Himalayan adventure travel is a burgeoning industry in some mountainous regions of Nepal, India, and the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People‘s Republic of China. The development of a trekking and expedition mountaineering infrastructure has created employment opportunities in remote areas and allowed visitors from around the world to embark on life-changing explorations to some of the planet‘s most unique destinations. However, with the rapid, uneven, and largely unregulated growth of this industry have come environmental and resource challenges, the creation of new economic and social arrangements, and renewed questions of equity and safety. Despite—or perhaps because of—the prominence of Himalayan adventure travel in the popular consciousness, the historical, social, political, and economic drivers responsible for maintaining and reproducing the current paradigm remain poorly understood. The industry‘s growing pains are highlighted by the mounting human toll of disasters in the mountains, most recently the earthquake that destroyed Everest Base Camp in April 2015. Although the proximate cause of these disasters were natural events, growing unrest suggests that their ultimate causes are in fact chronic and unnatural. My research is based on eight months of fieldwork in the Himalaya and combines analysis of theoretical, historical, and contemporary sources with personal experience as a Himalayan expedition leader. I argue that the current Himalayan adventure travel paradigm is unsustainable, and that only a profound reimagining of sociopolitical relationships—those between the state, local and global civil society actors, and adventure travel practitioners and participants—will allow it to continue. My findings demonstrate that recent developments reflect longstanding systemic problems and that current events may serve as a catalyst for previously underrepresented stakeholders in adventure travel to translate their growing assertiveness into meaningful and lasting solutions.