Over the past decade, Global Rescue has been very active in the Himalaya, advising and evacuating hundreds of our members who have faced severe illness and injury while climbing Everest and other peaks.

Recently, however, in addition to the perilous nature of the climbs themselves, climbers and trekkers have faced another danger: the threat of forced or coerced evacuations in non-emergencies as part of fraudulent practices by some in the Nepalese helicopter industry.

We posted about this issue first in June 2013 and again in December 2013, with advice on how to avoid being victimized by this corruption.

For several years, Alpine Rescue Service has been working diligently to put an end to this fraudulence. Climbers and trekkers will be pleased to know that progress is being made. ARS wrote in its June newsletter that its effort to suppress fraudulence “is gaining rapid momentum through collaborative efforts of our insurance partners.” These insurance partners have been investigating questionable cases that resulted in evacuations and visiting the offices of the service providers who initiated these evacuations. ARS writes that it is “hopeful that this initiative will ensure that fraudulence is minimized significantly and emergency medical assistance for travelers to Nepal will ultimately foster with genuine cases demanding the same.”