High above the clouds on Earth’s highest peak, climbers are struggling to climb Mount Everest.
The narrow window of the spring summit season, which usually lasts from April to May, is the best time to climb. The weather has become clearer and the winds have died down, but that doesn’t guarantee safety: Officials say at least five people have died and three others are missing since the start of this climbing season.
The situation has led to the bottleneck as disturbing videos circulated of climbers waiting in dangerously long lines on cliffs.
The climb’s popularity in recent years has sparked concerns that overcrowding, competition and inadequate vetting of novice climbers are making the climb more dangerous.
It is feared that more climbers will die.
Most climbers set out from Nepal, a process that requires a 10-day trek to base camp, a few weeks to acclimatize to the altitude, and a final week to reach the summit.
But the journey was hard. It is understood that more than 300 people have lost their lives on Mount Everest, and an estimated 200 bodies remain there due to difficulty in retrieving them.
Last spring set a grim record of 18 deaths, making it the deadliest year on record in recent times, according to the mountaineering agency Himalayan Database.
Nepalese officials have confirmed that at least five people have died this year and the number is likely to rise.
-
On Wednesday, a 37-year-old Nepali climber, Binod Babu Bastakoti, died above the base of his summit attempt.
-
Kenyan climber Joshua Cheruiyot Kirui, 40, also died near the summit on Wednesday. His guide Nawang Sherpa is still missing.
-
British climber Daniel Paul Paterson, 40, and Nepalese guide Pastenji Sherpa, 23, went missing on Tuesday after an iceberg collapsed near the summit.
-
Romanian climber Gabriel Viorel Tabara, 46, died in his tent at Advanced Base Camp on Tuesday.
-
Two Mongolian climbers, Usukhjargal Tsedendamba, 53, and Purevsuren Lkhagvajav, 31, died on May 13 while attempting to summit Everest without supplementary oxygen and Sherpa guides.
A collapsed cornice stranded the group of climbers.
A cornice collapsed near other climbers, causing several people to fall and a group of people to be briefly stranded.
Climbers were descending from Mount Everest’s south summit on Tuesday when they passed the Hillary Step, which is about 8,800 meters (28,871 feet) above sea level, when an iceberg near the south summit collapsed.
Several climbers were eventually able to get back to their feet, but despite a search and rescue effort, British climber Mr Patterson and his guide Mr Sherpa “could not be found”, according to 8K Expedition.
8K Expedition director Lakpa Sherpa said on Saturday that officials had not confirmed the deaths but that it would have been difficult to save them.
“There was traffic that day,” Mr. Sherpa said, adding that a lack of coordination caused at least 150 climbers to retreat. “People can’t wait. They’re trying to cross the line.
Vinayak Jaya Malla, a mountain guide who was at the summit on Tuesday, shared footage of climbers perched along the summit’s narrow ridge, with one climber apparently using a safety rope to pull himself up in the snow.
“Many climbers were trapped in traffic and lacked oxygen,” he said on social media, adding that four other climbers who nearly died were stuck on ropes.
He said that after the cornice collapsed, it became impossible to cross. Eventually the climbers descended using a new route.
Fewer permits are being issued to climbers this year.
Khimlal Gautam, an official at Everest Base Camp, said the climbing window this year is longer than last year.
He said permits were issued to 421 climbers this year compared to 478 last year. But he said it was difficult to say whether overcrowding endangered climbers.
“Obviously, Everest, and especially the Hillary Step, gets crowded as climbers try to compete to reach the summit,” Mr. Gautam said, adding that some climbers failed to follow instructions to avoid crowds.
