Inside Nepal's Fake Rescue Racket

https://kathmandupost.com/money/2026/03/27/inside-nepal-s-fake-rescue-racket

by lode • 4 months ago

307 128 4 months ago

tomaskafka• 4 months ago

“Wasn’t the system supposed to be fixed?“

Why would it be fixed? Insurance companies aren’t willing to invest in oversight, and everyone else profit, there is no incentive for changing the system.

bombcar3• 4 months ago

If the cost to an individual insurance company is low enough (in the few millions) and they're not really at risk of it suddenly exploding, and the cost for them to mitigate is also in the millions (or risks killing a customer), they're unlikely to improve. Fight Club, but the other way around.

However, if they all gang up together they might do something - but that can cause other issues (a local insurer becomes the only insurance available, etc).

datadrivenangel4• 4 months ago

Nepal is a low income and high corruption country, where the government and formal business structures are unstable enough that 'tipping' becomes common even for government investigators...

It's basically a way for everyone to get more tourists dollars, which is one of Nepals primary exports.

expedition32• 4 months ago

Scamming bored rich people is one of the more victimless crimes.

mikkupikku• 4 months ago

Why don't they just charge [more] for a mountain license? A few thousand per hiker would probably be tolerated by people who view the hike as a lifetime achievement kind of thing.

shellfishgene• 4 months ago

My travel health insurance lately warns of Egyptian hospitals and doctors trying to charge absurd amounts for simple procedures for tourists, and pressuring them to pay, arguing they can get it back from their insurance. Similar story.

linkjuice4all• 4 months ago

Just include helicopter rides in the ticket. These aren't adventures anymore - just "natural" theme parks for monied elites that need talking points and social media posts flexing their wealth. Does Six Flags charge your insurance for security to drive you back to your car?

IAmBroom• 4 months ago

"In at least one case cited in the investigation, baking powder was mixed into food to make tourists physically unwell."

The only ill effect I can find from overconsumption is a "tingly sensation on the tongue". Of course, that doesn't mean the 'poisoner' wasn't ignorant of this, and genuinely did it trying to make them sick. Or maybe they simply said, "If you feel your tongue tingling, YOU ARE DYING!!!".

MontagFTB• 4 months ago

Could it be a symptom of high altitude oxygen deprivation?

datadrivenangel4• 4 months ago

Yes, which is why it's easy to then convince people to evacuate. People do die on Everest, including EBC treks from altitude sickness alone, so severe symptoms usually lead to taking the trekking back down the mountain.

ambicapter• 4 months ago

I feel like "make physically unwell" here just means they'll taste something gross, not realize it is the baking powder, and treat the feeling as if something is wrong with their body. I know mixing up baking soda and baking powder has made for some pretty unpleasant tasting food for me.

ceejayoz• 4 months ago

It’s a leavener when you get it wet, so swallowing enough will definitely feel like digestive upset from all the gas.

tokai2• 4 months ago

Baking powder is used by some athletes as it is shown to enhance performance.[0] I find it more realistic that they are adding it for that effect than making anyone unwell. As its not really something that makes you ill.

[0] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8427947/

KaseKun• 4 months ago

I saw a good yt video on this the other day, investigating baking soda and athletics. https://youtu.be/Y_aTfQmqc5o

The creator certainly got pretty crook from ingesting baking soda

skilled• 4 months ago

I did the Everest base camp trek in late 2015, at that time it was quite common (saw it myself and heard about it) that people would do the trek up but to get down they would fake a leg/back injury or blame altitude sickness and the chopper from Kathmandu would come pick you up, as long as you had the right insurance.

bombcar3• 4 months ago

I wonder how much a chopper ride would cost at "reasonable rates" (e.g, not the air ambulance but just a chopper).

doikor• 4 months ago

Per person around $1500. Over 10k of you can’t fill the chopper.

paxys• 4 months ago

I'm assuming less than the average ambulance ride in the USA

MikeNotThePope3• 4 months ago

I can tell you exactly what it cost for me. I took the helicopter from Gorakshep, the highest/last town on the EBC trek, to Lukla, the crazy airport people call the most dangerous one in the world. For me, a 255 lbs / 115kg guy, 2 Nepalis that are each half my size, a pilot, and our not-that-heavy hiking gear was 2000 USD in October of 2024.

Pics/video: https://www.instagram.com/p/DBTpLGtydZW/

WarmWash• 4 months ago

Surely the insurers would quickly become aware of this, I mean, there are people whose job it is to monitor all claims and adjust prices accordingly.

