[username223]

AFAICT most mountaineers deplore the current Everest situation, though it pays well at $60k+ a head. While it will never happen, I wish they would simply outlaw paid guiding and the use of bottled O2: a few people with the genes and skill could still climb these peaks, but rich tourists couldn't even try.

[tim333]

I had a go at climbing from Tibet a few years ago - got to 8100 meters but my O2 packed up. I think mountaineers are a bit conflicted - on the one hand it's messy having the place covered with tourists / so so climbers but on the other it's nice to be free to climb mountains and not have it restricted to the anointed few. Stopping the use of O2 would probably cause a lot of deaths - bodies tend to pack up at that altitude without it. I'm not sure stopping guiding would make much difference. I went 'unguided'. You still plod up the thing. If you had to carry all your own kit rather than getting Sherpas to lug the ropes and tents it would make it much harder.