On Saturday two mountaineers died on Mount Everest and which raise the death toll to ten of those climbers who died on the world’s tallest mountain prior week. The traffic jam of climbers in the Mount Everest death zone was blamed for at least four of these deaths. Due to the short window of suitable weather and due to close soon timings, along with scores of climbers wanted to attain the ultimate mountaineering honor were the reasons which created bottlenecks close to the peak.
On Saturday morning, Robin Fisher, a British climber, reached the peak but fell ill at the time of descending. Murari Sharma of Everest Parivar Treks Company who arranges his logistics supposed; he died due to weakness after the long ascent and tough descent. He told media ‘he was descending with his Sherpa guides from the peak when he unexpectedly fainted.’
Prior to this incident on Friday morning, Kevin Hynes, an Irish climber died on the northern Tibet side as per his expedition organizers alleged in a statement on their Facebook page. They confirmed that ‘Kevin died in his tent at North Col are 7000m in early hours of 24th May. They also added that he started his descent from Camp III on the Everest.
There have been many reports of queuing and overcrowding of climbers near the summit. It has been noted that climbers usually effort to scale the Himalayan peaks with their guides amid the months of March and May. Mira Acharya, The director of Nepal’s department of tourism, supposed that 381 international mountaineers were granted permits to climb up the tallest peak this year and out of them 78 were Indian nationals.
On Thursday also two Indians and an Austrian died on Mount Everest owing to a situation same as a traffic jam close to the summit of the mountain. Even on Wednesday an American, as well as an Indian, died because of congestion nearby peak. On 16th May last week, a mountaineer Narayan Singh along with Indian Army soldier Ravi Thakar both passed away at Camp IV. Also Séamus Lawless, An Irish professor, presumed after he fell from the mountain the same day.
Garrett Madison, who sponsors climbers to Mount Everest and is from the US-based Madison Mountaineering Company alleged that many were not well experienced as well as prepared climbers and were with the support required to ascend and descend securely. He added that ‘if they were with the strong and experienced squad, they would likely been fine. However, with less support once sometimes goes erroneous and could be difficult to get back on course.’
Some things changed following a photo of huge traffic jam below the summit, which was shown in 2012 and which called for better crowd management. That year about ten people passed away on the summit and were considered as worst in the year 2014 and 2015. On the other side, the death toll on many other mountains above 8000 m in Nepal has touched 20 this season. As per reports till date besides 10 deaths on Mount Everest, four climbers also passed away on Mount Makalu, 3 on Mount Kanchenjunga as well as one each on Mount Annapurna, Mount Cho Oyu, and Mount Lhotse.
For All Everest Lovers a Must Watch Video, This was shared by someone on WhatsApp:
