Sharp was climbing with a bare-bones basic services package from Asian Trekking that does not offer support after a certain altitude is reached on the mountain or a Sherpa to climb with as a partner, although this option was available to Sharp for an additional fee. He was grouped with 13 other independent climbers - including Vitor Negrete, Thomas Weber, and Igor Plyushkin who also died attempting to summit that year - on the International Everest Expedition. This package only provided a permit, a trip into Tibet, oxygen equipment, transportation, food, and tents up to the Mount Everest Advance Base Camp (ABC) at an elevation of about . The group Sharp was with was not really an expedition and had no leader, although it is considered good climbing ethics that members of the group make some effort to keep track of each other.