Sherpa

source: Sherpa

Wow I am ashamed to be a New Zealander after watching this. All he cared about was the almighty dollar. Great documentary. As for the guy who asked who "owned" these men. Could not believe my ears. Disgusting.

I loved this documentary as I like many people am fascinated by Chomolungma, being it's the highest Mountain on Earth. The name 'Everest' should and the verb 'to summit' should be immediately be red flags. Nothing was discovered in the 1800s. Being named after some colonial white guy by the Royal Geographical Society instead of being called the Holy Mother in the local language. Hindi or Nepali Sagarmāthā, are much nicer names. I really think though that when you use and abuse locals and make things easy for people to climb and insult this mountain this should honestly be reflected in any film made about it. The things missing from this film about exactly the work that Sherpas do, how they really feel, and the selfishness of the capitalist system that allows people to try and tick off the 'biggest and best' when ethically what those customers are doing is highly questionable. How much really do the Sherpas earn as percentage? Shouldn't there be excellent schools, hospitals and adequate insurance for Sherpas? Some of the problems with garbage and climate change are not properly covered at all. Capitalistic money making from a Holy mountain should be properly regarded as a pretty hollow occupation, and someone risking their life to feed their family as pretty heroic, but this film seems sided with climbing company owners and clients by trying to be balanced between each side, when really one side is in the right and the other isn't. At the end of the day a real climber would walk up from sea level, hire a local directly or not at all, go without oxygen especially if under 8000 meters and bring all their own supplies in and out.

Even leaving aside the bleating from the typical ignorant yanks about terrorist sherpas and enquiring as to weather the Sherpas "owners" could intervene in the dispute. You were left with the manipulative guides. It was encouraging that the Sherpas didnt allow themselfs to be demeaned any further by the the climbers. This set of affairs could be replicated in most work places and societies across the world where worker and human exploitation occurs. I'd say a lot of these selfish climbers would gladly climb over any deceased bodies obstructing their goals.