WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.200 --> 00:00:04.160 Welcome back to Disaster Strikes. I'm Kasey McIntosh. 2 00:00:03.439 --> 00:00:06.559 And I'm Julie Henningson. Before we say anything else, we 3 00:00:06.639 --> 00:00:09.119 want to note something we almost never get to say 4 00:00:09.160 --> 00:00:09.839 on this segment. 5 00:00:10.480 --> 00:00:11.279 Nobody died. 6 00:00:11.640 --> 00:00:12.560 Nobody died. 7 00:00:13.119 --> 00:00:16.440 That's not how Disaster Strikes usually goes. Most of the time. 8 00:00:16.440 --> 00:00:19.800 We're here to tell a cascade of decisions, each one's 9 00:00:19.800 --> 00:00:24.039 small and seemingly reasonable that ended in tragedy. But today's 10 00:00:24.079 --> 00:00:27.399 story is different. The disaster wasn't a storm, it wasn't 11 00:00:27.399 --> 00:00:31.280 a fall, it wasn't a crevass. It was a betrayal, 12 00:00:32.280 --> 00:00:35.200 and it happened at the most famous mountain in the world. 13 00:00:35.439 --> 00:00:39.000 To our listener, Shauna Borsheim, who recommended this topic, thanks 14 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:39.920 for listening, Shauna. 15 00:00:40.240 --> 00:00:43.000 Thanks for listening, Shauna. This is a good one. And 16 00:00:43.039 --> 00:00:45.880 while the victims in this story may have walked away, 17 00:00:46.520 --> 00:00:49.039 most of them didn't even know they were victims until 18 00:00:49.079 --> 00:00:51.880 they got home and checked their insurance statements. 19 00:00:52.880 --> 00:00:56.000 This is a Disaster Strikes episode with no body count 20 00:00:56.079 --> 00:00:58.560 but don't let that fool you. What happened in the 21 00:00:58.600 --> 00:01:01.640 Shadow of Everest is one of the most elaborate, cold 22 00:01:01.719 --> 00:01:06.319 blooded outdoor betrayals ever documented, and It ran for years, 23 00:01:06.640 --> 00:01:09.760 and it worked precisely because it exploited the one thing 24 00:01:09.920 --> 00:01:12.519 every person on the mountain is forced to do. It's 25 00:01:12.599 --> 00:01:17.680 trust the person standing next to them. Mount Everest Saga 26 00:01:17.719 --> 00:01:23.480 Matha and Nepali Chomo Lungma in tibetan At twenty nine thousand, 27 00:01:23.680 --> 00:01:26.439 thirty two feet above sea level, it is the highest 28 00:01:26.439 --> 00:01:29.680 point on Earth. It sits at the border between Nepal 29 00:01:29.760 --> 00:01:33.200 and Tibet, in a region of the Himalayas called the 30 00:01:33.359 --> 00:01:36.680 Kumbu Valley, and it draws people from every quarner of. 31 00:01:36.680 --> 00:01:41.560 The world every year, thousands of them. Nepal issued climbing 32 00:01:41.599 --> 00:01:44.879 permits to nearly four hundred people for the spring twenty 33 00:01:44.959 --> 00:01:48.239 twenty five season alone, making it one of the busiest 34 00:01:48.280 --> 00:01:51.840 years on record. But the Everest economy is much bigger 35 00:01:51.879 --> 00:01:55.159 than the summit. The trek to base camp, what climbers 36 00:01:55.200 --> 00:01:58.120 call EBC, is its own industry. 37 00:01:58.799 --> 00:02:02.400 The route begins in a village called Lukla, perched at 38 00:02:02.519 --> 00:02:05.200 nine four hundred feet on the edge of a cliff, 39 00:02:05.560 --> 00:02:08.520 served by one of the most terrifying runways on Earth, 40 00:02:08.800 --> 00:02:11.520 a strip of asphalt that ends in a sheer drop. 41 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:14.759 You land, you adjust to the altitude for a day 42 00:02:15.280 --> 00:02:16.280 and then you walk. 43 00:02:16.479 --> 00:02:19.080 In casey, I can attest to that I've landed in 44 00:02:19.159 --> 00:02:22.000 Lukla and taken off in Lucla, and it is terrifying. 45 00:02:22.039 --> 00:02:24.719 It's like no other runway that you've ever seen or 46 00:02:24.759 --> 00:02:27.000 been on, even with a lot of flying experience. 47 00:02:27.520 --> 00:02:29.599 Really, what did you do there? Did you go to 48 00:02:29.680 --> 00:02:30.719 the Everspace Camp? 49 00:02:31.080 --> 00:02:34.240 Not all the way. We trekked from Lukla to Tangboce, 50 00:02:34.400 --> 00:02:37.120 which is part of the way towards Everspace Camp, so 51 00:02:37.319 --> 00:02:39.560 kind of an out and back, just exploring the area. 52 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:40.560 That's cool. 53 00:02:40.919 --> 00:02:43.400 Most people will take a couple weeks to adjust to 54 00:02:43.439 --> 00:02:47.759 the altitude and then begin the trek through rhododendron forests 55 00:02:47.800 --> 00:02:52.759 and ancient monasteries, across suspension bridges hundreds of feet above 56 00:02:52.879 --> 00:02:55.439 rivers that you can't even see the bottom. At some points. 