wealth gap on Mt. Everest

A "donnybrook at 23,000 feet?"

That was one description of the dust-up between climbers and their Sherpa guides on Mt. Everest on Saturday.

Punches, kicks and even rocks were thrown, according to a statement posted Sunday on the website of one of the climbers, Simone Moro.

The Sherpas, locals who guide expeditions up the world's highest mountain, apparently became angered when the climbers from Italy, Switzerland and the United Kingdom did not listen to instructions from the Sherpas, moved above them on the peak and dislodged ice that fell in the direction of the Sherpas.

But apparently it wasn't just the fact that the well-heeled climbers ignored Sherpa instruction:

 "They're angry at this financial gap on their mountain," Jonathan Griffith said of the Sherpas. "These commercial trips are based on a lot of luxury and getting you up the mountain and a lot of these Western clients don't even know what the names of their Sherpas are."

Somehow the incident brings to mind the classic, if crude, description of stupidity: "Dumb enough to fuck up a wet dream."