Well, we are seeing reports from an apparently experienced hill walker and from one of the Israelis that the victims were not properly equipped. It also seems that some victims left the small tea house at the top of the pass and tried to descend. If this is confirmed then it is fair to say that they contributed to their problems. They could be said to be "cheap" in the sense that they did not equip themselves properly for bad weather.
On the other hand, I believe that at least some of them were with guides. There are also reports of porters in the area. Of course a porter would not be expected to have a guide's skills, of either survival or language, but I have seen many "guides" who had little skill themselves. Either way it is difficult to deal with a situation like this if you do not have the right gear. Does anyone know how often a walking guide inspects a client's gear before they set out?
I have crossed the Thorung La six times in various weathers, although certainly not in a storm as bad as this one. On every occasion I have seen walkers who were obviously ill-equipped for any sort of bad weather. Sometimes that might have been as high as 50% of those I saw. The AC has long been a goal for people of little mountain experience, slim budgets, and poor gear. I once had to stop and give a very cold guy in a thin fleece and no wind proof my down jacket and some chocolate before walking with him down the west side. His "friends" had left him behind. When we caught up with them, they seemed to have no sense of having done anything wrong. On another occasion I came across a group with a woman who was having altitude problems. Their guide and some group members were almost literally pulling her along in their efforts to stick to their schedule. My sirdar and I were on an acclimatisation walk and managed to persuade the group to descend. Such people will always be at risk on a straightforward walk like the AC, guide or no guide.
On the subject of weather. I would be most surprised if at least some of the lodge people were not aware of the forecast. The problem is often one of communication with their trekkers. They assume that the trekkers know or they have no common language. The trekkers do not think to ask. One advantage of a proper guide is that they can find out such things when a trekker might not. I am skeptical about elaborate warning systems. In Western countries which have such systems of coms, signs, and closures there are always people who ignore them. Nepal is a poor and corrupt country and anything too elaborate is unlikely, IMO, to work well. A simple education program for lodge keepers of the need to put up weather forecasts for trekkers would be more practical. A sheet of Nepali to English forecast translations for different conditions would help overcome the language problem.