57 00:02:56.000 --> 00:02:59.520 The trail passes through villages like namche Bazaar, the last 58 00:02:59.560 --> 00:03:02.319 real town on the route at eleven thy three hundred 59 00:03:02.360 --> 00:03:06.120 feet through Tangboce, which is where we turned back. It's 60 00:03:06.159 --> 00:03:08.639 home to one of the most famous Buddhist monasteries in 61 00:03:08.680 --> 00:03:13.080 the Himalayas. Up and up further into thinner and thinner. 62 00:03:12.800 --> 00:03:16.400 Air, By the time you reach base camp at seventeen thousand, 63 00:03:16.560 --> 00:03:19.719 five hundred and ninety eight feet, you've already accomplished something 64 00:03:19.800 --> 00:03:23.199 most humans never will. The air there contains roughly half 65 00:03:23.240 --> 00:03:26.080 the oxygen. It doesn't sea level. Your heart rate is 66 00:03:26.120 --> 00:03:29.280 elevated just sitting still. Your body is working to stay 67 00:03:29.319 --> 00:03:31.639 alive in a way it simply isn't designed to do. 68 00:03:32.400 --> 00:03:35.280 And that's just at base camp. For the people actually 69 00:03:35.319 --> 00:03:38.560 attempting the summit, you're looking at usually two months more 70 00:03:38.599 --> 00:03:42.840 on the mountain. Multiple rotations between camps, climbing high and 71 00:03:42.879 --> 00:03:46.879 sleeping low a technique to prevent altitude illness. It forces 72 00:03:46.879 --> 00:03:51.159 your body to produce more red blood cells as you acclimatize. Then, 73 00:03:51.240 --> 00:03:54.520 when the weather window opens a summit push through the 74 00:03:54.599 --> 00:03:58.080 death zone above twenty six thousand feet, where no human 75 00:03:58.120 --> 00:04:02.000 body can acclimatize, and every hour shortens your life. 76 00:04:02.360 --> 00:04:05.560 These are the two populations on Everest, the trekkers going 77 00:04:05.560 --> 00:04:08.840 to base camp and back and the climbers attempting the summit. 78 00:04:09.280 --> 00:04:12.479 This story touches both, but it hit the trekker's hardest. 79 00:04:13.240 --> 00:04:15.879 Before we get into what happened, need to understand what 80 00:04:15.960 --> 00:04:18.879 people are paying to be there. Because the financial stakes 81 00:04:18.920 --> 00:04:21.319 are part of what made the fraud so lucrative. 82 00:04:22.360 --> 00:04:25.639 Start with the summit permit. The government of Nepal charges 83 00:04:25.759 --> 00:04:28.959 every foreign national a fee just for the right to 84 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:32.279 attempt the climb for the spring season April and May, 85 00:04:32.319 --> 00:04:35.560 which is the primary window. That fee sat at eleven 86 00:04:35.720 --> 00:04:39.480 thousand dollars per person for years, and in late twenty 87 00:04:39.519 --> 00:04:43.399 twenty four Nepal raised it to fifteen thousand dollars. This 88 00:04:43.560 --> 00:04:46.079 was the first increase in nearly a decade. 89 00:04:46.199 --> 00:04:49.639 And that's before you've hired a single guide, or bought 90 00:04:49.680 --> 00:04:52.680 a single piece of gear, or booked a flight to Katmandu. 91 00:04:52.839 --> 00:04:55.040 Their permit is literally just permission. 92 00:04:55.720 --> 00:04:59.160 A full guided Everest expedition, the kind where you have 93 00:04:59.240 --> 00:05:04.199 experienced to best support. Supplemental oxygen, high altitude camps, stocked 94 00:05:04.199 --> 00:05:09.720 with food and equipment, satellite communication, and emergency contingency built 95 00:05:09.720 --> 00:05:14.720 in runs between forty five thousand and one hundred thousand dollars. 96 00:05:15.439 --> 00:05:19.600 Some premium Western guided expeditions exceed one hundred and fifty 97 00:05:19.680 --> 00:05:24.240 thousand dollars per climber. Budget operators with Nepali companies start 98 00:05:24.279 --> 00:05:27.680 around thirty thousand to forty five thousand dollars, but the 99 00:05:27.720 --> 00:05:30.120 trade offs in support are significant. 100 00:05:30.680 --> 00:05:34.040 For context, twenty twenty three was the deadliest season in 101 00:05:34.120 --> 00:05:40.079 Everest recorded history, with eighteen confirmed deaths. Multiple expedition leaders 102 00:05:40.319 --> 00:05:43.560 and the head of the Nepal National Mountain Guide Association 103 00:05:44.120 --> 00:05:47.959 publicly attributed the toll in part to inexperienced climbers on 104 00:05:48.120 --> 00:05:51.439 low cost operations, people who bought a permit online and 105 00:05:51.480 --> 00:05:55.399 showed up without adequate preparation war support. So budget climbing 106 00:05:55.439 --> 00:05:58.480 on Everest is not the same as budget travel anywhere else. 107 00:05:58.519 --> 00:05:59.720 The stakes are much higher. 