'Everest Like An Amusement Park' - Moro

If you needed any more persuading about the almost tragi-comic state of climbing on Everest in recent years, have a look at a cracking interview with Simone Moro on the Planet Mountain web site. 

The top TNF-sponsored mountaineer has just shelved his attempt to climb both Everest and Lhotse consecutively without supplementary oxygen due to the huge number of climbers on the mountain which made his progress unacceptably slow and dangerous.

In the interview he describes being confronted by a procession of around 200 climbers headed for the South Col, his disbelief at encountering 'climbers' who don't know how to use a jumar - a standard device used for ascending fixed ropes - and have to be helped with their crampons. He also mentions climbers who died earlier this month using nine bottles of oxygen.

What's perhaps remarkable is that Moro still has the serenity and detachment to assess the whole situation rationally. He admits to partially understanding the motives of commercial mountaineers on the mountain even if he doesn't share them and is well aware of the delicacy of the situation given Nepal's dependence on tourism for foreign currency.

Ultimately, he suggests, it's perhaps time for the organisers of the commercial expeditions to reflect on his decision and the reasons for it. 

'Perhaps abandoning here today can teach me something,' he concludes. 'And also those here and at home. Dying for a dream isn't included in my way of interpreting life.

Lots of food for thought: www.planetmountain.com/english/News/shownews1.lasso?l=2&keyid=39597