The multi-hyphenate Coloradan Alan Arnette, climber-coach-public speaker-blogger-author, provided an update on the state of climbing in the Everest region to the Rocky Mt. chapter, held appropriately enough, at a Boulder Nepali restaurant on April 29, 2022,
Arnette, who runs the alanarnette.com blog which covers the annual Everest season each spring, climbed the Seven Summits in one year to raise funds for Alzheimer’s research; became the oldest American to summit K2 on his 58th birthday (2014); attempted Denali three times; and summited all of Colorado’s 58 fourteeners, yet never previously climbed until he was 38 years-old.
Alan, a native of Memphis currently residing in Ft. Collins, Colorado, uses his mountaineering passion as part of his life’s purpose as an Alzheimer’s Advocate. As Alan saw his mom, Ida, go through the Alzheimer’s journey, he said it took her life and changed him forever. So after a 30-year career in management roles with Hewlett-Packard, he took early retirement in 2007 to oversee the care of Ida, and his life purpose became serving as an Alzheimer’s Advocate.
By his estimation, since 1953, Everest has been summited 10,656 times by about 5,350 individuals, versus just 400 summits of K2, a significantly tougher mountain to ascend.
During his talk he reported that as of April 2022, Nepal had issued 632 climbing permits, which infuses an estimated $3.8 million in cash into the Nepali community. The biggest issue, as he sees it is “inexperienced climbers hiring unqualified guides.” Rules have been instated by the Nepali government to regulate climbing, but are rarely enforced. On the plus side, there are more female climbers, “which is terrific for the sport.”
He told chapter members and guests, “You don’t pay for the right to climb Everest, instead you train to earn that right.”
Learn more about his work at alanarnette.com