108 00:06:00.160 --> 00:06:04.680 Gear alone, things like high altitude down suits, insulated boots, 109 00:06:04.959 --> 00:06:10.279 supplemental oxygen systems, ice as, crampons, harness helmets. The basics 110 00:06:10.680 --> 00:06:15.560 GPS satellite communicators can run between eight thousand and fifteen 111 00:06:15.600 --> 00:06:18.839 thousand dollars for someone who's building from scratch, and then 112 00:06:18.879 --> 00:06:22.720 there's the tips. A summit SHIRPA bonus of fifteen hundred 113 00:06:22.800 --> 00:06:26.759 to five thousand dollars is standard, it's not optional. 114 00:06:26.519 --> 00:06:29.920 And then you have to add flights, training, expeditions on 115 00:06:30.040 --> 00:06:33.759 lower peaks. Nepal now requires climbers to have summitted at 116 00:06:33.839 --> 00:06:37.439 least one seven thousand meter mountain before they're eligible for 117 00:06:37.480 --> 00:06:41.279 an Everest permit. And then there's hotel costs in Katmandu, 118 00:06:41.680 --> 00:06:46.040 contingency funds, and travel insurance. A realistic all in figure 119 00:06:46.160 --> 00:06:48.959 for a guided EVER Summit attempt is around sixty to 120 00:06:48.959 --> 00:06:53.079 eighty thousand dollars for most people, but some spend considerably more. 121 00:06:53.120 --> 00:06:55.680 I'm guessing that most of these figures it's on the 122 00:06:55.800 --> 00:06:58.040 higher end as opposed to the lower end. 123 00:06:58.439 --> 00:07:00.839 And I'm also guessing that this is a probably pretty 124 00:07:00.839 --> 00:07:03.839 good example of you get what you pay for. You might, 125 00:07:04.040 --> 00:07:06.319 you know, not want to cut corners when it comes 126 00:07:06.360 --> 00:07:08.519 to something like this, if you can afford it, if 127 00:07:08.560 --> 00:07:09.439 you can get away with it. 128 00:07:09.759 --> 00:07:12.000 The other thing to consider is not just the cost 129 00:07:12.040 --> 00:07:14.160 of being there, but it's the cost of being away. 130 00:07:14.360 --> 00:07:18.240 So you're not presumably working or making any money for 131 00:07:18.279 --> 00:07:19.040 those two months. 132 00:07:19.439 --> 00:07:22.319 Yeah, the opportunity costs could be even more than these 133 00:07:22.399 --> 00:07:26.319 numbers we're talking about, right, So, doing the EBC the 134 00:07:26.319 --> 00:07:30.920 Ever's base Camp trek without attempting the summit is obviously cheaper, 135 00:07:30.959 --> 00:07:34.360 but still not cheap. A guided two week trek from 136 00:07:34.480 --> 00:07:38.199 Lukla to base Camp runs fifteen hundred to four thousand dollars, 137 00:07:38.480 --> 00:07:41.720 again depending on the operator and what's included, and every 138 00:07:41.759 --> 00:07:45.839 single person on that trail, trekker or climber is legally 139 00:07:45.920 --> 00:07:52.199 required to carry insurance covering helicopter evacuation. Nepal now mandates it. 140 00:07:52.519 --> 00:07:55.160 You can't get a permit without proof of coverage. 141 00:07:55.560 --> 00:07:59.240 A single helicopter evacuation from the Kumba region can cost 142 00:07:59.319 --> 00:08:03.319 anywhere from five thousand to forty thousand dollars, sometimes more, 143 00:08:03.720 --> 00:08:08.120 depending upon altitude and conditions. Multiply that by thousands of 144 00:08:08.199 --> 00:08:11.120 insured visitors a year, and you have a very large 145 00:08:11.160 --> 00:08:14.199 pool of money moving through a remote and very herd 146 00:08:14.199 --> 00:08:17.360 a audit system. And somebody noticed they took advantage of this. 147 00:08:17.959 --> 00:08:22.040 Somebody was paying attention in getting creative in a devious way. 148 00:08:22.519 --> 00:08:31.439 Right to understand the betrayal in the story, you have 149 00:08:31.480 --> 00:08:34.720 to understand who the Sherpas are, and I mean really understand, 150 00:08:34.759 --> 00:08:37.080 not just the word, not just the image of someone 151 00:08:37.080 --> 00:08:39.039 carrying a heavy pack of a snowy slope. 