So while it might feel like the insurers were getting fleeced, it was almost certainly the insured who didn't get the copter ride.

bell-cot• 4 months ago

Not an insurance underwriter - but wouldn't the obvious counter-move be to exclude coverage for medical assistance/transportation when you're climbing mountains overseas, spelunking, within X miles of the north or south pole, traveling in a submarine, or have otherwise ventured into "high-dollar extraction" territory?

stronglikedan• 4 months ago

The people doing that could probably afford the copter ride outright, so they can afford the "right" insurance that wouldn't ask any questions. The uber-wealthy live under a completely different system than the average schmuck like me.

MikeNotThePope3• 4 months ago

To be honest I'm surprised insurance is offered at all. I did the EBC trek a couple years ago. The temptation to take a helicopter down was real & I didn't have insurance.

datadrivenangel4• 4 months ago

Rescue insurance was required by the trekking company when I did EBC a few years back.

hawaiianbrah• 4 months ago

Yeah, I think most reputable places do require it, and there are restricted areas they won’t issue permits for without verifying insurance. It was required by our outfitter when we did the Annapurna circuit a few years ago.

givemeethekeys2• 4 months ago

Sounds pretty bad until you look at the numbers.

RajT88• 4 months ago

And then it looks very bad?

The amount of each incident is fairly low, and probably goes a long way to funding the local community.

But the number of incidents is nuts - well over 1000 per year.

givemeethekeys2• 4 months ago

"Around 100,000 people hike to Everest Base Camp every year"

I have no idea how many of those people have to buy insurance.

Source: https://everestcamptrek.com/how-many-people-hike-to-everest-...

miltonlost• 4 months ago

Stop pointlessly climbing mountains and ruining the natural environment. Climbing Mt Everest at this point is just a sign of conspicuous consumption and not any achievement other than financial. Would have been better to spend your money lighting it on fire.

datadrivenangel4• 4 months ago

This is mostly trekking related evacuation, which is far easy and lower impact. EBC is about 100x cheaper overall per person than summit attempts, if not 500x.

And Sagarmartha national park and the whole valley up to EBC is an amazingly beautiful part of the world.

jopython• 4 months ago

The "Everest Economy" is worth around $500 million annually.

tokai2• 4 months ago

Thats surprisingly low.

simojo• 4 months ago

to be fair, the approach is usually covered in snowpack for most of the year, so impact is minimal by foot traffic. However, most of the protection is fixed, which could have lasting effects if something were to rip out.

For other mountains with dry summits in the summers, I would agree: the effects of erosion are frightening

throwway1203852• 4 months ago

Do people still leave oxygen bottles up there? And what do they do with all of their excrement?

The saying is that the snowpack gives back everything you put in it.

rdtsc• 4 months ago

But none of that worked “The scam continued due to lax punitive action,”

It percolated up. It’s usually what happens with corruption. If lower levels are found out to have a lucrative scheme, the higher ups (auditors, police, legislators) make a big fuss about stumping it publicly, but behind the scenes go and ask for a cut.

delichon• 4 months ago

But guides and hotel staff ... tell them they are at risk of dying, that only immediate evacuation will save them.

I got Acute Mountain Sickness at just 11k feet. Headache, nausea, dizziness, fatigue. I passed out until hitting the ground woke me up. I was very disoriented and vulnerable. If someone had told me that I had to get to a hospital or I'd die they could have led me like a tame goat. And they could be right. If you have high-altitude cerebral or pulmonary edema it is life threatening.

A guide getting a kickback can make it a lot more likely just by cutting short the boring acclimatization time.

meroes• 4 months ago

Ya that was a very serious situation for you. I knew when my dad was barely able to stand but insisted we hike the 1000ft back up to then get back down it was also serious. But when we got home I read how deadly altitude sickness is.

badgersnake2• 4 months ago

Unnecessary CT scans mean unnecessary radiation exposure. This is a direct harm to the “patient”.

DiggyJohnson• 4 months ago

Seems minimal though in the grand scheme of things

badgersnake2• 4 months ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43692390

psadri• 4 months ago

I did the EBC trek last year and at ~4400 meters, we heard about a local Nepalese woman dying from complications of AMS in the local clinic. There might be fishy things going on with the rescues, but the health risks are real.

sonink• 4 months ago

The second method is more troubling. At altitudes above 3,000 metres, mild symptoms of altitude sickness are common. Blood oxygen saturation can drop, hands and feet tingle, headaches develop. In most cases, rest, hydration or a gradual descent is all that is needed. ...investigators found that Diamox (Acetazolamide) tablets, used to prevent altitude sickness, were administered alongside excessive water intake to induce the very symptoms that would justify a rescue call.

