Summiting Everest commands visions of grandeur and personal heroism for some, but to many sherpas tasked with the greatest workload and the most to lose, Everest represents a hard, economically necessitated risk. In a climbing culture driven by commercialism, sherpas are arguably some of the most experienced and well adapted climbers on Mount Everest, yet have little to no say in addressing the issues of safety or working conditions that are brought on by commercial motives. Initiating transformational leadership can solve many of the symptomatic problems of commercialization. By affording more influence to experienced sherpas, embracing the intellectual stimulation of safety challenges, inspiring clients’ independence, and individually considering
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The intellectual stimulation of improving safety practices and living conditions provides greater shared vision to climbing community as a whole. Sherpas would become especially integral to this effort, because some sherpas live in the base camp region more than visitors and have historically dealt with the infrastructure of Everest (setting ropes, securing lines, and finding paths). It would benefit the climbing community and Nepalese government to give sherpas, or leaders in the sherpa community, more authority at base camp and more power year round. This way, as experts who have experienced Everest more than any other peoples, they can make needed changes on the mountain and improve their own livelihoods. If government regulations gave sherpa communities more control on Everest rather than allowing climbing companies motivated by profit to dictate how things are run, conditions at base camp could improve. This would lead to less illness and potentially better supportive infrastructure, like medical clinics or healthier living accommodations. This would give expeditions a better start and provide greater emergency response. Creating an incentivised culture shift among expedition groups as a whole to value safety and collaboration on safe practices could reform parts of safety infrastructure that are lacking. …show more content…
Making personal goal setting and physical climbing standards mandatory to even attempt the summit would make clients dramatically more capable and allow guides and sherpas the energy to do their jobs better. Rather than allowing clients to rely so heavily on sherpas and guides, encouraging clients and climbers to act more mindfully of their own workload and pull more weight for the team while summiting would not only keep everyone remarkable safer, but would increase their chances of a successful summit. Inspiring greater self sufficiency will also mean inspiring a mindfulness of one’s limitations so that they don’t become an unsafe burden to the rest of the team while on the mountain. Running checkups of each climber at every stop would give guides, sherpas, and clients a better picture of their physical state so that they can decide or be advised on whether or not to turn around. Dvir states "Transformational leaders get their followers to transcend their own self interest for the sake of the team" (2002, pg. 736). That may mean many clients only go so far as the lowers camps depending on their physical state and level of expertise. This could be upsetting to some, but guides and sherpas can work to clearly communicate during training the importance and impressiveness of valuing safety over personal gain. Stories like that of Taske, Hutchison,
The intellectual stimulation of improving safety practices and living conditions provides greater shared vision to climbing community as a whole. Sherpas would become especially integral to this effort, because some sherpas live in the base camp region more than visitors and have historically dealt with the infrastructure of Everest (setting ropes, securing lines, and finding paths). It would benefit the climbing community and Nepalese government to give sherpas, or leaders in the sherpa community, more authority at base camp and more power year round. This way, as experts who have experienced Everest more than any other peoples, they can make needed changes on the mountain and improve their own livelihoods. If government regulations gave sherpa communities more control on Everest rather than allowing climbing companies motivated by profit to dictate how things are run, conditions at base camp could improve. This would lead to less illness and potentially better supportive infrastructure, like medical clinics or healthier living accommodations. This would give expeditions a better start and provide greater emergency response. Creating an incentivised culture shift among expedition groups as a whole to value safety and collaboration on safe practices could reform parts of safety infrastructure that are lacking. …show more content…
Making personal goal setting and physical climbing standards mandatory to even attempt the summit would make clients dramatically more capable and allow guides and sherpas the energy to do their jobs better. Rather than allowing clients to rely so heavily on sherpas and guides, encouraging clients and climbers to act more mindfully of their own workload and pull more weight for the team while summiting would not only keep everyone remarkable safer, but would increase their chances of a successful summit. Inspiring greater self sufficiency will also mean inspiring a mindfulness of one’s limitations so that they don’t become an unsafe burden to the rest of the team while on the mountain. Running checkups of each climber at every stop would give guides, sherpas, and clients a better picture of their physical state so that they can decide or be advised on whether or not to turn around. Dvir states "Transformational leaders get their followers to transcend their own self interest for the sake of the team" (2002, pg. 736). That may mean many clients only go so far as the lowers camps depending on their physical state and level of expertise. This could be upsetting to some, but guides and sherpas can work to clearly communicate during training the importance and impressiveness of valuing safety over personal gain. Stories like that of Taske, Hutchison,