Three more die on Everest amid overcrowding near summit

Science & Environment Science & Environment: In The News
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Three more climbers have died on Mount Everest, taking the death toll to seven in a week - more than the total for the whole of last year.

The three died of exhaustion while descending on Thursday.

It comes amid traffic jams near the summit as record numbers make the ascent, despite calls to limit the number of climbing permits.

Nepal has issued 381 permits at $11,000 (£8,600) each for the spring climbing season at the world’s highest peak.

Two Indian climbers - Kalpana Das, 52, and Nihal Bagwan, 27 - died while scaling back down the mountain on Thursday.

Local tour organiser Keshav Paudel told AFP news agency that Bagwan had been “stuck in the traffic for more than 12 hours and was exhausted”.

A 65-year-old Austrian climber died on the northern Tibet side of the mountain.

An Indian and an American lost their lives on the mountain on Wednesday, while an Irish professor, Séamus Lawless, is presumed dead after falling on 16 May.

The rising numbers of people climbing - and dying - on Everest has led for calls for permits to be limited.

Stuck in traffic on Everest … :shock:

And the waste the “climbers” leave behind:

https://thehimalayantimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Mt-Everest-waste-05.jpg

… and, of course, the bodies:

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We know that people have managed to achieve this climb, but I have never understood why so many risk their lives to do so.

It is their families, friends and loved ones who suffer most from anything going wrong!:cry:

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It cost $11,000 to risk losing your life climbing a mountain?
What exactly is the attraction? Is it the challenge itself? A dare?
I’ve read that dead bodies can be seen all along this trail.
If that’s not a turn off itself I’m not sure what is.
How sad and disgusting

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It worries me when I climb a ladder, wondering if I can get down safely.
Mountains, nah I will leave that to the goats.

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They know the risks and you can only defy the odds for so long, so I celebrate the fact that they died doing the thing they loved.

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I think the rubbish they leave behind is disgraceful. They carried it up there - they should be made to carry it down again - including the bodies!

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I agree ST , they are defacing a thing of great beauty with their rubbish. If they want to climb Everest they should leave it as pristine as it was intended to be.

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Can’t argue with that…

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High time it was closed to the public.

Did you see the photograph of the traffic jam?
It was appalling…that was what killed one of them, not the climb itself but the hours of delay getting safely back down.
At that dangerously high altitude every minute counts.

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I am reminded of the queue on Snowdon, but there’s no Death Zone on the Welsh Mountain and “climbers” take their rubbish home with them.

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I saw that on the news this morning, that’s ridiculous, worse than queueing at IKEA.

As for the rubbish they leave behind, that’s what annoys me, whilst we are all fiddling around with no carrier bags and having to take our own cup when we buy a coffee, these clowns can get away with littering a mountain.

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Does it create jobs and revenue for the locals?
I suppose that’s why they put up with the sh#t ?

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Yes. The revenue it brings.
I’m shocked. I’ve imagined this place to be so breathtakingly beautiful that people are drawn to it and want to climb it for a dare and a thrill.
When I thought of climbers going up I imagined them doing it in small groups. I’d understood about the dead bodies here and there but looking at these pictures makes this entire idea appauling and to think people actually PAY for this is mind boggling.

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I have always imagined mountaineers to be soulful people with concerns for the environment. I was wrong.

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How much to climb Everest?

The quick answer is about $45,000.00 but there are several choices to be made when climbing Mount Everest and each have different cost consequences.

Also, that sum doesn’t include many things, including travel, training and kit.

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The trash is awful. But how would you get a refuse truck up there?

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I knowwww! Me too. What a sad realization.
The other day someone shows a river in a beautiful topical area that was apparently supplying 35 million people that you couldn’t even see the water due to all the garbage. It was disgusting. After that thought my next thought was that if there’s 35 million people relying on this water supply then 35 million people could pick up the garbage and clean it.
I don’t get it.

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Staggering figures:

11,000 kg of human excrement are removed every year

15,000 kg of rubbish has been removed in the last 6 years

There are nearly 300 bodies on the mountain

http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z2phn39

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Only $45,000 to risk your life walking on a path packed like sardines, with rubbish and dead bodies everywhere.
What a deal!!:044:
Hahaha. I’m starting to feel much better about myself at least.:lol: I’m not crazy enough to do anything like that.

That’s creepy. People are strange creatures :confused:

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Use a Sherpa van :wink: