[HN Gopher] Inside Nepal's Fake Rescue Racket
___________________________________________________________________
Inside Nepal's Fake Rescue Racket
Author : lode
Score : 240 points
Date : 2026-04-02 11:40 UTC (11 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (kathmandupost.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (kathmandupost.com)
| tomaskafka wrote:
| "Wasn't the system supposed to be fixed?"
|
| Why would it be fixed? Insurance companies aren't willing to
| invest in oversight, and everyone else profit, there is no
| incentive for changing the system.
| bombcar wrote:
| If the cost to an individual insurance company is low enough
| (in the few millions) and they're not really at risk of it
| suddenly exploding, and the cost for them to mitigate is also
| in the millions (or risks killing a customer), they're unlikely
| to improve. Fight Club, but the other way around.
|
| However, if they all gang up together they might do something -
| but that can cause other issues (a local insurer becomes the
| _only_ insurance available, etc).
| datadrivenangel wrote:
| Nepal is a low income and high corruption country, where the
| government and formal business structures are unstable enough
| that 'tipping' becomes common even for government
| investigators...
|
| It's basically a way for everyone to get more tourists dollars,
| which is one of Nepals primary exports.
| expedition32 wrote:
| Scamming bored rich people is one of the more victimless
| crimes.
| guzfip wrote:
| Idk they gave SBF 25 years for it.
| tt24 wrote:
| How can it possibly be defined as victimless
| umanwizard wrote:
| In my experience people use "victimless" to mean "the
| victims are people I lack sympathy for".
| mikkupikku wrote:
| Why don't they just charge [more] for a mountain license? A
| few thousand per hiker would probably be tolerated by people
| who view the hike as a lifetime achievement kind of thing.
| tim333 wrote:
| They do charge quite a lot for mountain climbing permits
| but trekking is mostly just walking from village to village
| along the usual paths the locals use.
| linkjuice4all wrote:
| Just include helicopter rides in the ticket. These aren't
| adventures anymore - just "natural" theme parks for monied
| elites that need talking points and social media posts flexing
| their wealth. Does Six Flags charge your insurance for security
| to drive you back to your car?
| IAmBroom wrote:
| "In at least one case cited in the investigation, baking powder
| was mixed into food to make tourists physically unwell."
|
| The only ill effect I can find from overconsumption is a "tingly
| sensation on the tongue". Of course, that doesn't mean the
| 'poisoner' wasn't ignorant of this, and genuinely did it trying
| to make them sick. Or maybe they simply said, "If you feel your
| tongue tingling, YOU ARE DYING!!!".
| MontagFTB wrote:
| Could it be a symptom of high altitude oxygen deprivation?
| datadrivenangel wrote:
| Yes, which is why it's easy to then convince people to
| evacuate. People do die on Everest, including EBC treks from
| altitude sickness alone, so severe symptoms usually lead to
| taking the trekking back down the mountain.
| ambicapter wrote:
| I feel like "make physically unwell" here just means they'll
| taste something gross, not realize it is the baking powder, and
| treat the feeling as if something is wrong with their body. I
| know mixing up baking soda and baking powder has made for some
| pretty unpleasant tasting food for me.
| ceejayoz wrote:
| It's a leavener when you get it wet, so swallowing enough will
| definitely feel like digestive upset from all the gas.
| tokai wrote:
| Baking powder is used by some athletes as it is shown to
| enhance performance.[0] I find it more realistic that they are
| adding it for that effect than making anyone unwell. As its not
| really something that makes you ill.
|
| [0] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8427947/
| KaseKun wrote:
| I saw a good yt video on this the other day, investigating
| baking soda and athletics. https://youtu.be/Y_aTfQmqc5o
|
| The creator certainly got pretty crook from ingesting baking
| soda
| skilled wrote:
| I did the Everest base camp trek in late 2015, at that time it
| was quite common (saw it myself and heard about it) that people
| would do the trek up but to get down they would fake a leg/back
| injury or blame altitude sickness and the chopper from Kathmandu
| would come pick you up, as long as you had the right insurance.
