In 2020, a guided client hoping to summit Mount Everest sued his guide service for calling off the attempt due to safety concerns. A new settlement favors the guide company and appears to help protect the industry.
In September 2019, Himalayan climbing guide Garrett Madison faced a critical decision. He could either lead his group of clients and Sherpas across the Khumbu Icefall directly under a massive overhanging serac or cancel the expedition and head back to Kathmandu.
Experts estimated the serac to be the size of a 15-story building. It could cut loose without warning — when and if it did, it would wipe out anyone in its path.
Ultimately, Madison made the call to turn around, as did every other guide and expedition that season. Due to danger from the serac, zero parties summited Everest in the fall of 2019.
In March 2020, Madison’s decision drew a high-stakes lawsuit. Zac Bookman sued Madison Mountaineering for $100,000, claiming breach of contract and fraud.
If successful, Madison said the suit could bankrupt his company. So his legal team countersued Bookman, as do all of Madison’s clients, had signed a waiver acknowledging unpredictable conditions may prevent summiting.
A recent settlement signed in a Seattle court resolves the argument. The decision is concrete: “Mr. Bookman will receive no refund, damages, or other financial compensation or consideration of any kind” in conjunction with the incident.
It also concludes that “the fear of lawsuits and the financial repercussions from lawsuits can lead to injuries, illnesses, and fatalities for clients, guides, Sherpa, and other mountain professionals.”
Similar Lawsuits Could Endanger Everest Guides
Simply put, the case could have represented a dangerous precedent for guide services. If clients can successfully sue guides over decisions about safety that run counter to their expectations of success, then guides will assume more danger to stay in business. Such pressure already exists in expensive, high-risk scenarios like those on Everest.
“The real fear within the industry would be that we would get sued every time we made a decision that a client did not like,” Guy Cotter, CEO of New Zealand–based Adventure Consultants, told Climbing.
“The typical client on Everest has always included business leaders of industry and high rollers, some of whom decide that it is they who should be dictating decisions on the mountain.”
Madison has guided over 70 clients to the summit of Everest during a career that began in 1999. He emphasized that the court’s decision protects the decisive faculty of mountain professionals.
“I feel like it’s a big win for myself and my company and for the mountain-guiding industry as a whole,” he said. “Expedition leaders should be able to make whatever decision they think is best and safest, even if that results in the client not summiting and the clients are unhappy with that.”
Bookman v. Madison Mountaineering: A Long Legal Battle
Bookman’s initial suit, filed in California, leveraged multiple allegations against Madison. It claimed that the guide scrapped the expedition because another client had arrived out of shape. Bookman then said Madison had verbally promised him a refund for the trip.
It never mentioned the serac. In a later interview, Bookman said the ice block was a “red herring” and gave his opinion of the scenario. “There are hanging seracs all over the west wall of Everest,” he told Outside. “It’s like saying we can’t walk through the forest until that particular tree falls down.”
