In 2018, Kami Rita told a journalist that the government does not support the Sherpas. We are famous around the world. Many foreigners know us, but our government doesn't care about us. He said that when Ang Rita Sherpa was hospitalised in Kathmandu in 2017 after a brain haemorrhage the government provided no support. Although climbing is safer than in the past because of superior equipment and weather forecasts, the occupation is still dangerous, he told a reporter in 2018. (the 2014 Mount Everest ice avalanche killed 16 Sherpas; in 2015, 10 Sherpas died at the Everest Base Camp after the avalanches in the wake of the April 2015 Nepal earthquake. In total, 118 Sherpas have died on Everest between 1921 and 2018.) The crevasses are deep and the slopes are unpredictable, Kami Rita said. An April 2018 report by NPR stated that Sherpas account for one-third of Everest deaths.