| bombcar wrote:
| I wonder how much a chopper ride would cost at "reasonable
| rates" (e.g, not the air ambulance but just a chopper).
| doikor wrote:
| Per person around $1500. Over 10k of you can't fill the
| chopper.
| paxys wrote:
| I'm assuming less than the average ambulance ride in the USA
| throwway120385 wrote:
| From personal experience it's about twice the cost of an
| ambulance ride from my house to the hospital. Air
| ambulances here are about 10 times as much.
| bombcar wrote:
| Having something scheduled is cheaper than on-demand,
| too. You may even end up using the same equipment, but at
| a lower priority (it costs $200 or so to have an
| ambulance sit at your event, for example).
| hermitcrab wrote:
| Yes, but it might be in some ancient Russian helicopter of
| unknown provenance.
| MikeNotThePope wrote:
| I can tell you exactly what it cost for me. I took the
| helicopter from Gorakshep, the highest/last town on the EBC
| trek, to Lukla, the crazy airport people call the most
| dangerous one in the world. For me, a 255 lbs / 115kg guy, 2
| Nepalis that are each half my size, a pilot, and our not-
| that-heavy hiking gear was 2000 USD in October of 2024.
|
| Pics/video: https://www.instagram.com/p/DBTpLGtydZW/
| AndrewKemendo wrote:
| Nothing beats good quality, freshly sourced, all natural
| ground truth data
| ddlatham wrote:
| probably mean 255 lb / 115kg
| MikeNotThePope wrote:
| Yes, thanks for noticing. I fixed.
| WarmWash wrote:
| Surely the insurers would quickly become aware of this, I mean,
| there are people whose job it is to monitor all claims and
| adjust prices accordingly.
|
| So while it might feel like the insurers were getting fleeced,
| it was almost certainly the insured who didn't get the copter
| ride.
| bell-cot wrote:
| Not an insurance underwriter - but wouldn't the obvious
| counter-move be to exclude coverage for medical
| assistance/transportation when you're climbing mountains
| overseas, spelunking, within X miles of the north or south
| pole, traveling in a submarine, or have otherwise ventured
| into "high-dollar extraction" territory?
| trillic wrote:
| Priced into the premium. It's not your run of the mill
| health insurance.
| ghaff wrote:
| When I actually climbed one of the 6K meter peaks I had
| to get some special alpine insurance. Don't remember the
| details. Was a long time ago.
| advisedwang wrote:
| Extreme activities are excluded from standard travel
| insurance packages. This is happening with insurance
| specifically for these activities.
| fwipsy wrote:
| The obvious counter move is just to charge higher premiums.
| It works whether the crises are real or fabricated. The
| real losers are not the insurance companies, but other
| tourists overpaying on their premiums.
| Ectiseethe wrote:
| I went to Nepal two years ago. The standard insurance of my
| Mastercard Gold specifically excluded medical
| assistance/transportation for acute altitude sickness from
| the coverage (and rescue operators are reluctant to
| intervene without proof of proper insurance coverage).
|
| As a precaution (having read about it on forums) I had
| taken an additional insurance from a French shop
| specialized in hiking and mountaineering (le Vieux Campeur)
| to cover more events.
|
| Good thing I did because I ended up having to be evacuated
| for something that was initially considered as acute
| altitude sickness and turned out to be a lot more life
| threatening once in the hospital.
| razakel wrote:
| Normal travel insurance doesn't cover high-risk activities
| like mountaineering. You have to buy a specialist policy.
| jltsiren wrote:
| In my experience, it's only the cheap insurance policies
| bundled with credit cards and various memberships that
| consider high-altitude hiking a high-risk activity. Any
| travel insurance you buy as individual should cover it. If
| there is an altitude limit, it's usually 6000 m, so Everest
| Base Camp and Kilimanjaro would be covered but Aconcagua
| wouldn't. And any actual mountaineering would also be high-
| risk, regardless of altitude.
