Navigating through heavy traffic, unhygienic accomodations, "dirty" surroundings and deaths. No, we're not talking about a crowded city but the highest place on earth - Mount Everest - where congestion have become a common sight and recent casualties have brought to light some glaring concern.
A video viral on social media shows long queues of climbers on top of Mount Everest - the world's highest mountain peak - and has been reported to be the aftermath of a Tuesday incident in which British climber Daniel Paterson, 39, and his Nepali guide Pas Tenji Sherpa, 23, were dragged down the side of the mountain after a chunk of hardened snow overhanging the edge of a cliff suddenly fell.
Paterson and Tenji were part of a 15-person group that reached the top of the world’s tallest peak at 29,032 feet, according to a BBC report. They were still unaccounted for as of Saturday, May 24.
'Mt. Everest Is Not A Joke'
One of the many clips posted on social media of the traffic jam on Everest was captioned: "Mt. Everest is not a joke and in fact, quite a serious climb." The clip was posted on Instagram by Rajan Dwivedi on May 20, which showed him waiting in a single line with dozens of climbers behind him trying to make the summit.
He said that for him, "coming down was a nightmare and exhausting while huge line of climbers were coming up to maximise on the weather window!!"
He successfully summited Everest at 6 am on May 19.
Several clips on social media in recent months have shown climbers screaming as they watched dead bodies slide by them.
"I believe so far ~7,000 have summited since 1st ascent in May 1953. Many end up with frost bites, snow blindness and various type of injuries that are not counted in any database. This video captured shows what we face on one rope line and negotiating interchanges during the traffic for upstream and downstream!" Rajan Dwivedi said.
"The main reason is weather window to avoid the fierce cruising jet streams that could be 100-240mph!! For me, coming down was a nightmare and exhausting while huge line of climbers were coming up to maximize on the weather window!!!" he added.
'Dirtiest, Most Controversial Place On Earth'
Everest; the highest, the dirtiest and the most controversial place on Earth, said another climber on microblogging platform X, formerly Twitter.
The Northerner said in the post "humans bypassing corpses, leaving people dying, ignoring help cries" make Everest the "dirtiest place with pollution and human wastes".
"All for the glory of summit. When will it stop?!" the post read.
In recent years, climbing seasons have seen a spike in the number of summiters, leading to congestion at world's tallest peak where harsh temperatures and inclement weather lead to frost bites, snow blindness, many other injuries and even deaths.
Everest More Accessible Than Ever
According to a 2022 report of outsideonline.com, Nepali officials required climbers to show proof that they had first climbed a mountain in Nepal above 21,300 feet before obtaining a permit for Everest, but in 2022, Everest was open to anyone who could afford the price, regardless of climbing experience.
To increase chances of a successful summit, the mountaineering community has been carrying out new series of preparation strategies and is using climbing infrastructure, specifically hypoxic tents for pre-acclimatisation and helicopter shuttles to ferry expedition teams from Kathmandu to base camps, the report mentioned.
The combination of new methods and relaxed regulations has made Mount Everest far more accessible now than it ever was.
In blog post cited in the report, longtime Everest chronicler Alan Arnette wrote: “People are now buying a summit, not earning it.”
Arnette said that improvements to expedition logistics and climbing technology have paved the way for less experienced climbers and Sherpa guides to venture into the Himalayas.
Arnette attributed this as a primary reason why Everest is now being overcrowded, adding that the "summit-or-bust culture" places profits above safety.
“The truth is that you’ve got inexperienced climbers with unqualified guides on these mountains. And it’s all driven by money,” he said.
