The 29,029-foot commodity has become the groundhog day of high-altitude climbing.
Chomolungma/Sagarmatha doesn’t want you. If you’re not one of the great #mountaineers like Ed Viesturs, who has decades of high-altitude experience, and whose unique physiology allows him to climb without supplemental oxygen, stay home.
Surely there must be some other place that one can go, or something else one can do that could take #MountEverest’s place on a bucket list. No sane person would jump into a race car and onto the Indy 500 racetrack without knowing how to drive. Or, no one would walk a tightrope between two skyscrapers with a fear of heights. So the obvious question – why would one attempt to summit the highest mountain in the world with minimal mountaineering training?
George Mallory famously said, "Because it’s there." And because now anyone with the funds can make the attempt. By democratizing the mountain, the experience can be purchased. And Instagrammed. And Facetimed. The presumption was a win/win for all.
The community of trained mountaineers is not a huge one, and it is far more than a community of thrill-seekers (although this has been debated for decades). The best of the best balance the thrill with the management of risk, like Viesturs. Some of the long preparation as a mountaineer includes climbing smaller mountains in different regions and countries with diverse topology, evolving technical training, and often years of planning for one specific peak. The need for every possible outcome and weather condition to be considered is as vast as the ranges that mountaineers seek to conquer.
The Human Cost
With the 2019 climbing season winding to down, it’s the same story, different year – I wrote that post in 2016, 2015, 2014 and beyond – and still nothing changes. At this writing, there are 11 deaths on the mountain confirmed this year. The crowds to summit continue to grow, and yes, that is a great boom for Nepal’s economy. But when the larger picture is revealed, it’s a terrible fact for humankind. There must be a better way to stimulate an economy than extreme tourism.
2018 was a relatively calm climbing season with a record 802 summits due to record weather – eleven straight days of good summit windows – allowing climbers to spread out and offset crowding at the top. Last year also recorded a lower than average death total of five lives rather than the median of six per climbing season. If we’re just talking about stats, 2018 would be considered one of the better years on the mountain.
But deaths trump stats and even one is too many. Some of the causes of the deaths on Mount Everest include:
Inadequate training and mountaineering inexperience (less experienced climbers tend to take more risks)
Support issues (insufficient oxygen; lack of, or ignoring instructions)
Ignoring signs of acute mountain sickness (AMS) or other health problems like fatigue, and not turning back in enough time to descend
Non disclosure of health issues at the start
Bad and changing weather
Crowding and bunching at the ascent to the summit (referred to as “the conga line,” creating chaos for all teams)
Bucket list must do – where not summitting is not an option
Approaching the climb with an adventure tourist mentality
This is not to imply that only adventure-seeking tourists die on the mountain. While the economic divide of those on the mountain is wide, its victims are taken at all levels of experience and class. But the presence of the throngs of inexperienced climbers has a ripple effect and places everyone at a higher risk.
A guide with Alpine Ascents, a premier expedition group, explained:
“One of the most important skills for the guides who accompany [climbers] is knowing when to turn people around. The idea isn't to push yourself to the ultimate maximum to reach the summit. Then there's no steam or energy left in your body to get down."
The Monetary Cost
Including airfare and travel, supplies and equipment, permits, insurance and guides, the price to climb does not come cheap. The average cost varies between the guides chosen, the route and the country of origin – although for 2019, Nepal and Tibet have brought their price structure more in sync.
Estimates vary depending on whether an a la carte approach or a fully supported expedition is chosen. Nepalis occupy the lower-end market while foreign companies sit at the higher end. Prices can start around $32,000 and can escalate to over $100,000. That does not include any pre-Everest training.
The Environmental Cost
The consequences of an over-crowded mountain cannot be overstated. Many climbers have argued that the foot traffic alone has caused irreparable damage.
For decades, Everest has been called “the world highest garbage dump.” Discarded oxygen tanks, trash, broken gear, batteries, human waste, and even bodies line the trail. Experienced climbers point to inexperienced adventure climbers as contributors to this situation. But climbers leave after their goals are fulfilled, leaving the mountain and its people with a sky-high trash heap that contaminates their water supply.
In 2014, the Nepali government instituted carry-out rules. Each climber was expected to carry out approximately 18 pounds of rubbish (the estimated amount of waste per person per expedition) or risk losing their deposit. While the idea was universally liked, the rules of enforcement were problematic. If a climber is struggling to descend, carrying an additional load in an oxygen-starved environment is unlikely. Then what?
Much of the clean-up still falls on the Sherpas, post-climbing season, where last year nearly two tons of trash was collected from 8,000 meters and below. A terrific documentary called Death Zone: Cleaning Mount Everest (included with Amazon Prime) recounts the first team of 20 Sherpas who organized this clean-up effort nearly a decade ago. The team removed about 75% of the waste above the South Col (almost 26,000 ft) and brought down two bodies. Survival alone is astonishing at nearly 5.5 miles above sea level. Add repeated ascents and descents through the extremely dangerous Khumbu Icefall to collect waste and carry nearly 100 pounds at a time down to Base Camp, in addition to one's own body weight – that's quite an accomplishment!
In 2018, there was a noticeable improvement in waste management. Locals began to recycle the non-biodegradable waste. Some even created art from it.
Photo: © Nirmal Purja/Project Possible/AFP | Overcrowding at the approach to the summit of Mount Everest in late may 2019 | from The Guardian.
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