| stronglikedan wrote:
| The people doing that could probably afford the copter ride
| outright, so they can afford the "right" insurance that
| wouldn't ask any questions. The uber-wealthy live under a
| completely different system than the average schmuck like me.
| MikeNotThePope wrote:
| To be honest I'm surprised insurance is offered at all. I did the
| EBC trek a couple years ago. The temptation to take a helicopter
| down was real & I didn't have insurance.
| datadrivenangel wrote:
| Rescue insurance was required by the trekking company when I
| did EBC a few years back.
| givemeethekeys wrote:
| Sounds pretty bad until you look at the numbers.
| RajT88 wrote:
| And then it looks very bad?
|
| The amount of each incident is fairly low, and probably goes a
| long way to funding the local community.
|
| But the number of incidents is nuts - well over 1000 per year.
| givemeethekeys wrote:
| "Around 100,000 people hike to Everest Base Camp every year"
|
| I have no idea how many of those people have to buy
| insurance.
|
| Source: https://everestcamptrek.com/how-many-people-hike-to-
| everest-...
| miltonlost wrote:
| Stop pointlessly climbing mountains and ruining the natural
| environment. Climbing Mt Everest at this point is just a sign of
| conspicuous consumption and not any achievement other than
| financial. Would have been better to spend your money lighting it
| on fire.
| datadrivenangel wrote:
| This is mostly trekking related evacuation, which is far easy
| and lower impact. EBC is about 100x cheaper overall per person
| than summit attempts, if not 500x.
|
| And Sagarmartha national park and the whole valley up to EBC is
| an amazingly beautiful part of the world.
| jopython wrote:
| The "Everest Economy" is worth around $500 million annually.
| tokai wrote:
| Thats surprisingly low.
| simojo wrote:
| to be fair, the approach is usually covered in snowpack for
| most of the year, so impact is minimal by foot traffic.
| However, most of the protection is fixed, which could have
| lasting effects if something were to rip out.
|
| For other mountains with dry summits in the summers, I would
| agree: the effects of erosion are frightening
| throwway120385 wrote:
| Do people still leave oxygen bottles up there? And what do
| they do with all of their excrement?
|
| The saying is that the snowpack gives back everything you put
| in it.
| rdtsc wrote:
| > But none of that worked "The scam continued due to lax punitive
| action,"
|
| It percolated up. It's usually what happens with corruption. If
| lower levels are found out to have a lucrative scheme, the higher
| ups (auditors, police, legislators) make a big fuss about
| stumping it publicly, but behind the scenes go and ask for a cut.
| delichon wrote:
| > But guides and hotel staff ... tell them they are at risk of
| dying, that only immediate evacuation will save them.
|
| I got Acute Mountain Sickness at just 11k feet. Headache, nausea,
| dizziness, fatigue. I passed out until hitting the ground woke me
| up. I was very disoriented and vulnerable. If someone had told me
| that I had to get to a hospital or I'd die they could have led me
| like a tame goat. And they could be right. If you have high-
| altitude cerebral or pulmonary edema it is life threatening.
|
| A guide getting a kickback can make it a lot more likely just by
| cutting short the boring acclimatization time.
| meroes wrote:
| Ya that was a very serious situation for you. I knew when my
| dad was barely able to stand but insisted we hike the 1000ft
| back up to then get back down it was also serious. But when we
| got home I read how deadly altitude sickness is.
| badgersnake wrote:
| Unnecessary CT scans mean unnecessary radiation exposure. This is
| a direct harm to the "patient".
| DiggyJohnson wrote:
| Seems minimal though in the grand scheme of things
| psadri wrote:
| I did the EBC trek last year and at ~4400 meters, we heard about
| a local Nepalese woman dying from complications of AMS in the
| local clinic. There might be fishy things going on with the
| rescues, but the health risks are real.
