2014 Avalanche

The influx of commercial mountaineering in Everest has brought prosperity to the Everest Region. But there is a catch: stories of Sherpa death on Everest doesn't raise eyebrows anymore. Well at least until 2014. In a country where the GDP per capita hovers around USD 450, USD 4,000 for 2 months of work is an offer you can't refuse. This economic incentive creates a two tiered system of mountaineers: those who pay to climb and those who get paid to climb. The yellow brick road to the top is laid by those who get paid to climb. They fix ropes and ladders. They fix and stock camps. To get this job done they have to cross the notorious Khumbu Ice Fall multiple times. And this is where disaster struck on April 18, 2014. A piece of ice weighing several million pounds dislodged from a hanging glacier, and came crashing down the slopes taking 16 Sherpa lives with it. And while death has been routine both for Sherpas and paying climber on Everest, this highlighted the enormous risks Sherpas take on the slopes of Everest. To put this in perspective, the fatality rate for the US military in Iraq was 335 per 100,000 while the corresponding figure for Everest Sherpas from 2004 to 2014 stands at 4,053 per 100,000. While this event also brought into focus the age old debate about the meaning of 'mountaineering', a more tangible development that came out of this event was the increase in insurance payouts from USD 10,000 to USD 15,200. Also, so accepted is the danger and so lucrative the paycheck that even now nobody in Khumbu thinks twice before accepting an offer for Everest.