Douglas further observed that China might decrease permit activity in 2007 as it prepares to bring the Olympic flame to Everest’s summit (!) the following year. Which only creates more pressure on the impoverished south side, where, Simonson noted, “The Nepalese seem pretty happy to keep cashing the checks.” How do those dollar disparities drive the risk shift between clients and free agents? “I think you have an ethical obligation to your team members,” said Simonson, “particularly if they’re paying customers.” 

Attempting to rouse more pointed debate, Kennedy suggested, “I wonder if we shouldn’t have no-rescue zones.” That would be the extreme, libertarian response to Simonson’s “buyer beware” in a market that should only properly be selling, in Viesturs’ phrase, “a chance to try,” not the right to reach the summit. 

Still, no one on the panel seemed able to articulate where one’s moral obligation extends, or ends, to someone not of your party, nationality, or invoice. As he plans his own north side expeditions this spring, Mazur told me, he’s been briefing potential clients on how an outside rescue could impact their Everest bid. He says they now inquire, “‘Is that going to run my chance for the summit?’ No one asked me that before.” 

Viesturs also sees the same pressures of sea level creeping upward into the Himalaya. On the panel, he said, “The crowding can be an issue. You see up on the mountain what’s happening in the city — this race for space. You get this into this frenzy with people rushing up as fast as they can,” competing for campsites and position on the fixed lines. But, of course, Viesturs already has his fourteen 8,000-ers. And he skipped the 2006 Himalayan season to write his memoirs (No Shortcuts to the Top, with David Roberts), do corporate speaking gigs, and run the New York City Marathon. Last fall he was considering guiding the north side of Everest for the first time in more than a decade. Instead, this spring he’ll be headed to Baffin Island with polar specialist Will Steger, billionaire Richard Branson, and a TV crew to investigate the effects of global warming. 

I ask Viesturs if he won’t miss the annual ritual of gearing up for Everest or another big Himalayan expedition this year. His answer speaks volumes about the future of climbing, risk, and responsibility in the Himalayas. Of Baffin Island, he says, “I’m looking forward to the solitude.”

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