| sonink wrote:
| > The second method is more troubling. At altitudes above 3,000
| metres, mild symptoms of altitude sickness are common. Blood
| oxygen saturation can drop, hands and feet tingle, headaches
| develop. In most cases, rest, hydration or a gradual descent is
| all that is needed. ...investigators found that Diamox
| (Acetazolamide) tablets, used to prevent altitude sickness, were
| administered alongside excessive water intake to induce the very
| symptoms that would justify a rescue call.
|
| This doesnt sound accurate. I have trekked the Himalayas for over
| a decade - the risks of AMS are very real. Two people I have
| trekked with have died due to AMS on separate himalayan treks -
| both had trekked multiple times before, and were well aware of
| the risks. Both the fatalities were around 12000-14000 feet -
| much below the Everest Base Camp trek. When AMS hits, you need to
| descend - as fast as possible, with whatever means you have at
| your disposal. Otherwise you have unknowingly entered a Russian
| Roulette.
|
| And Diamox is used as a preventative course for AMS - alongside
| excessive water intake - this is standard guidelines in all high
| altitude himalayan treks.
| ghaff wrote:
| Namche (damn autocorrect) Bazaar which everyone in the Everest
| region passes through is a bit over 11K feet. 12-15K feet just
| isn't that high in the scheme of things. Many peaks in the
| western US are in that range or more. Yes, minor headaches are
| pretty normal when acclimatizing. But anything more, you need
| to go down.
| shadow28 wrote:
| > 12-15K feet just isn't that high in the scheme of things.
| Many peaks in the western US are in that range or more.
|
| The highest peak in the contiguous United States is Mt.
| Whitney at ~14.5k feet
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| I went from sea level to 11k feet in the same day many
| times before. I would say the altitude effect is there but
| not as much as you might expect. A little quicker to be out
| of breath a little longer to recover it. Not sure what it
| is like at higher elevations or greater daily altitude
| delta.
| prasadjoglekar wrote:
| Very much dependent on age, rest and general
| conditioning. I went from sea level to 14K at Pikes peak
| in 1 day and it was quite uncomfortable. I managed, but
| folks who lived in Denver with lower physical fitness
| levels than me, did better.
| linsomniac wrote:
| Agreed, we live at ~5K and went up to Pikes Peak; my wife
| and I had no problems (beyond minor headache), but my
| son's lips were turning blue and he was feeling pretty
| bad.
|
| Other amusing things from that trip: we went up there the
| 3rd of July, and it snowed. We charged the car in
| Colorado Springs before we left, got up to the peak with
| 36% battery remaining. My wife worried we wouldn't be
| able to make it back. Got back to CS with ~70% battery
| left.
| quickthrowman wrote:
| I went from ~500 ft above sea level (Palm Springs) up to
| 8,500 feet above sea level (San Jacinto Peak) in less
| than an hour via the aeria tram a couple months ago and
| it was very noticeable, my walking speed fell by a third
| and I was breathing a lot harder than I usually do.
| nonameiguess wrote:
| I guess fitness makes a difference from what these other
| comments are saying. My ex-wife and I lived in Long Beach
| (which is obviously sea level) when we were in ROTC and
| pretty regularly took day trips out to San Gogornio and
| walked to the summit in about five hours, which is
| ~11,500ft. Not once did that have any noticeable effect,
| but we were both pretty serious runners back in the day
| trying to become Army officers. On the other hand, she
| tried to summit Aconcagua during a spring break and
| couldn't make it due to altitude sickness. I've never
| been higher than Mt. Whitney, personally.
|
| Even if you don't feel it, the altitude still makes a
| difference, though. I recall doing two-a-day hell weeks
| at Big Bear at the end of summer cross-country training
| in high school and there was a 5k up there at the end of
| that week. We all got worse times than typical at sea
| level, and somewhat amusingly, I recall a high school
| senior from Rim of the World High School (who lived up
| there) getting 2nd place overall the first year I ever
| competed in that race, beating way more seasoned
| competitors just because he was used to the altitude.
