Um... perhaps... From what I've read on K2 and Everest, the people that climb K2 still climb with the same human morals as they always have. I just can't say the same for the majority of the people climbing Everest. Everest has become so commercial, and so over-climbed, that many of the people that are going up there are thinking only of themselves. It is not a team effort. It's all "me, me, me."
That's interesting. I really don't know anything about mountain climbing, so I'm sure you're right. I was just comparing the events of 1953 to the more recent one that you mentioned. I didn't know that there was a difference in behaviors in people climbing Everest and people climbing K2.
My guess is that the majority of people climbing Everest are not capable enough to think of anyone else; they have a hard enough time just getting themselves up and down the mountain (and they paid huge $$$ to summit). I read Into Thin Air a while back...that book speaks to the issue.