The high cost of extreme risk-taking

Late January, a French mountain climber and her Polish companion got stuck on Nanga Parbat, a 26,657 feet (8 126 meter) Kashmir peak, and she was finally saved after her mate died on their winter climb.

Elizabeth Revol who survived the ordeal was recently interviewed by a French TV station for their “Envoyé Spécial” news show, and lamented about the poor Pakistani response to their call for rescue. To address the lackluster response, Masha Gordon, an Anglo-russian climber organized a crowd-funding on Facebook that garnered 157,000 euros to pay for part of Revol's rescue costs.

What's amazing to me is that First World nations like France and Poland keep on selfishly be counting on developing, poor countries like Pakistan, to pay for the likely consequences of their extreme whims.

While Revol didn't strike me for her smarts, Catherine Destivelle, an other famous French climber interviewed on that show, seemed to concur with her, suggesting that Pakistan should have done better.

My bottom line is fairly simple: If someone is so inclined to take extreme risks, they should purchase insurance. This ought be the First World way to play with privileged westerners that come to play on their territory.