge 8,848 meter mountain in Nepal. In 1953, Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary became the first people to officially reach the top of the mountain by using the southeast ridge route. "Both Tenzing and I thought that once we'd climb the mountain, it was unlikely anyone would ever make another attempt," Sir Edmund says in an interview with National Geographic. "We couldn't have been more wrong". Over the following decades, Mount Everest has been seen as an opportunity for commercialization. You can now pay thousands of dollars for an experienced climber to guide you up the mountain, along with Sherpas to help you carry your things. This has become such a norm that people have lost sight of the real reason they climb the mountain.

Now, in the modern age, Mount Everest is seen as a profit. For example, on April of 2014, there was an accident on Mount Everest. At around 6:30 A.M. a chunk of ice broke off a glacier and as it fell it created an avalanche on the mountain's south side (Barry). It trampled about 30 men while 13 bodies were found and three were still missing (Barry). No foreigners died during this avalanche since most of them were still sleeping. Sherpas or Nepalese were the ones who died during this incident. In an article published in the New York Times, Nida Najar and Bhadra Sharma, say, "delegation of government officials from Nepal's Ministry Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation will visit the Mount Everest base camp on Thursday in an attempt to salvage the expedition season even as Sherpa mountain guides, support staff and foreign tour operators, shaken by an avalanche that killed over a dozen Nepalese guides last Friday, begin to pack up their gear and head home". This is a perfect example that proves that Mount Everest expeditions are only being done for the money. I find it pathetic that the Nepalese government is trying to "save the expedition" while over a dozen of it's own people died while many others were injured. Sherpa's make about $125 per climb, while carrying 20 pounds, although they sometimes double the load to get a bigger pay (Barry). I believe they get underpaid for the amount of work they do. Mountain climbers who are clients and have to pay for their trip, end up paying at the very least around $65,000. This is why I find it very unfair that these Sherpa guides who do so much for clients only get paid $125 per climb. "Among their most dangerous tasks is fixing ropes, carrying supplies and establishing camps for clients waiting below, exposing themselves to the mountains first", says Ellen Barry and Graham Bowley in the article Deadliest Day: Sherpas Bear Everest's