About 200 people died during their attempt to climb Mount Everest. The highest mountain in the world has been climbed since 1922. Now snow and ice are melting. The deaths on Mount Everest become visible due to climate change. Many climbers reached the top of the Mount Everest successfully, but many died during this adventure.
Deaths On Mount Everest: 'Clean Up'
You can imagen that it is tough to bring dead bodies down. A climber – always equipped with a minimum of gear – has not the possibility to bring a corpse down at these hights where there is a lack of oxygen and often are extreme weather conditions. Often a person who dies during his/her climb to the top or descend is quickly covered with snow and ice.
Hillary en Tensing, climbing the Mount Everest in 1922
Now deaths on Mount Everest become visible due to climate change, and people from Nepal get confronted with this big challenge to bring the bodies ‘back home’. Some dead bodies which have been brought down by sherpas are dating back even to the 1970th.
Mount Everest? How long does it take to climb?
Two months!
This is why the entire climbing period takes a long time to reach the top. Usually, the expedition to Mount Everest takes around two months. Most of the climbers start their journey from base camp after March and they start arriving at the base camp in late March. The best time to climb Mount Everest in May.
The NNMGA (The Nepal national Guides Association) is getting upset because of the lack of money coming from the Nepalese government. Also, foreign organizations that organize these expeditions should set up a fund to pay for the returning of the bodies and for clearing up the trash left behind by these expeditions. Melting of snow and ice goes very fast. At the Basecamp, it has been measured that it melts at a rate of 1 meter a year.
Some bodies have been brought down to villages. Some have been covered by stones and snow. Many Sherpas share the opinion that there is a moral responsibility to bring deceased climbers to their final resting place and to pray for them. Some people think it is better to leave the bodies where they are.
Anyway, it would be a kind gesture from foreign operators to help the Nepalese people to bury the bodies and clean up the garbage they left and are still leaving behind on the world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest.
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Mount Everest Is So Busy Climbers Are Dying in Traffic Jams
Deaths on Mount Everest
Anjali Kulkarni, an Indian mountain climber, trained for six years to make it to the top of Mount Everest, the highest mountain peak in the world. She finally fulfilled her long-time goal when she reached the summit this week. But it was the descent that killed her. Her son, Shantanu Kulkarni, told CNN that she died after getting stuck in a ‘traffic jam’ on Mount Everest. She had to wait for a long time to reach the summit and descend. She couldn't move down on her own and died as Sherpa guides brought her down.
Mount Everest. Who is the first woman who climbed it?
Arunima Sinha. Arunima Sinha is a former Indian volleyball ball player, mountaineer and the first female amputee to scale Mount Everest and Mount Vinson. She was pushed from a running train by some robbers in 2011 while she was resisting them. As a result, one of her legs had to be amputated below the knee.
Two other Indian hikers, Kalpana Das, 52, and Nihal Bagwan, 27, also died this week. Nihal Bagwan was stuck in the traffic for more than 12 hours and was exhausted.
On Saturday, a 44-year-old British man, Robin Haynes Fisher, died shortly after reaching the summit, bringing the death toll for this season to at least 10, as a few days of clear weather attracted vast numbers of climbers hoping to scale the 29,029-foot (8,848 meters) peak.
Several other people have died elsewhere in Nepal's Himalayan mountains this season. Nepal has issued around 380 permits for those hoping to climb the Mount Everest. They cost about US$11,000 each, and hikers are accompanied by local and sometimes international guides.
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A chilling photograph from Mount Everest shows a long line of mountaineers queuing to ascend a steep ridge to the summit. The photo was shot by Nirmal Purja, an avid mountaineer, who wrote in an Instagram caption that he estimated 320 people were waiting in line.
Mount Everest Traffic Jams
Traffic jams create dangerous situations for climbers, who are often already exhausted and carrying heavy loads while battling altitude sickness, which can make people dizzy and nauseous. Overcrowding usually occurs, but every year seems to be worse and worse. When a line starts to back up, you're changing your natural pace, so you're spending more time in this high altitude zone than might be necessary if you were climbing 10 to 15 years ago. One of the most critical skills for guides who accompany climbers is ‘knowing when to turn people around.’ The idea isn't to push yourself to the ultimate maximum to reach the summit. Then there's no steam or energy left in your body to get down.
Mount Everest! What do you need to climb it?
7 attributes required to climb Mount Everest
- The Desire
- Realistic ambition
- Experience and a high-quality mountaineering resumé
- Technical expertise
- The ability to Focus
- Mental tenacity
- Self-belief
Deaths On Mount Everest: Everest Attracts Climbers From Around The Globe
- Séamus Lawless, an assistant professor of computer science at Trinity College in Ireland, went missing May 16 when he slipped and fell shortly near the summit, on a different side of the mountain from where the main traffic jam is taking place.
- An Irish climber, Kevin Hynes, died Friday. He had climbed parts of Everest before, and the British group he traveled with. He was a very strong and experienced climber.
- The American, Donald Lynn Cash, 55, of Utah, died after falling sick, possibly from the high altitude. It was unclear what role, if any, the traffic jams had in his death. He took a sabbatical from his executive job at BMC Software to finish scaling the world's seven highest peaks, wrote on LinkedIn before his trip that he was 'excited to look for the next chapter in his career.
- A 65-year-old Austrian man is also among the dead.
Last year, 807 people reached Mount Everest's summit, more than had ever reached the top in a single year before. When climbers choose to scale Everest, they do so understanding the perils they could encounter along the way. In addition to the risks of altitude sickness and exhaustion, there have been several avalanches on the mountain over the years, including one set off by the catastrophic 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Nepal in 2015. In that instance, an avalanche swept down Mount Everest and through a base camp, killing at least 18 people and injuring dozens more. Still, most who make the trek expect to come home.
Cover photo by Dominic Goff
Before you go!
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