152 00:08:39.399 --> 00:08:42.039 The Sherpa are actually an ethnic group. The word itself 153 00:08:42.120 --> 00:08:46.399 means Eastern people in Tibetan. They've lived in the Solukumbu 154 00:08:46.559 --> 00:08:49.399 region of Nepal, in the shadow of Everest for hundreds 155 00:08:49.399 --> 00:08:53.720 of years. Their ancestors migrated from Tibet Their culture is 156 00:08:53.759 --> 00:08:59.519 deeply Buddhist, tied to the land, organized around seasonal farming, barley, potatoes, 157 00:08:59.679 --> 00:09:03.120 yak hurting, and the rhythms of high altitude life. 158 00:09:03.320 --> 00:09:07.320 And interestingly, their bodies are genuinely different from those of 159 00:09:07.360 --> 00:09:11.440 people who grew up at lower elevations. Genomic studies have 160 00:09:11.519 --> 00:09:16.960 identified specific gene variants, particularly one called ePass one, that 161 00:09:17.080 --> 00:09:20.360 regulate how sharp of blood process is oxygen. They produced 162 00:09:20.440 --> 00:09:25.600 nitric oxide at higher rates, which improves circulation. Their hemoglobin 163 00:09:25.639 --> 00:09:29.759 binds oxygen more efficiently. They've lived above ten thousand feet 164 00:09:29.799 --> 00:09:33.399 for so many generations that the adaptation is written into 165 00:09:33.440 --> 00:09:34.360 their DNA. 166 00:09:34.600 --> 00:09:38.639 Which is why when foreign mountaineers started arriving to attempt 167 00:09:38.639 --> 00:09:43.320 Everest in the nineteen twenties, the Sherpa became indispensable, not 168 00:09:43.440 --> 00:09:46.399 because anyone assigned them to that role, but because they 169 00:09:46.399 --> 00:09:49.279 were literally the only people on Earth who could physically 170 00:09:49.360 --> 00:09:54.000 do what high altitude guiding requires. Tenzing Norgay, one of 171 00:09:54.080 --> 00:09:57.480 the first two people to summit Everest, stood on the 172 00:09:57.519 --> 00:10:00.840 summit alongside Edmund Hillary in Night Tel teen fifty three, 173 00:10:01.240 --> 00:10:03.759 and he became one of the most famous humans alive. 174 00:10:04.360 --> 00:10:07.720 But he was also representative of something much larger than 175 00:10:07.759 --> 00:10:08.320 one summit. 176 00:10:08.840 --> 00:10:13.000 The SHRBA became the backbone of the entire Himalayan mountaineering industry. 177 00:10:13.320 --> 00:10:16.559 They fixed the ropes that every climber on Everest depends on. 178 00:10:17.039 --> 00:10:20.399 They stock the high camps, carrying oxygen tanks and food 179 00:10:20.519 --> 00:10:23.440 and fuel through the Kumba Ice Fall, one of the 180 00:10:23.440 --> 00:10:28.320 most dangerous stretches of terrain on Earth, multiple times per expedition. 181 00:10:28.759 --> 00:10:31.919 They make decisions and conditions where most clients literally cannot 182 00:10:31.960 --> 00:10:32.840 think straight. 183 00:10:33.320 --> 00:10:37.159 And that last point is worth pausing on. Research published 184 00:10:37.159 --> 00:10:41.159 in multiple peer reviewed journals has established that cognitive function 185 00:10:41.720 --> 00:10:45.559 begins to decline at altitudes as low as eighty two 186 00:10:45.679 --> 00:10:51.720 hundred feet. Memory, attention, processing, speed, judgment can all be 187 00:10:51.840 --> 00:10:56.159 measurebly effected. Above three thousand meters about nine thy eight 188 00:10:56.279 --> 00:11:00.000 hundred feet, the impairments are consistent and pretty well docked. 189 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:04.039 Documented Above seventeen thousand feet, where most of this story 190 00:11:04.080 --> 00:11:07.879 takes place, you're operating with a brain that is meaningfully 191 00:11:07.919 --> 00:11:10.519 slower and less reliable than it is at sea level. 192 00:11:10.960 --> 00:11:14.080 Your guide knows this. They've watched it happen hundreds of 193 00:11:14.159 --> 00:11:16.840 times to many many clients. They can see it in 194 00:11:16.840 --> 00:11:18.879 your face, they can hear it in your voice and 195 00:11:18.919 --> 00:11:20.720 they can track it in the way that you're walking, 196 00:11:21.159 --> 00:11:23.600 and you might feel fine or you might feel bad, 197 00:11:23.639 --> 00:11:26.720 but you don't know what normal feels like anymore. You 198 00:11:26.759 --> 00:11:29.720 have no baseline up there. You only have that person 199 00:11:29.799 --> 00:11:31.240 next to you telling you what's real. 200 00:11:31.720 --> 00:11:36.480 And that trust is not metaphorical, it's physiological. You hand 201 00:11:36.519 --> 00:11:38.600 it over whether you mean to or not. 202 00:11:39.120 --> 00:11:42.879 By the nineteen nineties, commercial guiding had transformed Everest into 203 00:11:42.879 --> 00:11:46.720 what National Geographic described as a mountain business. Climber's paying 204 00:11:46.799 --> 00:11:49.840 tens of thousands of dollars for guided access to the summit, 205 00:11:50.200 --> 00:11:53.159 with Sherpa teams providing the labor that made it possible. 206 00:11:53.600 --> 00:11:57.200 Hundreds of Sherpa families built their livelihoods on it. Schools 207 00:11:57.240 --> 00:12:01.759 were built, medical clinics opened villages. Depending on the income 208 00:12:01.759 --> 00:12:05.480 that flowed through the trekking and climbing industry, Nepal's tourism 209 00:12:05.519 --> 00:12:09.120 sector generates over seven hundred and fifty million dollars annually, 210 00:12:09.600 --> 00:12:11.960 and the mountains are the engine. 211 00:12:12.080 --> 00:12:16.399 The Kumbu ice fall alone, that grinding shifting maze of 212 00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:20.080 ice blocks and hidden crevasses between base camp and Camp 213 00:12:20.120 --> 00:12:23.120 one has claimed the lives of dozens of Sherpa guides. 214 00:12:23.200 --> 00:12:26.600 Over the decades, sixteen were killed in a single day. 215 00:12:26.879 --> 00:12:30.639 On April eighteenth, twenty fourteen, a siaq, one of those 216 00:12:30.720 --> 00:12:34.200 massive house sized blocks of glacial ice that form where 217 00:12:34.240 --> 00:12:38.000 deep cracks intersect as glacial flows down a steep slope, 218 00:12:38.159 --> 00:12:42.080 collapsed without warning above the ice fall that morning. National 219 00:12:42.120 --> 00:12:46.000 Geographic later measured it. The surface area of that single 220 00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:49.440 block of ice was roughly the size of an NBA 221 00:12:49.639 --> 00:12:54.159 basketball court, and it weighed and estimated thirty one point 222 00:12:54.240 --> 00:12:58.440 five million pounds when it fell. The shrip is below 223 00:12:58.559 --> 00:13:01.480 had no chance. They were on their third carry of 224 00:13:01.519 --> 00:13:05.159 the season, hauling gear for paying clients who were still 225 00:13:05.159 --> 00:13:08.759 asleep at base camp. The mountain doesn't distinguish between the 226 00:13:08.799 --> 00:13:10.759 person paying and the person guiding. 227 00:13:11.360 --> 00:13:14.360 And that is the world into which this fraud was introduced, 228 00:13:14.440 --> 00:13:18.799 a world of urn trust, generational sacrifice, and a power 229 00:13:18.840 --> 00:13:22.720 imbalance that runs in every direction at once. So who 230 00:13:22.759 --> 00:13:25.080 exactly is the person walking next to you and where 231 00:13:25.080 --> 00:13:27.159 do they come from? Because when you hand the trust 232 00:13:27.159 --> 00:13:29.840 over at fifteen thousand feet, it helps to know what 233 00:13:29.879 --> 00:13:31.039 you're actually handing it to. 234 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:35.240 Most trekking guides in the Kumbu come from the villages 235 00:13:35.320 --> 00:13:39.679 along the route itself, namche Bazaar, tang Boce fuck Ding. 236 00:13:40.440 --> 00:13:43.480 These are families who have lived at altitude for generations, 237 00:13:43.879 --> 00:13:48.360 people whose grandparents carried loads for early Himalayan expeditions, whose 238 00:13:48.399 --> 00:13:52.000 parents grew up watching foreign climbers pass through each spring. 239 00:13:52.799 --> 00:13:55.759 Guiding is not a job they fell into. For many, 240 00:13:56.000 --> 00:13:57.120 it's inherited work. 241 00:13:57.440 --> 00:14:00.519 To become a licensed trekking guide in apall Apart must 242 00:14:00.519 --> 00:14:04.120 complete a government approved training course typical four to six weeks. 243 00:14:04.600 --> 00:14:08.039 It runs through Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management 244 00:14:08.559 --> 00:14:12.960 known as NATHAN or the Nepal Mountain Academy. The curriculum 245 00:14:13.039 --> 00:14:17.840 covers mountain safety and wilderness, first aid, altitude sickness recognition 246 00:14:18.039 --> 00:14:24.679 and response, navigation, local flora and fauna, cultural history, and English, 247 00:14:25.240 --> 00:14:27.840 all of it before they've ever led a client up 248 00:14:27.840 --> 00:14:28.279 a trail. 249 00:14:29.200 --> 00:14:32.840 Before they even qualify for that training, most guides have 250 00:14:32.919 --> 00:14:35.639 spent at least two years working as a porter or 251 00:14:35.639 --> 00:14:40.480 an assistant guide, carrying loads, reading terrain, learning the signs 252 00:14:40.519 --> 00:14:43.799 of weather changes and altitude problems from people have been 253 00:14:43.799 --> 00:14:46.480 doing it for decades, and by the time a guide 254 00:14:46.559 --> 00:14:50.840 passes the licensing exam and receives their Nepal Tourism Board 255 00:14:50.879 --> 00:14:54.399 ID card. They typically have more hours on these specific 256 00:14:54.440 --> 00:14:57.960 trails than most Western mountaineers accumulate in a lifetime. 