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| Dangerous Mt. Everest (Kristoffer Erickson/news.nationalgeographic.com) |
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| Yeti hunters, Everest, 1954 (dailymail.co.uk) |
They earn a mere $3,000-5,000 risking their lives helping others scale the mountain during each two-to-three-month climbing season. They do on a regular basis what others pay to accomplish just once in a lifetime, putting their lives at great risk for affluent clients due to poverty they are never able to emerge from.
Last Friday, an avalanche roared down a climbing route on Everest, killing 13 Sherpa guides and leaving three others
missing. When it occurred the Sherpas, who have centuries of history in Nepal's alpine
region, were working at 21,000 feet, fixing ropes and
preparing the path ahead of peak mountaineering season.
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| Tibet's Rongbuk Buddhist monastery with Mt. Everest in background (wiki commons) |
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| Who climbs Mt. Everest without a Sherpa? |
As the Sherpa community mourns the loss of family members and friends, the group is considering an unprecedented move: a strike.
On Sunday, disappointed by the Nepali government’s offer of 40,000
rupees ($408) as compensation for the families of each of the dead, some
Sherpas gathered at Everest’s base camp to propose a “work stoppage”
that could disrupt or cancel the 334 expeditions planned for the 2014
climbing season.
Ellen Barry, South Asia Bureau Chief for The New York Times, says
while Sherpas have lived with these conditions for many years, last
week's accident changed things.
"I think just the magnitude of the loss of life from Friday's accident has prompted very unusual decisions," she says. More
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