|
| It works in reverse, too. There was an officer in my
| Armor Basic Officer Course from Colorado who gave himself
| rhabdo during the two-mile test the first week we in-
| processed, apparently because he was so used to altitude
| that he hadn't quite acclimated to Fort Knox atmosphere.
| hermitcrab wrote:
| >I guess fitness makes a difference
|
| Not really. Altitude sickness seems quite random in who
| it effects worst. I trekked to the top of Mera Peak
| (~21,000 ft) many years ago. 3 of the fittest people in
| our party got altitude sickness and didn't make it to the
| peak.
| jltsiren wrote:
| If anything, fitness makes you more susceptible to
| altitude sickness. It's not an inherent effect, but
| rather your habits driving you to do things you
| shouldn't. You are supposed to take things lazy and slow
| when acclimatizing to high altitude. But if you're fit,
| you may be used to moving too fast and pushing yourself
| too hard. You may not recover from exertion as quickly as
| you expect, and you may end up climbing higher every day
| than you should.
|
| Altitude sickness typically starts after 12-24 hours. If
| you climb high and come back down in the same day, there
| is usually not enough time for the symptoms to start. And
| 11,500ft is not that high altitude. People routinely fly
| to Cuzco, La Paz, Lhasa, and Leh from sea level, and most
| of them suffer no serious ill effects.
| tristor wrote:
| I think you mean continental United States, as Alaska and
| Hawaii are excluded, where-as Alaska is contiguous with the
| United States, but requires crossing through parts of
| Canada to reach by land. That said, yes Whitney is the
| highest in the continental US, and McKinley in Alaska is
| the highest in the US (and contiguous US) and is also the
| tallest in the world from base to peak and the third most
| prominent peak in the world.
| shadow28 wrote:
| It's exactly the other way around actually, continental
| US would include Alaska since it's still on the North
| American continent whereas contiguous US excludes both
| Hawaii and Alaska. Contiguous US refers to the lower 48
| states.
| coldtea wrote:
| Continental "could" include Alaska (it's even in the
| official U.S. Board on Geographic Names definition), but
| in practice when "continental US" are casually mentioned,
| it's rarely implied as included. Most use it as
| interchangeable with contiguous.
| cwmoore wrote:
| Contiguous states is the correct term.
|
| "Continental" would be in Europe.
| coldtea wrote:
| > _where-as Alaska is contiguous with the United States,
| but requires crossing through parts of Canada to reach by
| land._
|
| Contiguous means the 48 connected (contiguous) states. It
| never includes Alaska.
|
| And even though definitionally/officially continental
| could include it (it's in the same continent), in common
| use "continental US" is not meant to include Alaska
| either.
| umanwizard wrote:
| That's like saying the US is contiguous with Japan, you
| just have to cross through parts of the Pacific Ocean to
| get there. Contiguous precisely means you don't have to
| cross anything else to get there, it is connected.
| kortilla wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_highest_major_sum
| m...
|
| Many peaks in the western US are in that range. Lots more
| with several exceeding if you include Alaska in "the
| western US".
| IncreasePosts wrote:
| There are 50+ peaks in Colorado higher than 14,000 ft and
| 1000+ higher than 12000 ft
| 698969 wrote:
| *Naamche Bazaar
| chimeracoder wrote:
| > 12-15K feet just isn't that high in the scheme of things.
| Many peaks in the western US are in that range or more.
|
| It's "not that high", but people frequently do get AMS at
| those attitudes or even lower.
| ghaff wrote:
| I can't provide cites but I understand people have had
| issues flying into Denver.
| tim333 wrote:
| There's a big difference between doing a day trip to those
| altitudes which is normally ok, and sleeping that high
| which causes problems if not acclimatised.
| chimeracoder wrote:
| > There's a big difference between doing a day trip to
| those altitudes which is normally ok, and sleeping that
| high which causes problems if not acclimatised.
|
| I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. People
| regularly experience AMS at the heights far below what OP
| mentioned, whether on the day they arrive or on days 2-4,
| and that's not even accounting for strenuous physical
| activity.
