Good comments, Matthew. As consumers, we have a responsibility to carefully check the companies with whom we choose to do business. We can ask what their life or accident insurance policies are for their workers and ask them to cite examples of what they have done. We can see/ask how a company outfits their guides and porters on the mountains. We can check on their environmental practices (what they do with their waste, etc.), if they have had any accidents, how these accidents happened, and how they have dealt with them, what their emergency action plans are, etc. Then we can select the company with whom we work on the basis of these criteria.
As for writers and publishers, they can help by making lists of questions trekkers/consumers should ask when searching for a climbing/trekking company, ranking companies according to good practices or or by honoring those companies that are models in the industry.
It also helps if writers and publishers clarify the issues for consumers/trekkers, particularly in an emotional situation such as the Everest tragedy. Truly, the insurance and safety issue here is the responsibility of the company. For the government, the key is regulation, issuing of permits and monitoring to see if the regulations are being followed. For the Sherpa/climbing community, it is to work with the government to set standards, demand that companies follow them, and to see to it that their membership is cared for. We see that here in the States with the mining community, for example. When there is a tragedy, inevitably, we find all too often that the industry has not followed safety requirements, not made repairs, tried to cut costs at the expense of their workers. The job of the press is to report accurately and raise public awareness and information about the issues, hopefully forcing change.
Good comments, Matthew. As consumers, we have a responsibility to carefully check the companies with whom we choose to do business. We can ask what their life or accident insurance policies are for their workers and ask them to cite examples of what they have done. We can see/ask how a company outfits their guides and porters on the mountains. We can check on their environmental practices (what they do with their waste, etc.), if they have had any accidents, how these accidents happened, and how they have dealt with them, what their emergency action plans are, etc. Then we can select the company with whom we work on the basis of these criteria.
As for writers and publishers, they can help by making lists of questions trekkers/consumers should ask when searching for a climbing/trekking company, ranking companies according to good practices or or by honoring those companies that are models in the industry.
It also helps if writers and publishers clarify the issues for consumers/trekkers, particularly in an emotional situation such as the Everest tragedy. Truly, the insurance and safety issue here is the responsibility of the company. For the government, the key is regulation, issuing of permits and monitoring to see if the regulations are being followed. For the Sherpa/climbing community, it is to work with the government to set standards, demand that companies follow them, and to see to it that their membership is cared for. We see that here in the States with the mining community, for example. When there is a tragedy, inevitably, we find all too often that the industry has not followed safety requirements, not made repairs, tried to cut costs at the expense of their workers. The job of the press is to report accurately and raise public awareness and information about the issues, hopefully forcing change.