Helicopters have made mountaineering a less arduous prospect in Nepal, but chopped down the daily earnings of the Sherpas. While tourists can now wing their way up to inaccessible areas, mountaineers can fly out their heavy gears instead of hauling them.

"With the helicopters, there is a danger that Sherpas' only means of surviving -- as luggage carriers -- will disappear," maintains Dipak Gyawali, a water engineer and environmentalist.