This doesnt sound accurate. I have trekked the Himalayas for over a decade - the risks of AMS are very real. Two people I have trekked with have died due to AMS on separate himalayan treks - both had trekked multiple times before, and were well aware of the risks. Both the fatalities were around 12000-14000 feet - much below the Everest Base Camp trek. When AMS hits, you need to descend - as fast as possible, with whatever means you have at your disposal. Otherwise you have unknowingly entered a Russian Roulette.

And Diamox is used as a preventative course for AMS - alongside excessive water intake - this is standard guidelines in all high altitude himalayan treks.

ghaff3• 4 months ago

Namche (damn autocorrect) Bazaar which everyone in the Everest region passes through is a bit over 11K feet. 12-15K feet just isn’t that high in the scheme of things. Many peaks in the western US are in that range or more. Yes, minor headaches are pretty normal when acclimatizing. But anything more, you need to go down.

shadow282• 4 months ago

12-15K feet just isn’t that high in the scheme of things. Many peaks in the western US are in that range or more.

The highest peak in the contiguous United States is Mt. Whitney at ~14.5k feet

6989692• 4 months ago

*Naamche Bazaar

chimeracoder2• 4 months ago

12-15K feet just isn’t that high in the scheme of things. Many peaks in the western US are in that range or more.

It's "not that high", but people frequently do get AMS at those attitudes or even lower.

gilesvangruisen• 4 months ago

I've been to Nepal a few times and started feeling AMS symptoms about 1-2 hours after arriving at our lodge in Namche. Diamox kept me going great for the nxt few days on our way to Tengboche where we maxed out about 13k feet, besides the heli flight back to Lukla. Similar symptoms even at a ski resort at 9k feet in the US. It's "not that high" but plenty high to induce AMS.

embedding-shape• 4 months ago

The very next sentence from that quote sounds a lot worse and harder to explain away though:

In at least one case cited in the investigation, baking powder was mixed into food to make tourists physically unwell.

6989692• 4 months ago

In Nepal, my parents always warned me before eating at some rest stops because they said the food was doctored with baking soda to make you feel fuller, guess it was true after all and not just an urban legend heh.

EA-3167• 4 months ago

An amount of soda sufficient to make you ill would be very VERY detectable in food. Speaking as someone who makes their own honeycomb toffee and soda bread, it's really easy to mess up the ratios and end up with an excess that tastes nasty, and that excess is pretty small.

A small amount won't make a different, it'll just stimulate a bit more H+ production from your stomach's proton pumps.

Edit: The article I read claims the scam involved baking powder, which makes even less sense given that it's even more noticeable, bitter and metallic.

t0mas88• 4 months ago

Were there other issues involved in the fatalities around 12-14k ft? Freezing etc?

In aviation rules you can have passengers at 12k ft without oxygen for an unlimited amount of time. The crew needs to use oxygen if you're between 10k and 13k for more than 30 minutes. Above 13k both crew and passengers must use oxygen immediately (EASA rules, FAA is different).

So they seem to consider 12k to not be dangerous to passengers.

simplyluke2• 4 months ago

Speaking from experience in the mountains: 12k at rest and 12k under subsequent days of exercise produce very different responses. What might be a mild headache sitting in the back of a plane could be a pretty distinct AMS case lugging a pack up and down mountains.

antonvs• 4 months ago

The main issue is that exercise exacerbates hypoxia. You're climbing a mountain, your muscles need oxygen, but you're not getting enough.

But the temperature does make it worse. Your body is trying to generate heat, which increases oxygen demand. Your blood vessels are constricting, so circulation is less efficient, limiting oxygen distribution. All together, this creates all sorts of health risks.

Sitting in a comfy plane seat browsing the internet is not the same thing. Besides, even healthy adults just sitting can experience mild hypoxia effects above about 10k ft - fatigue, mild cognitive effects, headaches. But if you're just sitting, it's generally tolerable. Of course, you don't want pilots working in those conditions for any length of time.

happosai• 4 months ago

There are like a half dozen cities with 100.000+ population at over 12k feet altitude. And towns and villages a lot higher. So right, 12k is no's dangerous per se.