| gilesvangruisen wrote:
| I've been to Nepal a few times and started feeling AMS
| symptoms about 1-2 hours after arriving at our lodge in
| Namche. Diamox kept me going great for the nxt few days on
| our way to Tengboche where we maxed out about 13k feet,
| besides the heli flight back to Lukla. Similar symptoms even
| at a ski resort at 9k feet in the US. It's "not that high"
| but plenty high to induce AMS.
| embedding-shape wrote:
| The very next sentence from that quote sounds a lot worse and
| harder to explain away though:
|
| > In at least one case cited in the investigation, baking
| powder was mixed into food to make tourists physically unwell.
| 698969 wrote:
| In Nepal, my parents always warned me before eating at some
| rest stops because they said the food was doctored with
| baking soda to make you feel fuller, guess it was true after
| all and not just an urban legend heh.
| ihaveajob wrote:
| I've heard the same from South Indian friends, so I guess
| it's pretty widespread.
| valarauko wrote:
| I've sometimes used baking soda to accelerate softening of
| beans, and I imagine the effect is more appreciable at
| higher altitudes perhaps? Some of the usage of baking soda
| could be innocent enough.
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| Try using it on meat. Turns it into pink slurry.
| papercrane wrote:
| You're using too much! Its commonly used to improve meat
| texture, especially in Chinese cuisine. It's called
| "velveting".
| torhorway wrote:
| you're thinking of corn starch
| Hikikomori wrote:
| Both are used, for different reasons, but it's a pretty
| loose term. Can also use enzymes or other alkaline
| things. With or without a marinade. Pass through oil or
| water, or just stir fry with a little extra oil.
| MengerSponge wrote:
| No reasonable person would be confused by use of baking
| soda as an ingredient in cooked food (reasonable) vs the
| addition of baking soda after cooking as an adulterant.
| SketchySeaBeast wrote:
| Did we discover a new diet hack?
| scorpionfeet wrote:
| A few thousand years ago:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixtamalization
| scorpionfeet wrote:
| Alkalinity softens the husk of legumes. Look up
| nixtamalization. It's what the Aztecs invented.
| scorpionfeet wrote:
| Totally an urban legend. What do people think Alia seltzer
| is made from? You know the thing you take to feel better
| after eating too much?
| streetfighter64 wrote:
| "You" don't take antacid after eating unless "you" have
| problems with your stomach acid or something.
| Neutralizing your stomach acid isn't generally a smart
| thing to do, because it's acidic for a reason (digesting
| food). Some people even recommend not drinking to much
| water with your meals because it dilutes your stomach
| acid, though that might be overly cautious. Whether
| adding baking soda to food makes you feel fuller I
| wouldn't know, but it certainly won't make you "feel
| better", unless you have some medical condition.
| EA-3167 wrote:
| An amount of soda sufficient to make you ill would be very
| VERY detectable in food. Speaking as someone who makes their
| own honeycomb toffee and soda bread, it's really easy to mess
| up the ratios and end up with an excess that tastes nasty,
| and that excess is pretty small.
|
| A small amount won't make a different, it'll just stimulate a
| bit more H+ production from your stomach's proton pumps.
|
| Edit: The article I read claims the scam involved baking
| _powder_ , which makes even less sense given that it's even
| more noticeable, bitter and metallic.
| t0mas88 wrote:
| Were there other issues involved in the fatalities around
| 12-14k ft? Freezing etc?
|
| In aviation rules you can have passengers at 12k ft without
| oxygen for an unlimited amount of time. The crew needs to use
| oxygen if you're between 10k and 13k for more than 30 minutes.
| Above 13k both crew and passengers must use oxygen immediately
| (EASA rules, FAA is different).
|
| So they seem to consider 12k to not be dangerous to passengers.
| simplyluke wrote:
| Speaking from experience in the mountains: 12k at rest and
| 12k under subsequent days of exercise produce very different
| responses. What might be a mild headache sitting in the back
| of a plane could be a pretty distinct AMS case lugging a pack
| up and down mountains.
| pRusya wrote:
| A story older than Nepal (misleading tourists). And an article
| from 6 months ago shows how the govt treats its own people with
| more examples in HN discussion.
