Eight people have died while climbing Mount Everest this year because of severe overcrowding on the mountains hiking trails. These deaths have taken place in what is famously called Mount Everests death zone that has low levels of oxygen on descent from the summit. Reports say that this season is on track to be the deadliest in recent years.
A photograph of the crowd at Mount Everest by Nirmal Purja has gone viral. Purja says he completed his attempt despite heavy traffic of around 320 people.
Fifty-six-year-old Ireland resident Kevin Hynes died at 7,000 metres (22,965 feet) in his tent. The father of two was a member of 360 Expeditions, a UK-based climbing group, and was accompanied by Sherpa guides.
An Irish professor, Seamus Lawless, also died after falling during his descent.
Robin Haynes Fisher, a 44-year-old Brit, died after descending from the summit in the death zone. While guides tried to revive him by changing his oxygen tank and giving him water, he could not be saved. Fisher died at 8,850 metres (29,035 feet).
Fisher documented his climb on his Instagram page. In a post, he said that 100 other climbers were attempting the summit with him, including one Indian and one Irish climber, both of whom died in the death zone.
Then, 54-year-old Donald Lynn Cash collapsed while photographing the summit and died while Sherpas were taking him down, reports the Guardian. Cash is married and has four children.
Five IndiansRavi Thakar, Narayan Singh, Anjali Kulkarni, 55, Kalpana Das, 52, and Nihal Bagwan, 27have also died. Bagwan died of exhaustion while waiting in the long queue.
Burgeoning traffic on Mount Everest
Reports say that many of these casualties are related to overcrowding along climbing trails on Mount Everest.
News18 reports that climbing teams were queued for hours in frigid weather because of the volume of people who wanted to make the trek to the summit. While waiting at such height without many safety options is dangerous in itself, climbers also risk frostbite, exhaustion, altitude sickness, and running out of oxygen.
Twenty-one-year-old Anuja Vaidya spoke to News18 about the long wait she encountered while climbing.
I was scared and worried
It was so cold and windy. But we couldnt just come down as everyone was waiting in a long queue.
This is the second time such a traffic jam of sorts has resulted in casualties on Mount Everest. In 2012, 10 people had died because of similar overcrowding.
However, BBC notes that such long lines are normal during climbing season. If the weather is favourable for climbers only for a short period, the trails will be crowded. Moreover, climbers bring guides who also add to the volume of people on the mountainside.
Purja said, Increasingly, I was fighting against the nature of the death zone, and my team members on a number of occasions got ill on the mountains. There were times where emotions ran high and I had to put my life and the teams at risk above the death zone. This included rescuing other climbers without oxygen, and no one came to assist.
Another reason for this traffic is unpreparedness.
India Today quotes Garrett Madison from Madison Mountaineering who said many of these hikers were neither prepared for the tough climb on Mount Everest nor had experienced support teams with them.
Managing Director of Jagged Globe Simon Lowe spoke to the Guardian and said, The queue this year isnt the problem
But it exacerbates an underlying issue, and that is incompetent climbers being led by incompetent teams. If you go up with a bare minimum bottles of supplementary oxygen and stand in a queue for ages that is going to cause problems.
Mount Everest has a trash problem
Garbage collection and proper waste disposal is another major problem on Mount Everest. The mountain and Himalayan range in general is prone to litter, namely plastic bottles, oxygen tanks, trekking equipment, and human faeces.
In April, a municipality in Nepal had launched a campaign to clean up garbage and litter on Mount Everest; it received tremendous appreciation.
Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality in Solukhumbu district organised the campaign that has managed to pick up 3,000 kg of solid waste from the mountain. Of this waste, 2,000 kg is biodegradable and has been sent to Okhaldhunga for disposal; the remaining 1,000 kg of non-biodegradable trash will be exhibited on World Environment Day in Namche town and then transported to Kathmandu for disposal.
Even unclaimed human bodies on the mountainside have become a garbage-collection problem. Nepal and China have pledged to remove the bodies of around 200 hikers from Mount Everest that are either trapped in ice or strewn about the landscape.
The Telegraph reports that Nepal is being criticised for issuing 381 permits at £8,600 or over Rs 7 lakh each for this years climbing season. Director of Nepals Department of Tourism Mira Acharya said 78 Indians were granted permits.
In lieu of the lack of waste disposal, China said it will only issue 300 permits a year. While the policy is aimed at trash collection, it will also help curb the volume of climbers on the mountain.
The Nepal government, however, says that overcrowding on Mount Everest is not a cause for worry.
Rhea Arora is a Staff Writer at Qrius