257 00:14:58.639 --> 00:15:02.679 They speak English when they speak French, German, Japanese or 258 00:15:02.720 --> 00:15:05.879 Spanish as well. Because the clients come from all over 259 00:15:05.919 --> 00:15:08.879 the world, they're trained to recognize the difference between a 260 00:15:08.919 --> 00:15:11.720 tourist who needs a rest a and a tourist who 261 00:15:11.799 --> 00:15:15.919 needs a hospital. That distinction made correctly is what keeps 262 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:16.720 people alive. 263 00:15:17.360 --> 00:15:20.519 And it's subtle too. It's not like you can just 264 00:15:20.799 --> 00:15:24.159 open a manual and you know, follow an algorithm to 265 00:15:24.159 --> 00:15:26.840 make a decision like that. It takes some experience, some 266 00:15:26.960 --> 00:15:31.159 background and training. A tricking guide earns roughly twenty five 267 00:15:31.320 --> 00:15:35.279 to forty dollars per day in base pay, including their 268 00:15:35.320 --> 00:15:40.360 own food, accommodation, and mandatory insurance on the trail. Tips 269 00:15:40.360 --> 00:15:43.919 are expected and they're culturally significant, but the base wage 270 00:15:43.960 --> 00:15:47.279 alone makes guiding one of the better paying jobs available 271 00:15:47.320 --> 00:15:50.279 and rule in Nepal. For a family in the Kumbu, 272 00:15:50.919 --> 00:15:53.559 a son or daughter with a guiding license is a 273 00:15:53.600 --> 00:15:56.559 source of real pride and real economic stability. 274 00:15:57.320 --> 00:15:59.759 And this is the person that you're trusting somebody who 275 00:15:59.799 --> 00:16:03.080 grew grew up on these trails, someone with formal training, 276 00:16:03.399 --> 00:16:07.080 a government license, years of field experience, and a family 277 00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:10.080 reputation built on the word of foreign clients who came 278 00:16:10.120 --> 00:16:13.240 home safely. The guides at the center of this fraud 279 00:16:13.320 --> 00:16:16.480 were a betrayal not just to their clients, but of 280 00:16:16.559 --> 00:16:21.279 every legitimate guide whose livelihood depends on that trust remaining intact. 281 00:16:21.799 --> 00:16:24.919 The story technically begins in twenty eighteen. That's when the 282 00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:30.279 Katmandu Post, Nepaul's oldest English language newspaper, first started digging 283 00:16:30.360 --> 00:16:33.320 into something that trekkers had been whispering about for years. 284 00:16:34.039 --> 00:16:39.120 AFP journalist Annabelle Symington followed the thread through trip advisor 285 00:16:39.200 --> 00:16:43.440 reviews and first hand accounts. What she found sounded at 286 00:16:43.480 --> 00:16:44.759 first almost impossible. 287 00:16:45.480 --> 00:16:50.399 Guides were pressuring trekkers to call in helicopter evacuations for 288 00:16:50.519 --> 00:16:52.559 symptoms that didn't require it. 289 00:16:53.360 --> 00:16:57.200 Here's how it worked. A treker develops a headache, some nausea, 290 00:16:57.440 --> 00:17:02.039 mild dizziness, all of which adultsitude is entirely normal. Your 291 00:17:02.080 --> 00:17:05.160 body is adjusting to thinner air, and acute mountain sickness 292 00:17:05.200 --> 00:17:09.920 or AMS is almost universal among people ascending quickly. Mild 293 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:13.440 AMS almost always resolves on its own with rust fluids 294 00:17:13.440 --> 00:17:16.039 and if needed, a descent a few hundred feet. 295 00:17:16.759 --> 00:17:20.279 In wilderness medicine training, we say don't go up until 296 00:17:20.319 --> 00:17:23.119 the signs and symptoms go down. When we're talking about 297 00:17:23.160 --> 00:17:27.599 mild AMS, which is very different from severe altitude illness 298 00:17:27.640 --> 00:17:31.319 like pulmonary edema or cerebral edema, they all have different 299 00:17:31.319 --> 00:17:35.160 sets of symptoms as well, So descent really isn't mandatory 300 00:17:35.319 --> 00:17:38.319 with AMS. Just kind of staying and hanging out where 301 00:17:38.359 --> 00:17:40.680 you are can resolve a lot of the symptoms if 302 00:17:40.720 --> 00:17:43.079 you give it a day or two. But instead of 303 00:17:43.119 --> 00:17:46.200 saying that, instead of handing the client and aspirin or 304 00:17:46.240 --> 00:17:49.000 telling them to drink water and get some sleep, the 305 00:17:49.039 --> 00:17:53.640 guide walks over looking grave. Your oxygen readings are dangerously low. 306 00:17:53.799 --> 00:17:56.519 The guide says, you need to get off this mountain. 