Everest 2021 Outbreak - Greed, Stupidity or Both?

Everest 2021 COVID Outbreak - Greed, Stupidity or Both?

With the end of the season approaching, and the pullout of some teams, a hard look needs to be taken as to what didn't go well for the Everest 2021 season. 

There also needs to be accountability, and not the glossing over of events that we are seeing in the paid press releases coming from some expeditions.

I. Pursuing an Everest Expedition During a Pandemic Year

Check out the COVID pandemic this year in India and Nepal. By March 1, the slope of the curve was on its way up, and by the middle of the month there was no question things were out of control. There are no major land barriers between the two countries, so the writing was on the wall that Nepal would be hit just as hard. 

India Covid Statistics

Nepal Covid Statistics

And yet some expedition companies (both Nepali and Western) happily booked everybody that wanted to climb the mountain and that could not do so with the more responsible climbing outfits that canceled their seasons. 

They hired more helicopters, placed stickers on these to make the world think they were theirs, advertised large heated tents full of yoga mats, and sold to the unwary the dream of an easy hike up the hill with an 8K picture at the top - all with unlimited O2!

And they came! Everest had 408 permits this year - the biggest number ever. Flash climbs and their cost were justified as a humanitarian way of staying away from the COVID-infected masses at BC. 

What few knew is that the Nepali government had created a tiered system where there are three groups and for each group a max of 150 climbers is allowed, to avoid the lines seen in 2019. This of course probably led the local companies to game the system and get first dibs. In other words, if you were part of an expedition that got placed in the 3rd group, and weather was not great until the end of May, you could possibly have to sit things out for a month! Flash climbs for over $100K became dull waits. 

Those yoga mats would be pretty worn out by then, and customers who paid big bucks without knowing about any of these shennanigans would be pretty pissed off. We will never know the real number of Covid positives at EBC - but we do know that many people must have been positively angry with the whole mess. 

So at the end, the old face-saving maneuver was applied. "We need to leave EBC for the safety of our customers."

And so they left, with some perhaps carrying a virus in their noses and lungs and not an 8K selfie of themselves at the summit.

Assessment: Greed and Stupidity

II. Parties and Little Social Distancing at Base Camp

These are probably perfect examples of human stupidity.

With the pandemic out control in Nepal, and the helicopters flying out some 8-10 people per day to the hospitals in KTM - the parties just kept happening?

Party on, Wayne!

Parties on Everest sound like the band on the Titanic. The ship was sinking, and they continued to play while it went under. At EBC, they continued to dance until a good number of climbers and sherpas got COVID, and then certain expeditions were forced to retreat!

Could infections have been prevented despite the parties? Of course! This is routinely done in operating room suites where some have infected patients and some don't. I find it humorous that Everest parties were used as an excuse by some for a retreat. 

All the expeditions that did not party needed to do was to create a sanitary shield that would block all contact between them and other camps. If food had to be brought it - leave it 20 yards from the kitchen. No interaction with any outside groups and prior testing of anybody entering the group should have been mandatory. 

But I'm sure strict protocols were never implemented and therefore the results for those who had to leave. Did they even have written protocols like we do in medicine, and that are gone through with a fine tooth comb when a hospital gets a visit from JCAH in the US?

Assessment: Stupidity

III. Playing Doctor When You Have NO Idea Of What You Are Doing

John Hunt, the leader of the first succesful Everest expedition wrote that for a successful Everest attempt one has to deal with three elements 1) the mountain, 2) the weather and 3) medical issues. For each of these three, John Hunt put together a team of specialists.

Today it seems that some expedition outfits seem to believe that they know better than medical professionals how to handle high altitude physiology and their recently found new expertise in epidemiology and virology.

Armed with all sorts of medical gadgets promoted on their websites, they draw in mountaineering wannabes into a sense of false comfort. They claim to be experts on oxygen, HAPE, HACE, viruses, infection control, PCRs and the treatment of any complication that may arise while on a mountain. Or so they tell you...

The reality is they are clueless about most of the above. 

Point in case, the recent photographs published on the Facebook site from a reputable expedition leader doing COVID tests at Everest without any infection control precautions (No gloves, no eye protection). What you see in the pictures is how the examiner may easily pass on to each one of the people examined the virus he just picked up from the last person tested! In other words, the techniqes employed are facilitating the transmission of the virus - not preventing its spread!

After the team reported 7 positive cases despite "precautions", they decided to retreat. That's a 35% infection rate assuming these were climbers.

No gloves, no eye protection, and a swab stick aimed at the Pituitary Gland!

Assessment: Stupidity

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IV. Taking People Up The Mountain When You Have COVID In Your Group

The two deaths at Everest seen early in the season make one wonder whether the Swiss and American climbers had COVID. Rumors have it that the team taking them up had sherpas that had tested positive for the virus within their group.

What goes Up, must come Down - especially in Mountaineering

If there were positive people within their group, the ethical thing should have been to isolate them right away, test the entire group for the virus, and then make a decision.

We will never know what happened here. 

Assessment: Stupidity and Breach of Ethics

V. Returning To KTM from Lukla with NO Tests For Everybody

Not content with the poor infection control management of their groups at EBC, some expeditions pulled the plug in style by first telling the press, and sounding like evangelical preachers, that they were doing this for the safety of their customers (when they had disregarded this in the first place). They then had their customers, who were probably not tested shortly before the flight, taken to KTM in helicopters.

It does not take a scientist to understand that if anyone was a carrier in these groups, the hotels they are staying at in KTM will become compromised.

This is a bad decision from the Nepali government to allow this, a bad one from the expediiton leaders who should know better, and of course an irresponsible one  from the customers who are placing others at risk in KTM when arriving from a highly contaminated area.

Not the Hyatt at KTM:  No Room Service, no Hot Showers

As for the sherpas and other staff, no, they did not take the helicopters down. The Nepali governent quickly set up quarantine shelters in Lukla and above thinking that the virus only spreads among the less wealthy.

Assessment: Stupidity and Breach of Ethics

VI. Conclusions

The 2021 season at Everest will be remembered as a season of blunders. 

The Nepali government did their usual thing and mismanaged the whole situation by opening the mountain, creating a tier system that could be gamed, and changing the rules on an almost daily basis regarding quarantines and tests.

Some expeditions tried to take advantage of the non-presence of those that sat out the season, and came to Everest in full force but no brains.

Climber and Expedition Leader at Everest 2021

Many climbers who went there were enticed by unlimited oxygen, the latest gadgets, yoga mats, and 8K summit pics - but did not heed to the news about the pandemic raging in Asia and trusted their expeditions for the expertise on how to handle it.

Assessment: Greed, Stupidity