Published April 3, 2026 01:26PM<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
My 83-year-old father texted this to me the other day: I just <\/em>read the story about the fraud where Mount Everest guides made climbers sick with baking soda. Sounds really bad.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n My dad\u2019s text is, of course, related to the recent report alleging<\/a> that multiple trekking companies defrauded international insurance companies by calling in false reports, hiring helicopters for unnecessary rescues, and, gulp, <\/em>potentially even causing their clients to get sick. This story has generated headlines across the globe<\/a>, including plenty here in the USA. I agree with my father\u2014the whole thing sounds bad. Like, super-duper mega-ultra bad.<\/p>\n But the way that a growing number of U.S. media outlets has covered this story paints a picture in the minds of most Americans that is even worse.<\/p>\n We envision our intrepid Everest climber inching his way up the Hilary Step, pushing deep into the Death Zone toward the summit. Suddenly, he is overcome by gastrointestinal distress and collapses just shy of the top, all because some dastardly Sherpa spiked his morning goulash with the stuff your nephew used to make his science fair volcano erupt.<\/p>\n Yeah\u2014terrible stuff.<\/p>\n But, like all mainstream stories involving Mount Everest, there\u2019s a huge gap between reality, how U.S. media presents it to us, and then how these stories rattle around in our brains (sorry, Dad). We all remember the story this past October of the blizzard that, according to headlines, trapped 800 people on Mount Everest.\u00a0<\/em>Turns out none of these 800 people were anywhere near Mount Everest.<\/p>\n Thus, here is a helpful explainer for what\u2019s actually happening over in Nepal.<\/p>\n OK, so what type of wrongdoing is alleged by this report in Nepal?<\/strong><\/p>\n This roots of this story go way back to 2018. That year, a reporter named Annabel Symington with\u00a0Agence France-Presse<\/em> published a groundbreaking investigative story<\/a> about fraud within the country\u2019s trekking industry. These are companies that take tourists on guided hikes into the Himalayas, including on a trip to Everest Base Camp.<\/p>\n This industry supports a growing business of helicopter transports and helicopter ambulances, because a certain percentage of these hikers must be evacuated from areas that can only be reached by foot or air.<\/p>\n Symington showed that some of these tour operators and helicopter companies were successfully orchestrating an elaborate fraud scheme. Hikers get tired at high altitudes. Others get altitude sickness or diarrhea. Normally, the cure is to simply walk these people back down to lower elevations where they can rest and recover. But these operators convinced the tourists to call for a helicopter evacuation, because some international insurance companies cover the costs of these services.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not a big deal, just call for a helicopter rescue, your insurance company will pay for it<\/em> is my translation of the advice these trekking companies gave their stricken hikers.<\/p>\n Alleged in the reporting: the helicopter transport companies and even some private hospitals, would then charge these insurance companies exorbitant fees for the emergency services. Everyone involved\u2014the hiking company, the guide, the pilot, and even the hospital\u2014would allegedly receive a kickback from the payout. And as more insurance companies were forced to pay up, companies saw an opportunity for a quick buck. More of them convinced their hiking clients to call for a helicopter, even if they didn\u2019t really need one.<\/p>\n Symington herself posed as a hiking client and saw how engrained in the business this process had become. She also trekked up to Everest Base Camp and met a girl who was waiting for a helicopter rescue, even though she didn\u2019t really need one.<\/p>\n Symington\u2019s story, and reports by Nepali media<\/a>, led to a government inquiry, and later some reforms to the trekking industry. Nepal made a rule requiring trekking companies and helicopter rescue companies to the country\u2019s Tourist Search and Rescue Committee, as well as the Tourist Police and Department of Tourism.<\/p>\n Problem solved, right? Well, not exactly.<\/p>\n In 2025 the Nepal\u2019s Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) announced it was reopening an investigation<\/a> into allegations of fraud. Then, in January, the CIB arrested six people from the trekking and mountain rescue industries and charged them with continuing the fraud.<\/p>\n \u201cThe scam continued due to lax punitive action,\u201d Manoj Kumar KC, chief of the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB), told <\/a>The Kathmandu Post.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n The CIB released the details of its most recent investigation in March. And yes, in one of the instances cited in the document, someone allegedly added baking powder to a tourist\u2019s food to give them a tummy ache. That is the extent of the poisoning.<\/p>\n Now, the CIB is trying to prosecute 33 people involved in alleged scams.<\/p>\n So, like, how many instances of Fraud are there?<\/strong><\/p>\n According to the CIB, this thing was substantial. Between 2022 and 2025, investigators identified 171 cases of fake rescues, out of a total of 4,782 patients who were treated at hospitals implicated in the scheme. That\u2019s means about 3.5 percent of the cases they examined were fraudulent.<\/p>\n The CIB also examined helicopter flights from three transport companies implicated during this time and determined that of 317 of the 2,320 flights (13.6 percent) were fraudulent.<\/p>\n In one case, four hikers were \u201crescued\u201d on the same helicopter flight. But the company billed the insurance companies for four individual flights, totaling $31,000. A private flight from Lukla to Kathmandu normally costs $2,500.<\/p>\n