Thought provoking questions.
1.
Is it ethical for
guides to take clients onto the mountain?
Even the most experienced of
climbers are not immune to symptoms from being at high altitudes. The guides
themselves are battling cognitive impairment as well as other altitude related
sicknesses, which are enhanced because the guide has to work extra hard to try
and bring his clients to the top of the mountain. If a guide over-exerts
himself trying to help a client, they cannot help any other client that gets in
trouble.
To
make matters worse most of the clients have limited climbing experience and
usually not much experienced being exposed to extreme altitudes. Given this it
seems like the guides are giving people false confidence about climbing the
mountain and allowing for people who would not be able to climb the mountain,
to get into the higher more dangerous altitudes. Are the guides then leading
these clients to their deaths?
2.
Is it ethical to
take advantage of the Sherpas?
The Sherpas
work the hardest on the mountain, making it safe for every other climber on the
mountain. However, they receive the least amount of pay often receiving around
$2,000. The Sherpas are risking their lives everyday on the mountain and
sometimes even go as far as to carry other climbers that cannot go any farther.
Is it wrong to have these employees be so under-payed for the danger they are putting
themselves in?
3.
Why do the
Sherpas work so hard for little pay?
As discussed
above the Sherpas are very severely under-payed yet they continue to put in
more effort than anyone else involved. Why do the Sherpas feel so obligated to
go far beyond what others do? What sense of duty are they acting on? Is it
honor? Why are they willing to risk their lives on an everyday basis for people
they don’t even know?
4.
Why do people
continue to climb the mountain?
What is it that
drives people to climb that mountain? Is it daredevil adrenaline junkies? I personally
don’t think so adrenaline wears off and even at the top of the mountain there
is no moment of great achievement. No reward is felt until you have successfully
descended the mountain. So why do people put themselves through such pain just
to climb a mountain? Are they looking for acceptance from other people? Or just
need a challenge to conquer?
5.
Is selfishness
experienced during ciaos a sign of true human nature?
When people were
in trouble and dying on the mountain, there were countless times that they were
left to die, sometimes so that the other climber would be able to reach the top
of the mountain. Is the life of another person worth the bragging rights of reaching
the summit of Everest? Why is it that when chaos breaks out people lose all signs
of morality and start operating on animalistic tendencies? Is it simply human
nature to act like this, or are these just bad people?
6.
How do some
people survive against such insurmountable odds?
There was one man
in the story who was found after spending a night out on Everest exposed. He
was found with a three inch plate of ice covering his face and was barely
breathing. This man was left for dead assuming he could not recover. Later on,
however, this same character walked into the camp under his own power. That night
his tent blew open, his sleeping bag was blown off him, and he could not move,
spending another night exposed. Somehow this climber ended up surviving. How is
it that a man in such bad condition could manage to survive? How do people die
in much less extreme conditions? Was he extraordinary with a will to live or
was he just really lucky?
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