I was having a debate with a friend regarding how difficult it is to climb Everest in recent years. I claimed that with a $100K+ budget, I or any other fit person can climb Everest with minimal preparation. He disagreed and said that you need significant mountaineering experience and time spent at extreme altitudes. I don't think that applies anymore since the climb is on ladders and fixed ropes, which eliminates the technical aspects of route-finding and rock climbing. You can compensate for not having prior altitude experience by spending more days on the trek to Base Camp to acclimatize, and you can get a team of Sherpas to carry all of your stuff, including as many oxygen tanks as you need.
So the question is, which one of us is right? Is excellent fitness by itself good enough to summit Everest if combined with extensive Sherpa support? If I had the vacation time, money, and could find an expedition interested in trying this experiment, I'd sign up for it. I'm pretty sure I could get to Camp 3 (~25K feet), and if I had ideal weather conditions, I think I'd have a reasonable chance of getting to the summit.
What does everyone here think? For some background info, I'm a male in who's his late 20s and not overweight. I've run a sub 12 100 meter dash (electronically timed), a sub 6 mile at 7000' elevation, and have no difficulty doing several pullups. However, my mountain climbing experience is minimal, and I've never been above 15K feet.