Well, yes, I think it can be said of any tourist attraction if the attraction is something as dangerous as this to the locals. But, luckily, most tourist attractions are not as dangerous so it’s unnecessary to draw a picture of a slippery slope based off it.

But I don’t think it’s unfair to paint them as going on an “unnecessary journey”, especially if they’re dragging along local people who are too poor to have other options for work and may die on said journey. There are plenty of hikes and other things throughout the world that will not involve other people dying for them. Again, if they want to hike Everest because they are tired of their neighborhood trails, then I am all for them going on their life adventure alone or with their friends and family. I couldn’t care less. And these are not scientific or exploratory expeditions. Nothing is gained by society nor even by the individual by completing this—other than their own personal ambition or potential increase of wealth related to some althetic records or whatever, which is not worth other people potentially dying over. They may not be rich snobs to us, but relatively speaking they are rich snobs to those locals. This is exactly rich snob behavior at its purest.