New Yorker Article Explores Role of Professional Alpinism in Everest Fracas

The June 3 New Yorker magazine has an article on the confrontation focussing on the professional status of Swiss mountaineer Ueli Steck.  Author Nick Paumgarten sees the idea of “Goretex imperialist, rich, arrogant European invaders of a sacred Sherpa ritual,” as a caricature of a more complex conflict. Paumgarten depicts a battle between the unromantic, slick professionalism of Steck, who he tracks through his training and his carefully maintained professional reputation in Switzerland, and commercial climbing, also a non-Nepali invention. Check it out both for its surprising insights into modern professional alpinism.