SCOPE: Guided tours to top of Everest fast catching on

Asian Political News, May 2, 2005

KATHMANDU, May 2 Kyodo

Guided tours to the summit of Mt. Everest, once derided by traditional climbers and mountaineers, has emerged as the latest climbing trend on the world's tallest mountain.

There are currently 35 climbing expeditions on the Nepalese side of the mountain, many of them leading high-paying clients up to the 8,850-meter summit.

On the northern Tibet side too, a good number of teams are running commercially guided expeditions.

Companies conducting tours are sprouting in Britain, the United States and New Zealand.

''It seems the world is not short of people who want to have a shot to the top of the world, and pay for it,'' said A.T. Sherpa of Thamserku Treks, which organizes around a dozen climbing expeditions to Himalayan peaks every year.

Until recently, Nepal's legendary Sherpas, who play a pivotal role in almost every ascent of Himalayan peaks, just watched from the sidelines as accomplished climbers from the West minted money with guided tours up Everest.

Now they too have jumped on the bandwagon. Websites of Sherpa trekking houses inviting anyone to join guided expeditions up Everest and other peaks have mushroomed.

''For the past four years we have sent teams. We also have this time,'' said a Sherpa who has reached the top of Everest a couple of times.

His team generally consists of climbers of different nationalities who signed up after reading the website.

Edmund Hillary, who with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay made the first ascent of Everest in 1953, told a London newspaper a few years ago that any guided climb of Everest is no more than a ''commercial activity.''

The New Zealand adventurer has said he feels glad that he scaled Everest when it was a real mountaineering experience.

Junko Tabei of Japan, who became the first woman to reach the summit of Everest in 1975, also finds the growing commercialization of the mountain worrying.

''When I climbed Everest, I succeeded with cooperation from Nepalese people. But these things can now be bought with money. They don't need the friendship of Nepalese people,'' Tabei told a Nepalese newspaper a few years ago.

Traditionalists moan that the growing interest in commercial climbs is debasing the world's highest summit, once the domain of elite climbers.

It is being sold to rich clients who, without the service of a guide, would fail to reach even a peak of modest height such as Ama Dablam in eastern Nepal, they argue.

Given the bureaucratic hassle involved in getting a permit and logistics, organizing a climbing expedition can be a daunting task.

''So when you join a commercial climb, everything is laid out for you, and hence its popularity,'' Elizabeth Hawley, a Kathmandu-based chronicler of Himalayan mountaineering, told Kyodo News.

How much does it cost for a shot to the top?

Rates differ between the south side and the north.

On the Tibet side, where a team's climbing fee for Everest is

$15,000, most clients pay between $30,000 and $35,000.

On the Nepal side the climbing fee is as much as $70,000 for a team of seven climbers, so each member ends up paying more.

Throw in expert guides and modern amenities at the wind-swept camps and an adventure seeker can easily end up paying over $50,000 for the opportunity to stand on top of the world.

Organizers blame the Nepalese government for making commercial climbs expensive.

Nepalese government officials, however, grumble that foreigners were making money out of what is essentially a Chinese-Nepalese mountain. ''So we thought the fitting response would be to hike the climbing fee,'' an official at the Nepalese Tourism Ministry said.

The first commercially guided climb up the mountain was in 1985 when two wealthy Americans, Frank Wells and Dick Bass, hired independent guide and compatriot David Breashears to lead them up Everest.

Commercial climbs up the mountain have not looked back since.

In the worst tragedy to strike commercially guided expeditions on Everest, 12 climbers died in a ''rogue storm'' atop the summit in May 1996.

Five of the dead, including Japanese woman Yasuko Namba, were clients of veteran New Zealand climber Rob Hall, who was among those who perished.

Nepalese newspapers reported that Namba paid $75,000 to join the ascent.