Mountaineering and leadership are a tricky pair. You see the companies that are up here have the same interest as those that are at sea level. They want to make money.
It doesn’t matter how you got your chance up here. Maybe it was free or maybe it was very expensive. You will likely choose a foreign outfit. The final outfit you work with must be Nepali. That means, the foreign outfit is just a legitimate looking and feeling front.
The Nepali outfit hires your expedition leader (Khaji), all the porters, gzo/yacks, organizes the various stops at the tea houses, the food at each of these stops, the tents/food/fuel required at each camp (EBC, C1, C2, C3, and C4), and the Sherpa required to operate each of these camps.
Sherpas get paid a basic amount for gear ($900 USD), a basic amount per day ($5 USD per day of the 60 days = $300 USD), and carry bonuses beyond EBC (total works out to about $1000 for the season).
The more members or clients you have for the expedition, the more cost effective it becomes.
Interestingly, the foreign outfits assign a “leader” to the expedition but in some cases, the foreign leader has no experience guiding there. They are paid poorly if at all.
Today, members on our permit surviving at C2 were discussing the pros/cons of sleeping at C3. The entire experience of the members including the leader on this matter includes 2.5 expeditions.
Why not ask the Sherpa who have around 40 expeditions between them?
Me: Do you think I need to sleep at C3 or touch it and come down the same day?
Sange bhai: Sahab ji, if you want to sleep there, I’ll stay with you. It is your choice.
Me: Is it beneficial?
Sange bhai: I’m my opinion, you loose more energy than necessary by trying to sleep at C3. No matter what, when you come through the second time on your summit attempt, you’ll be sleeping with oxygen at C3. You don’t really rest at C3. Over 7,000m your body is suffering. It’s suffering here at 6,000m.
Me: Then why do all these companies make their members sleep at C3?
Sange bhai: (among the laughter of all the other Sherpa) The true reason any company wants you to sleep at C3 without supplemental oxygen is for your health to deteriorate and the head count of the people going to the summit diminish. The company still retains the money but they don’t have to pay the Sherpa.
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