307 00:17:56.920 --> 00:17:59.400 If we don't call a helicopter in the next few hours, 308 00:18:00.200 --> 00:18:01.759 not make it yet. 309 00:18:01.799 --> 00:18:04.160 If you have a trusted guide who has lots of 310 00:18:04.200 --> 00:18:06.480 experience and they're saying that to you, what do you 311 00:18:06.480 --> 00:18:09.039 think most people are going to do? The trekker doesn't 312 00:18:09.079 --> 00:18:12.400 know what oxygen readings are normally up there. They don't 313 00:18:12.440 --> 00:18:16.279 know what dangerous looks like versus uncomfortable, and they're scared 314 00:18:16.319 --> 00:18:19.559 and exhausted in thousands of miles from home. Their guide, 315 00:18:19.680 --> 00:18:22.039 the person who has kept them safe for two weeks, 316 00:18:22.519 --> 00:18:26.839 the person whose entire professional reputation is built on knowing 317 00:18:26.920 --> 00:18:29.839 these mountains, is telling them that they're in danger. So 318 00:18:29.880 --> 00:18:30.519 they say yes. 319 00:18:31.440 --> 00:18:34.279 And remember their brain isn't working the way it normally 320 00:18:34.319 --> 00:18:36.680 would at sea level or at lower altitudes, So there's 321 00:18:36.720 --> 00:18:40.200 probably an element of confusion and muddled thinking that plays 322 00:18:40.200 --> 00:18:43.240 into this as well. So next thing they know, the 323 00:18:43.279 --> 00:18:47.119 helicopter comes and the trucker gets to Catman Do, and 324 00:18:47.160 --> 00:18:50.440 the hospital runs scans and tests and writes a report, 325 00:18:50.720 --> 00:18:53.119 and the insurance company gets a bill. 326 00:19:00.079 --> 00:19:03.440 And here's where it becomes fraud because, according to Nepal's 327 00:19:03.440 --> 00:19:07.200 Central Investigation Bureau the CIB, a wing of the National 328 00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:10.400 Police that handles organized crimes, the people that were running 329 00:19:10.400 --> 00:19:13.680 this were not just calling unnecessary helicopters. They built this 330 00:19:13.960 --> 00:19:17.759 entire parallel billing structure on top of the real one. 331 00:19:17.839 --> 00:19:21.640 Four people sharing a single helicopter flight would be billed 332 00:19:21.680 --> 00:19:26.680 as four separate private evacuations. In one documented case in 333 00:19:26.720 --> 00:19:31.640 the cib's report, four tourists on one flight generated combined 334 00:19:31.759 --> 00:19:37.039 insurance claims of over forty three thousand dollars. Hospital staff 335 00:19:37.079 --> 00:19:42.599 wrote false medical reports. At least nine physicians told investigators 336 00:19:42.640 --> 00:19:46.799 their signatures appeared on documents that they never signed. One 337 00:19:46.880 --> 00:19:51.920 hospital's surveillance footage shows a foreign tourist documented as critically 338 00:19:51.960 --> 00:19:55.480 ill in the paperwork, drinking beer at a cafe owned 339 00:19:55.480 --> 00:19:56.519 by one of the doctors. 340 00:19:57.079 --> 00:20:00.359 The money flowed through a commission structure connecting the guides 341 00:20:00.400 --> 00:20:03.079 on the ground to the helicopter companies in the air, 342 00:20:03.480 --> 00:20:07.759 to the private hospitals in Katmandu. A physician at Shreedy 343 00:20:07.920 --> 00:20:13.160 International Hospital confirmed the arrangement during police interrogation. His hospital 344 00:20:13.200 --> 00:20:17.200 had paid millions of Nepalese rupees and commissions to Nepal 345 00:20:17.319 --> 00:20:22.440 charter Service and to trekking operations to refer clients. Everyone 346 00:20:22.519 --> 00:20:24.960 had a cut and everyone had an incentive. 347 00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:28.920 So this was not just a few rogue guides. This 348 00:20:29.079 --> 00:20:32.240 was a coordinated industry within an industry. 349 00:20:33.119 --> 00:20:36.079 Now, this is the part that made global headlines recently 350 00:20:36.519 --> 00:20:38.720 and where we need to be precise because there's a 351 00:20:38.759 --> 00:20:42.839 real distinction between what the investigation alleged and what it 352 00:20:42.960 --> 00:20:43.920 formally proved. 