This is a list of notable Mount Everest guides, which are professional mountaineers (and mountaineering firms) who help people to ascend Mount Everest in the Himalayas in return for fees. Previously, the summit was only accessible to expert mountaineers who were often self-guided, or assisted by local sherpas.

Role

Guides can, for example, set fixed lines of rope for others to use, organize rescues in times of trouble, or use communication tools to call in helicopter evacuations.^[1][2] Another job on Mount Everest is as an "icefall doctor" using ladders and ropes to make a path across the Khumbu Icefall, which guides might do themselves or delegate to others.^[3] Guides, especially if they are guiding for a mountaineering or adventure company, often call the people they help up "clients".^[4]

Another task on Everest is helping people with medical problems, although the work can be dangerous.^[5] When potentially deadly health conditions strike, the guides can sometimes lose their clients or abort the climb.^[6] One mother of two died after developing a health problem at the Everest base camp.^[7]

Mount Everest guides assist climbers on what are called "guided" climbs, and guided ascent can cost double an unguided one.^[8] Many climbers in more recent times are unguided but can get some support from a Sherpa, which, though more similar to an Alpinist porter, is much cheaper and also called a guide.^[8] The term guide can mean something along the lines of an assistant all the way to a World-famous mountaineer.^[8]

Notable guides

Notable Nepali guides

Notable firms