The problems come if you haven't acclimatized.

pRusya2• 4 months ago

A story older than Nepal (misleading tourists). And an article from 6 months ago shows how the govt treats its own people with more examples in HN discussion. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45166972

What is less discussed is what happened to people who were able to identify the scam and refused to let it happen.

kaudinya• 4 months ago

Since then, the govt has been overthrown by a Gen Z protest. An interim govt led the national elections and a young party led by young leaders have won 2/3 majority in the parliament.

The new parliament is a radical departure in many ways. Its very hollywoodish if you happen to read the development.

pRusya2• 4 months ago

Thank you for letting me know. I should definitely catch up on current state of affairs.

alsetmusic• 4 months ago

Holy crap, why are they using anything more than pine for something of such high stakes?

tristor3• 4 months ago

As someone who has done quite a few 14ers in Colorado, many of which I wasn't in the greatest shape for, most people do not get AMS especially below 12k, and therefore the numbers in this article definitely do look like somebody somewhere is faking it or being defrauded. Much of the time you just need to hydrate better if you're going up in elevation above 10k and you'll be fine.

justonceokay• 4 months ago

Pro-tip: if you propose to your wife at 13000 feet, don’t actually have her put the ring on. Her fingers may swell causing her to panic about circulation and you’ll have to run down the mountain and to this day she will not think it is as funny as you

tristor3• 4 months ago

It makes a good story to share with new friends in the future though. I've got one of those too, heh. I proposed to my now-wife on the bow of a sailboat at sunset on a local lake, overlooking the water. Should have been an amazing moment, except I didn't know until that trip that my now-wife gets seasick/motion sickness. Luckily it did not ruin things, but we've never been on a boat together since except for a ferry crossing between Tallinn and Helsinki once.

dtsykunov• 4 months ago

Are we supposed to feel bad for insurance companies here?

ferfumarma• 4 months ago

Why is hiking the tallest mountain in the world not an insurance carve out

Make coverage void in the Himalayas... problem solved

decimalenough• 4 months ago

As the name suggests, Everest Base Camp is just the starting point of the actual climb.

adolph• 4 months ago

It is a surprise to me that anyone summiting has access to insurance at all. I suppose that if the fraud rate is as low as 3.5% and insurance is contracted specifically for the trip, then a rational payor will raise rates and carry on.

On the whole, there is finite capacity of certain assets, like helicopters. If the emergency carrying capacity is X and true emergencies are .6 X then there is spoiled capacity of .4 X, in which fraudulent emergencies are placed, keeping everyone in the system whole so that when true emergencies approach .9 X there is no need for fraud. This follows the "optimal amount of fraud is non-zero" and eliminating this fraud might remove the margin needed for the system to exist at all.

  An anecdote tells of the British government's bounty on dead Indian cobras 
  giving locals the perverse incentive to start breeding the snakes, to be able 
  to kill more of them and collect more bounty

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perverse_incentive

tim3333• 4 months ago

The people in the article are just trekking around the valleys, not going for the summit. I did a summit attempt a while back and didn't bother with insurance because here wasn't much they could do - helicopters didn't go that high and getting some sherpers to carry you down would be better achieved with cash.

phyzome• 4 months ago

Misread this as "fake rescue rocket" and it took a bit before I realized that.

userbinator• 4 months ago

Likewise, I read it as "Fake Rescue Packet"

pkoiralap• 4 months ago

While it is true that guides and business owners are always looking for opportunities to earn extra cash, the reporting is a tiny bit off here.

Start of AMS like symptoms can easily be mistaken for walking fatigue and dehydration. It is easier to identify if you are at rest, but during the trek that is seldom the case. So when you actually start realizing something is wrong, you already are at an elevated risk. The only thing that works in these cases is to descend and as fast as possible at that.

Considering the fact that AMS will absolutely and a 100% kill you if you play around with it, guides presenting trekkers with an option of helicopter rescue is not that bad, at least if you look at the worst that can happen.

ada1981• 4 months ago

Wait till these guys hear about the US healthcare system…

tancop• 4 months ago

if you leave out the poisoning part who is really losing money off this? insurance companies getting scammed is a good thing unless they go and pass on all of the extra cost to customers. its basically DIY wealth redistribution when you consider that nepal is a developing country and most of the local business that make money like this probably have lower profit margins than some american insurance.

ecshafer• 4 months ago

What an absurd claim. They are acting immorally. They are lying and stealing. Under your logic if you are richer than me I can rob you and aims its weakth redistribution. You have more money, youll get it back!

silexia• 4 months ago

Without harsh punishments, IE years in prison for all involved, scams and fraud will multiply.

Inside Nepal's Fake Rescue Racket

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