Beautifully shot movie, I’d really recommend it. I knew the whole Sherpa to rich western climber thing was messed up, but this movie puts the whole capitalist disregard for human workers lives into fairly sharp relief. Maybe a bit on the nose with that one guy talking about “the Sherpa’s owner”.
Poor choice of words on my part, it's a real dude in the doco saying it. It's just unbelievable
I love hiking, genuinely think it's one of the best hobbies a someone can pick up, and look at this dummy thicc mountain every day with a now pathological fixation to climb it. Totally get that psychic drive. If someone told me they had climbed Everest, I have less respect for them by knowing that. They did the British Raj to waltz up a shit and plastic-covered tourist attraction with a bunch of cardiologists who could pay $30k and their colonial servants who do all of the work and risk their lives on multiple trips to enable that bourgeois fuck's vanity trip. You hike up Long's Peak, it's you and what you can carry on your back versus nature. Climb K2, same thing but yeah sure you can have toxic masculinity you've earned it. Climb Everest and unless you were carrying your own gear you're a piece of shit who should be condemned for it.
I spent 2 and a half months there. Spent 2-3 weeks in Kathmandu, and hiked around Manaslu, Annapurna circuits and from jiri to gokyo valley and back to Lulka. Got violently stomach I'll twice and pretty sure I nearly got gangrene on my big toe, pissed blood after drinking bad water and then passed out in a tea house. I loved it, best place I have ever been, but the exploitation of workers there is absolutely disgusting. Frankly, Sherpas are the lucky ones. Half the workers in the mountains are from Kathmandu valley where it is 30 degrees all year. I was at a lodge right before Larkya la pass and there were some French tourists there was as well. Probably about about 10 tourists and maybe 2 dozen porters. It was about minus 15 with knee deep snow and while the tourists were in their nice tents (and to be fair I was in albeit very basic dirt floor room, a dry room none the less) the porters slept huddled under a big tarp. There was about an inch of snow on it in the morning. Next day I saw one of the porters walking through knee deep snow in a pair of running shoes with plastic bags in them, jeans and a sweat shirt, no mittens. We got to a steep section and he had this giant wicker basket full of metal pots and pans in it that was swaying all over and he kept falling into the snow in his bear hands, which were red and clearly in pain. I had an extra pair of mittens so I gave them to him. That was just on eggregious example, but this sort of thing is the norm there. I seem to recall when I was there that a progressive legislation limited the max weight you could give a porter to 70 kilos....
We had a guide too, but he had decent knock off gear and we gave him a 400 dollar tip in addition to his 25 dollar a day rate, which we figured was pretty reasonable for a 10 day trip. He was from the Ganesh himal region and so not a sherpa, but a mountain person.
I had an extra pair of mittens so I gave them to him.
Ok, you just stole that from Dumb and Dumber. j/k that's an amazing story, you should consider writing something even more in-depth about your experiences there, I would totally read that.
I remember reading a book about climbing Everest for a book report when I was young (Beck Weathers I think) and I didn't realize Sherpas were human beings until like 3/4ths of the way through the book.
As someone from one of the most docile and accepting northern peoples, even to the racist/clueless tourists that come up to our areas to LARP as adventurers, it is great to see a bunch of people who look like my cousins pimp slap and kick some arrogant euros around.
Also the boss just straight up makes up that there's a threat to beat up Sherpas who scab
Yes! Wild. Although tbf pretty good idea to stop scabs Amazing how at the start I thought he might be sympathetic to the sherpas, then by the end he's pushing them to walk over their friends dead bodies for a buck.
Late to this but thanks for the recommendation, the movie was great. All power to the sherpas and fuck those bourgeois pieces of shit who exploit them. The tour operator called the sherpas “irrational” and one of the American climbers described them as “terrorists.” It’s like, jesus, if you idiots can afford to blow $50,000 or whatever to climb a fucking mountain I think you’ll manage to overcome this. Just unbelievable.