353 00:20:44.880 --> 00:20:48.880 The allegation detailed in the cib's charge sheet and first 354 00:20:48.920 --> 00:20:52.480 reported by the Katmandu Post, is that in some cases, 355 00:20:52.799 --> 00:20:56.559 guides didn't wait for clients to get naturally sick. They 356 00:20:56.599 --> 00:20:59.200 helped it, along with baking. 357 00:20:58.880 --> 00:21:03.559 Soda sodium bicarbonate, which they mixed into foods or drinks 358 00:21:03.640 --> 00:21:10.119 in large enough quantities to cause severe gastrointestinal distress. Vomiting diarrhea, 359 00:21:10.559 --> 00:21:15.039 cramping at fifteen thousand feet with no cell service and 360 00:21:15.240 --> 00:21:18.920 an alarmed guide standing over you. Those symptoms are nearly 361 00:21:19.039 --> 00:21:22.680 indistinguishable from altitude sickness. You have no way to know 362 00:21:22.720 --> 00:21:26.720 the difference. Your brain, remember, is not running at full capacity. 363 00:21:27.240 --> 00:21:30.200 You feel terrible, and you have no reference point for 364 00:21:30.279 --> 00:21:31.000 what that means. 365 00:21:31.920 --> 00:21:35.519 The IB Times UK reported that in at least one 366 00:21:35.599 --> 00:21:39.440 documented case, baking powder was added to a trekker's meal, 367 00:21:39.559 --> 00:21:44.079 which also causes severe gastro intestinal distress. So sometimes baking 368 00:21:44.160 --> 00:21:47.960 powder was used in both cases, leaving the victim with 369 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:51.920 no option but to agree to an emergency evacuation. Other 370 00:21:52.000 --> 00:21:54.920 methods were described in the charred sheet. Guides would push 371 00:21:55.000 --> 00:22:00.119 clients to ascend too fast, intentionally triggering genuine acute mountain sickness. Yes, 372 00:22:00.759 --> 00:22:05.319 they would push unnecessary medications that caused dehydration. They would 373 00:22:05.359 --> 00:22:08.559 describe a mild headache as a potentially fatal warning. 374 00:22:09.359 --> 00:22:11.240 And then there is a detail that made some of 375 00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:16.039 the more sensational headlines. The Independent, the British outlet, reported 376 00:22:16.039 --> 00:22:20.039 that among the methods allegedly used were uncooked chicken and 377 00:22:20.279 --> 00:22:24.519 rat droppings mixed into food. Both would cause severe gastro 378 00:22:24.599 --> 00:22:29.279 intestinal illness, with symptoms that at altitude look almost identical 379 00:22:29.359 --> 00:22:31.119 to acute mountain sickness. 380 00:22:31.559 --> 00:22:33.599 So we do have to be clear here about what 381 00:22:33.640 --> 00:22:36.440 we know and what we don't know. The rat droppings 382 00:22:36.519 --> 00:22:41.880 claim originates from the Independence reporting, which cited the CIB investigation, 383 00:22:42.680 --> 00:22:46.400 but Climbing Magazine obtained the actual seven hundred and forty 384 00:22:46.440 --> 00:22:50.400 eight page charred sheet and reviewed it in full. Their conclusion, 385 00:22:51.079 --> 00:22:55.880 the document contains extensive, well evidenced proof of insurance fraud. 386 00:22:56.559 --> 00:23:01.079 It contains no forensic evidence of food contamination. The CIB 387 00:23:01.319 --> 00:23:04.279 told Climbing directly, and later put it in a formal 388 00:23:04.319 --> 00:23:08.519 press release that the official investigation has not found evidence 389 00:23:08.599 --> 00:23:10.200 of poisoning of any kind. 390 00:23:10.960 --> 00:23:13.920 So where does that leave us? The baking soda allegation 391 00:23:14.079 --> 00:23:16.440 appears in the charge sheet or at least in one 392 00:23:16.480 --> 00:23:20.480 sided case. The rat droppings and uncooked chicken claim appears 393 00:23:20.480 --> 00:23:24.200 in the media reporting attributed to the investigation, but not 394 00:23:24.359 --> 00:23:27.920 in the charge sheet itself. As confirmed findings. The CIB 395 00:23:28.079 --> 00:23:31.519 has not substantiated them. They might be accurate, but they 396 00:23:31.599 --> 00:23:35.680 might be exaggerated. Eight years of investigation and seven hundred 397 00:23:35.680 --> 00:23:39.039 and forty eight pages of evidence later, what is proven 398 00:23:39.079 --> 00:23:42.000 beyond dispute is the paperwork fraud, and that alone was 399 00:23:42.039 --> 00:23:43.960 worth twenty million dollars. 400 00:23:44.640 --> 00:23:48.680 And in some cases the guides didn't even bother manufacturing illness. 401 00:23:49.000 --> 00:23:50.759