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Message

Why doesn't Mt Everest just raise the prices outrageously?
Posted on 7/24/24 at 10:42 pm
Posted on 7/24/24 at 10:42 pm
Feels like every year more pictures come out of a traffic jam of people trying to get to the top and everyone saying there are too many people. So why not just keep creeping prices up so fewer people pay the same total amount? Sherpas get paid more per trip. No more crowding. Does Nepal not offer basic economics courses?
Posted on 7/24/24 at 10:45 pm to Thundercles
Are the Sherpas unionized? What’s stopping a new Sherpa from undercutting the price to get paid?
Posted on 7/24/24 at 10:45 pm to Thundercles
I mean it’s not cheap. It’s already like a $50,000 to $100,000 trip.
Posted on 7/24/24 at 10:46 pm to Thundercles
The permit alone is going up to $15,000/climber next climbing season. Were also talking about third world countries who have many corrupt officials who make more money accepting bribes from climbing companies than from their government job. Nepal’s climbing industry is one of the bases of their economy. The more climbers, the more food being eaten, more sherpas being used, more bribes, more hotels, etc.
quote:
Nepal requires a local company to organize your permit at $2,500 for the team, a refundable trash deposit of $4,000 per permit, and a Liaison Officer costing $3,000 per team. These total $9,500 BEFORE the $11,000 per person climbing permit. So before you hire guides, yaks, food, or gear, you must come up with almost $20,000 in Nepal.
This post was edited on 7/24/24 at 10:49 pm
Posted on 7/24/24 at 10:48 pm to Thundercles
quote:
So why not just keep creeping prices up so fewer people pay the same total amount? Sherpas get paid more per trip. No more crowding. Does Nepal not offer basic economics courses?
Maybe they practice an actual free market so the sherpas compete on price?
There’s probably no shortage of people willing to do that in Nepal. I bet it’s one of the highest paying jobs in the country because western currency is so much stronger than their currency.
In the U.S., I’m sure you’d have to blow some administrative official to get a license to be a guide, so no one would do it and it’d be insanely expensive.
This post was edited on 7/24/24 at 10:52 pm
Posted on 7/24/24 at 10:52 pm to Thundercles
quote:
It's already laid out with a chocolate mint on the top. The whole purpose of planning something like Everest is to effect some sort of spiritual and physical gain and if you compromise the process, you're an a-hole when you start out and you're an a-hole when you get back.
-Yvon Chouinard, 180 deg South
(Founder of Patagonia)
Posted on 7/24/24 at 10:53 pm to Thundercles
Any industry has to find its sensible market value.
Fir example, Coca-Cola could start charging $100 / can. Of course their volume of sales would plummet, but it's possible their gross would remain the same.
But, then they would have to shutter plants, layoff many employees.
Thus would trickle down and affect related industries of Coca-Cola.
Then, your name would become less prevalent and soon be forgotten
Fir example, Coca-Cola could start charging $100 / can. Of course their volume of sales would plummet, but it's possible their gross would remain the same.
But, then they would have to shutter plants, layoff many employees.
Thus would trickle down and affect related industries of Coca-Cola.
Then, your name would become less prevalent and soon be forgotten
Posted on 7/24/24 at 10:55 pm to Thundercles
quote:
Why doesn't Mt Everest just raise the prices outrageously?
Because Mt. Everest is already too high.
Posted on 7/24/24 at 11:02 pm to Thundercles
I wonder where everyone poops at? Do they pack it out ?
Posted on 7/24/24 at 11:07 pm to East Coast Band
quote:
Any industry has to find its sensible market value.
Fir example, Coca-Cola could start charging $100 / can. Of course their volume of sales would plummet, but it's possible their gross would remain the same.
But, then they would have to shutter plants, layoff many employees.
Thus would trickle down and affect related industries of Coca-Cola.
Then, your name would become less prevalent and soon be forgotten
Agree with you here-- my belief is that Everest is undercharging. If there is literally a traffic jam line to get up the mountain and they're still turning people away every year, then clearly they need to bump that price up a bit.
Posted on 7/24/24 at 11:09 pm to Thundercles
Posted on 7/24/24 at 11:13 pm to HottyToddy7
In “Waterworld”, was dry land simply Mt. Everest?
Posted on 7/24/24 at 11:15 pm to Thundercles
Having been there I can tell you they could double the price and it would have no effect. The Sherpa on these expeditions are paid much more than they would earn working elsewhere. Unionization is not a local custom. However many of the top Sherpa set their prices and the biggest and the best expeditions are happy to pay them. And this the more the expeditions charge. Additionally the more you pay, the more help you get in the form of better supplies, more O2 tanks etc. and the more you pay the higher your chances are of success.
Posted on 7/24/24 at 11:18 pm to Beauw
quote:
In “Waterworld”, was dry land simply Mt. Everest?
You know I never actually thought about this but just looked it up and sure enough it was. Whole lot of water on that world.
Posted on 7/24/24 at 11:19 pm to Thundercles
Reaching the peak of Everest is so yawn. Nobody cares anymore that you made it up there bro.
Posted on 7/24/24 at 11:26 pm to HottyToddy7
quote:
Are the Sherpas unionized? What’s stopping a new Sherpa from undercutting the price to get paid?
I'm referring to the permit needed to actually climb Everest. In a fair system some of that would be routed to the sherpas on top of what they're already paid.
Posted on 7/24/24 at 11:26 pm to Thundercles
China built a highway up their side to the north base camp. This lets people skip the ten day hike they would have done to South base camp.
Posted on 7/24/24 at 11:28 pm to HottyToddy7
quote:
Are the Sherpas unionized? What’s stopping a new Sherpa from undercutting the price to get paid?
There are very simply a tiny number of people who can do the job Sherpas do on the high mountains. It is taxing in a way most people can't understand both physically and mentally. You just can't grab a bunch of fit men in Kathmandu and turn them into high mountain porters. The was out rate would near 100%. If you started juicing them with EPO it might be different.
I don't think there is an easy answer to the overcrowding even if Economics 101 says there is. I will say I feel bad for climbers getting the current Everest experience. They are paying more and risking more for an experience that is near the antithesis of mountaineering. Nothing like sharing a singular route up a mountain with 800 other people.
Posted on 7/24/24 at 11:57 pm to Obtuse1
quote:
They are paying more and risking more for an experience that is near the antithesis of mountaineering. Nothing like sharing a singular route up a mountain with 800 other people.
When I was in high school I climbed Mt Fuji. And climbed is the wrong word as the path is perfectly laid out and you're just doing an extremely long uphill walk for about 10 hours with a few hundred other people. But at least the conditions are nice. A lot of what I've seen with Everest is that but in extreme weather with decent risk of death.
Posted on 7/25/24 at 12:59 am to Thundercles
totally comparable. aside from everest base camp being 5,000 feet higher than the summit of Fuji
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