A very good editorial piece in The Times today. Hadn’t read it when I sent my last Blog update an hour or so ago but I’ll quote the bit that I think sums it all up:

‘To make it safer, Nepalese authorities are considering installing fixed ladders up the Step for the climbing season. Their motives are laudable but their solution is wrong.

‘Every year Sherpas already fix safety ropes all the way up the Step, mainly for the use of high paying clients of commercial expeditions. These make it technically straightforward even for inexperienced climbers. What no amount of extra equipment bolted to the rock can do is turn amateur adventurers who spend most of the year in an office into elite mountaineers. Ladders might, in fact, fool more people into thinking Everest is no more than an arduous hike.

‘The chance of climbing Everest is open to anyone, and the local economy depends on those who pay to compensate for lack of experience or fitness. The way to keep the death toll in the “death zone” down is not to pretend the climb is easy. It is to remind people that it is hard.’

I couldn’t have put it better and more succinctly myself.