SALT LAKE CITY — There’s a bit of a traffic problem on Mount Everest lately — one that’s led to pollution and the deaths of 11 hikers so far this year — the most killed since 2014-15, when over 28 climbers and Sherpas were killed in avalanches.
Recent photos have shown a long line of hikers wearing various colored parka jackets waiting in line to summit Mount Everest. Social media users were surprised at the crowded image, and political writer Charles P. Pierce wrote on Twitter “can everybody please stop climbing Mount Everest for a while?”
According to USA Today, the cause of the mess involves poor government regulation and inexperienced climbers, leading to death on and off the mountain. It’s also worth noting that this year the biggest cause of death is altitude sickness, which Popular Science notes can lead to headaches, nausea, rib-cracking coughs and fatal fluid buildup in the lungs and brain.
Everest has so many people climbing the mountain this year because Nepal’s government has granted a record 381 permits to climbers, who have a seven-day window to get up an down the mountain before the permit expires. Permits can also be granted by China as well, depending on which mountain face is climbed.
Because of this, Alan Arnette, a climber from Colorado, says more than 825 people — including climbers and Sherpas — this year have reached the summit.
And while China has increased permit restrictions, Nepal apparently requires “little more than a doctor’s signature” to obtain a permit, which cost $11,000 each. Arnette also said expedition companies willing to subsidize the permit fees have contributed to the number of inexperienced climbers on the mountain.
“Low-cost guide companies (bring) in a new demographic of climbers who don't belong there. Limiting the number of permits isn't the solution. People should have to have climbed an 8,000-meter peak, and they need to tighten up who can guide there because right now they let anybody guide,” Arnette said.