Tourism is ruining everything special about Mount Everest
Skift Take
Whether mass tourism at Everest is a blessing or curse depends on who you ask: The economic boost for the Kathmandu government and mountain guides comes at the cost of the mountain’s cleanliness and prestige.
Reaching the summit of Everest – or, rather, returning alive from it – has to be one of the most exhilarating experiences life can offer. But what really matters is how you reach the summit.
It used to be a prize earned through a long apprenticeship. Chris Bonington’s 1975 expedition brought the elite of British mountaineering to the previously unclimbed southwest face. When I climbed the mountain in 1988 it was my tenth Himalayan expedition. We too pioneered a new route, with just four climbers, no high-altitude porters, and no supplementary oxygen. The journey was everything; the outcome never a forgone conclusion.
Now, Everest has become the ultimate tick on the global adventure-tourism circuit. But, as the famous Tyrolean climber Reinhold Messner observed
