When attempting to reach the highest mountain on Earth, climbers faced challenges such as heavy traffic, a dirty and expansive base camp, and increasing fatalities.
Recent attention has been drawn to the crowded conditions on Mount Everest, where two missing climbers were presumed dead after a section of an icy ridge collapsed.
Videos on social media show a long line of climbers stranded following the tragic incident on Tuesday in which a British climber, Daniel Paterson, 39, and his Nepali guide, Pas Tenji Sherpa, 23, were pulled down the side of the mountain by a chunk of hardened snow that fell from the edge of a cliff, as reported by the BBC.
These videos are part of a collection of images depicting the constant congestion of climbers heading to the summit. Several videos from recent months capture climbers reacting in shock as they witness deceased individuals sliding past them.
Indian mountaineer Rajan Dwivedi, who successfully summited Everest at 6am on May 19, wrote on Instagram that "Mt Everest is not a joke and in fact, quite a serious climb."
“I believe so far (more than) 7000 have summited since 1st ascent in May 1953. Many end up with frost bites, snow blindness and various types of injuries that are not counted in any database,” he wrote in a post that included a video of the endless, snaking line of climbers coming up and back down as they seized one of the rare weather windows.
“This video captured shows [sic] what we face on one rope line and negotiating interchanges during the traffic for upstream and downstream! The main reason is weather window to avoid the fierce cruising jet streams that could be 100-240mph (160-386kmh)! For me, coming down was a nightmare and exhausting while huge line of climbers were coming up to maximise on the weather window.”
Overcrowding on Everest has been a problem for years but the world’s biggest mountain has recently become an increasing concern to officials.
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