When I first saw this article and these photos, I thought it was a retrospective about the 1996 disaster written about in "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer. I saw similar photos in that book. Then I saw the date, and I realized that people still haven't learned a thing from that terrible tragedy.
Officials should either close Mt Everest to climbing for a few years; or restrict the climbing to a certain small number of experienced climbers, because this free-for-all has gotten completely out of hand.
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"Climbers have to navigate thick traffic jams, a filthy, sprawling base camp — and increasingly, death — while trying to get to the world’s highest Instagram hot spot.
"Renewed attention is being paid to the crowded conditions on Mount Everest, where two missing climbers were believed dead this week after part of an icy ridge collapsed.
"Social media videos appear to show a line of hundreds of climbers stranded in the aftermath of the tragic Tuesday incident in which British climber Daniel Paterson, 39, and his Nepali guide Pas Tenji Sherpa, 23, were dragged down the side of the mountain after a chunk of hardened snow overhanging the edge of a cliff suddenly fell, the BBC reported.
"The clips were just some of the dozens of images of an apparent constant rush hour getting to the top of the world. More than one clip on X in recent months shows climbers screaming as they watch dead bodies slide by them.
"In a separate incident, Kenyan climber Joshua Cheruiyot Kirui, 40, was found dead and his guide Nawang Sherpa, 44, remained missing after they vanished from the mountain on Wednesday.
“Everest; the highest, the dirtiest and the most controversial place on Earth,” wrote The Northerner on X. “Humans bypassing corpses, leaving people dying, ignoring help cries, making it dirtiest place with pollution & human wastes; all for the glory of summit. When will it stop?!”
"Indian mountaineer Rajan Dwivedi, who successfully summited Everest
at 6 a.m. on May 19, wrote on Instagram that “Mt. Everest is not a joke
and in fact, quite a serious climb.”
“I believe so far (more than) 7,000 have summited since 1st ascent in May 1953. Many end up with frost bites, snow blindness and various type of injuries that are not counted in any database,” he wrote on a post that included video of the endless, snaking line of climbers coming up and back down as they seized one of the rare weather windows.
“This video captured shows [sic] what we face on one rope line and negotiating interchanges during the traffic for upstream and downstream! The main reason is weather window to avoid the fierce cruising jet streams that could be 100-240mph!! For me, coming down was a nightmare and exhausting while huge line of climbers were coming up to maximize on the weather window.”
"Overcrowding on Everest has been a problem for years but the world’s biggest mountain has become an increasing concern to officials in recent years.
"Everest’s popularity hasn’t waned, despite frequents accidents and deaths on the mountain.
"The season is at its peak at the moment – with hundreds of climbers jammed side by side along the Hillary Step."
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