Everest's Tourism Risk: The Death Zone
 The growth in companies offering holidays to customers to climb Everest has exponentially increased. The development of this type of holiday seems to exemplify the need for all of us to experience the real risks of nature, but these customers take it to the extreme. The risk of death for climbing Everest is 1:7,1.10 or 1.30, depending upon which source you use... overall this is pretty high A plane crash is something in the region 1:11,000,000, whereas a car is 1:200 ish (in a lifetime, depending where you live - so you would have to climb Everest for 80 years to face the same exposure level). 200+ climbers/tourists have lost their lives on this mountain although it is not the most dangerous. However, taking this chance does seem to be a prettyheavy risk factor given other types of sports and opportunities that tourists could choose to do with £30,000. Perhaps, it is the notion that we are too protected and comforted in the Developed World and that is why as a tourist you want to expose yourself to these risks while on holiday; adventure tourism is growing and most tourists participate in adventure at some time. Companies will try to ensure the minimal risk and there are pressures on companies to ensure safety of their punters, as mortality of clients is not necessarily good for business, conversely pressures are there to ensure success of their clients to reach the summit. If you have paid some £30,000 to get to the top of Everest, then not to complete this is perhaps an unfulfilled holiday experience and not the best use of £30,000 or a good advert for future customers. What I also find interesting is that to reach the top does mean you enter the Death Zone and this is exactly what it says! People die on Everest! As a punter you are at risk of death, but I sometimes wonder whether this is fully understood by the clients! Perhaps what the punter should keep in mind is that 1 out of 7/10/30 people do not make it back from the summit of Everest, so if a fatality does occur it is reflective, in most cases, of the high risk environment of the tallest mountain in the world...an acceptable risk? Well depends on our understanding of risk and what it subjectively means to us personally!
P.S. the picture is the Matterhorn not Everest... Everest I have yet to climb... perhaps, if I'm prepared to accept the risk!
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