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45166972
|
| What is less discussed is what happened to people who were able
| to identify the scam and refused to let it happen.
| kaudinya wrote:
| Since then, the govt has been overthrown by a Gen Z protest. An
| interim govt led the national elections and a young party led
| by young leaders have won 2/3 majority in the parliament.
|
| The new parliament is a radical departure in many ways. Its
| very hollywoodish if you happen to read the development.
| alsetmusic wrote:
| Holy crap, why are they using anything more than pine for
| something of such high stakes?
| tristor wrote:
| As someone who has done quite a few 14ers in Colorado, many of
| which I wasn't in the greatest shape for, most people do not get
| AMS especially below 12k, and therefore the numbers in this
| article definitely do look like somebody somewhere is faking it
| or being defrauded. Much of the time you just need to hydrate
| better if you're going up in elevation above 10k and you'll be
| fine.
| justonceokay wrote:
| Pro-tip: if you propose to your wife at 13000 feet, don't
| actually have her put the ring on. Her fingers may swell
| causing her to panic about circulation and you'll have to run
| down the mountain and to this day she will not think it is as
| funny as you
| tristor wrote:
| It makes a good story to share with new friends in the future
| though. I've got one of those too, heh. I proposed to my now-
| wife on the bow of a sailboat at sunset on a local lake,
| overlooking the water. Should have been an amazing moment,
| except I didn't know until that trip that my now-wife gets
| seasick/motion sickness. Luckily it did not ruin things, but
| we've never been on a boat together since except for a ferry
| crossing between Tallinn and Helsinki once.
| dtsykunov wrote:
| Are we supposed to feel bad for insurance companies here?
| ferfumarma wrote:
| Why is hiking the tallest mountain in the world not an insurance
| carve out
|
| Make coverage void in the Himalayas... problem solved
| decimalenough wrote:
| As the name suggests, Everest Base Camp is just the starting
| point of the actual climb.
| adolph wrote:
| It is a surprise to me that anyone summiting has access to
| insurance at all. I suppose that if the fraud rate is as low as
| 3.5% and insurance is contracted specifically for the trip, then
| a rational payor will raise rates and carry on.
|
| On the whole, there is finite capacity of certain assets, like
| helicopters. If the emergency carrying capacity is X and true
| emergencies are .6 X then there is spoiled capacity of .4 X, in
| which fraudulent emergencies are placed, keeping everyone in the
| system whole so that when true emergencies approach .9 X there is
| no need for fraud. This follows the "optimal amount of fraud is
| non-zero" and eliminating this fraud might remove the margin
| needed for the system to exist at all. An
| anecdote tells of the British government's bounty on dead Indian
| cobras giving locals the perverse incentive to start
| breeding the snakes, to be able to kill more of them and
| collect more bounty
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perverse_incentive
| tim333 wrote:
| The people in the article are just trekking around the valleys,
| not going for the summit. I did a summit attempt a while back
| and didn't bother with insurance because here wasn't much they
| could do - helicopters didn't go that high and getting some
| sherpers to carry you down would be better achieved with cash.
| phyzome wrote:
| Misread this as "fake rescue _rocket_ " and it took a bit before
| I realized that.
| pkoiralap wrote:
| While it is true that guides and business owners are always
| looking for opportunities to earn extra cash, the reporting is a
| tiny bit off here.
|
| Start of AMS like symptoms can easily be mistaken for walking
| fatigue and dehydration. It is easier to identify if you are at
| rest, but during the trek that is seldom the case. So when you
| actually start realizing something is wrong, you already are at
| an elevated risk. The only thing that works in these cases is to
| descend and as fast as possible at that.
|
| Considering the fact that AMS will absolutely and a 100% kill you
| if you play around with it, guides presenting trekkers with an
| option of helicopter rescue is not that bad, at least if you look
| at the worst that can happen.
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