It has always been pay-to-win. Expensive “expedition style” ascents—where hired Sherpas shuttle oxygen bottles and other essential gear up to high elevation cam

It has always been pay-to-win. Expensive “expedition style” ascents—where hired Sherpas shuttle oxygen bottles and other essential gear up to high elevation camps, setting fixed ropes and ladders along the way—vastly outnumber “alpine style” ascents where climbers attempt to summit with no support using only gear they can carry themselves. The mountain has been flooded with rich people paying guides to get them to the top for decades. It’s obviously still a major challenge, but very much a well-monetized one.