Death On A Mountain !

Media pictures of a great line of people waiting to reach the summit of Mount Everest was a shock to most of the world.  The fact that they were passing the unrecovered bodies of humans who simply ran out  of oxygen and died on the mountain was a testament to the madness that is now encompassing this experience.

Mount Everest on the border of Nepal and China is this worlds highest mountain and it remained unconquered until 1953 when New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tensing Norgay gained the summit in a historic climb.  It was known in climbing circles as " the mountain of death " for the number of earlier climbers who failed to reach the summit and died, either from the intense cold or lack of oxygen in what became known as the " death zone ".  Many famous climbers perished on that mountain in attempts to be the first to reach the summit.

Mount Everest quickly became " an industry " as aspiring celebrities hired Sherpas and bought expensive equipment for the climb.  They followed the route used by Hillary and Norgay and now ladders and other helpful equipment help mitigate the fall dangers.  The main unpredictable is the weather.   At that height, conditions can change very quickly and climbers need to heed their Sherpa guides and know when to retreat.

It seems that Everest is now on many people " bucket list ".   Something to be achieved before they die.  An unusually fine weather break has seen the danger of too many climbers forming a continuous queue to get to the summit and it seems inevitable that sooner or later this will lead to a mass tragedy.  There simply is not enough room for all those people to reach the summit in an orderly manner and safely make their way back down to the base camps.

One seasoned climber comments that the problem is " cut price operators " who are providing limited services to the climbers who have tried a number of time and failed - and have run out of money.  In many cases these climbers lack the physical fitness needed for the climb and if they run out of oxygen and get really sleepy they simply lie down and die.  A guide responsible for too many people will be unable to deliver the type of safety needed on such a high mountain.

Unfortunately, this overuse of the worlds highest mountain is delivering the same major problem that is happening on the rest of the planet - pollution.   The numbers passing through the various base camps is ever growing and what they leave behind ranges from used food containers , empty oxygen cylinders  to the human waste that stains these pristine slopes.  Now it seems that dead human bodies are another uncommon sight.

The number of climbers needs to be reduced as a matter of urgency and it is proposed that foreign climbers be first required to successfully climb another of the mountains famous peaks as a test of their physical fitness.  It might also be useful to require that guides have both the proper equipment and a limit of the numbers of climbers under their control to eliminate this queue of people passing each way on such a perilous trail.

Climbing Everest is a test of courage and endurance.   The mountain delivers the same hazards as Hillary and Norgay encountered back in 1953.