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Inside Nepal's Fake Rescue Racket

kathmandupost.com

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Re: Inside Nepal's Fake Rescue Racket

#101

Post by gilesvangruisen »

ghaff wrote: post #46
sonink wrote: post #39

> 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 i…

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.

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.

Re: Inside Nepal's Fake Rescue Racket

#102

Post by tim333 »

chimeracoder wrote: post #74
ghaff wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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.

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.

Re: Inside Nepal's Fake Rescue Racket

#103

Post by tim333 »

mikkupikku wrote: post #70
datadrivenangel wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

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.

Re: Inside Nepal's Fake Rescue Racket

#104

Post by tim333 »

adolph wrote: post #90

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…

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.

Re: Inside Nepal's Fake Rescue Racket

#105

Post by chimeracoder »

tim333 wrote: post #102
chimeracoder wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

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.

> 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.

Re: Inside Nepal's Fake Rescue Racket

#106

Post by stronglikedan »

WarmWash wrote: post #31
skilled wrote: post #10

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.

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.

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.

Re: Inside Nepal's Fake Rescue Racket

#108

Post by t0mas88 »

sonink wrote: post #39

> 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 i…

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.

Re: Inside Nepal's Fake Rescue Racket

#109

Post by kaudinya »

pRusya wrote: post #44

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.

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.

Re: Inside Nepal's Fake Rescue Racket

#110

Post by KaseKun »

tokai wrote: post #48
IAmBroom wrote: post #4

"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!!!".

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/

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

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