By John Chalmers and Gopal Sharma KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Blogging from Everest base camp after 16 sherpas were killed by an avalanche, American climber Ed Marzec lamented: “I am shamed by our greed and embarrassed by our lack of compassion.” Expressions of sympathy and regret were not enough, however, for the Nepali guides who take breathtaking risks to help Western clients scale the slopes of Everest and realize the ultimate conquest. There was fury among the roughly 400 sherpas at base camp after the April 18 accident on the perilous Khumbu icefall, the single deadliest disaster on the world’s highest mountain. At the top of the Everest supply chain are “clients” from around the globe who pay tens of thousands of dollars to Western mountaineering firms. Then there are Nepali middlemen and the government who take a cut, shoestring local agents, and finally the guides, who can earn as little as $1,000 a season.
