In reply to planetmarshall:
> And if providing that service puts food on their tables, lifts communities out of poverty and educates their children?
I'm not knocking the sherpas in any way, they like many other less privileged people are hard workers and do what they need to do to survive.
> I don't know if you have much experience at that kind of altitude
Bugger all as I alluded to in my post
> but after being of much the same opinion regarding expedition style ascents, I recently returned from the Himalaya with a big dose of humility and a somewhat different perspective.
And that is exactly how I think I would feel if I were out there. I'm sure it is a life changing tremendous feat to climb everest even with assistance but I would certainly feel humbled by the people providing that assistance and it would lessen my experience a bit, but maybe the tradeoff to being humbled is that in recognising that it would make me a better person.