Here is the Mount Everest south route on a busy day at twenty-nine thousand and twenty-nine feet, the top of the world. The many small black marks along the upper right edge of "Goddess Chomolungma", as the Sherpa porters call Her, are the climbers on that path. There appear to be ten climbers on the top of the summit pyramid and ten more climbers clotted near the Hillary Step.

   These numbers are typical of the monetization of the summit of Everest by large outfitters. The climbers are dangerously exhausted. They cannot pass others at the Hillary Step. They waste oxygenreserves while waiting for the slower climbers to clear before they can proceed to or from the summit. During the remainder of this rare good-weather day, another fifty or sixty climbers will attempt this steep and narrow footpath.
    Heavy traffic is one of many obstacles which killed three high-altitude guides and two of their clients in May of 1996 after they had obtained the summit too late in the day to descend to high camp before the frigid night and a snow storm claimed their lives.
     I've written a one-act, ten-scene, eight-character play about that day when greed on the mountain proved lethal.
     It is ready for a producer's serious consideration!


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