10 People Die on Mt. Everest Due to Overcrowding.
10 People have died, including 4 Indians near the peak of Mt. Everest due to long lines to reach the summit.
Mt. Everest the tallest mountain in the world at 29,029 feet in Nepal has seen one of its worst few days ever with 10 people being reported dead or missing this climbing season. Out of the dead and missing are 4 Indians, 1 Nepalese, 1 Austrian and an American and two Irish climbers. A person from the UK died minutes after reaching the top. One of the Indian climbers, Nihal Bhagwan died of exhaustion after being stuck near the peak for nearly 12 hours.
The Director General of Nepal’s tourism authority Dandu Raj Ghimire has said that 381 people tried the climb this season. Due to bad weather the opportunities to reach the peak are very less and they last for short periods of time. He said that this time the number of people was “higher than expected”. The Nepal government has said bad weather conditions are to blame.
Ed Dohring, a doctor from Arizona, had dreamed his whole life of reaching the top of Mount Everest. When he reached the peak he was shocked by what he saw. He saw climbers pushing and shoving to take selfies. The flat part of the summit, which he estimated at about the size of two Ping-Pong tables, was packed with 15 or 20 people. He even had to step around the body of a woman who had just died.To get up there, he had to wait hours in a line, chest to chest, on an icy, rocky ridge with a several-thousand foot drop. At that altitude, there is no room for error.
Experienced climbers people on the mountain, in general, and too many inexperienced climbers, in particular. Untrained climbers pose a risk to everyone on the mountain. Many people have been saying for years that too many try to climb the mountain between April, May and June. Each permit to climb costs $11,000 (Rs 764464.80) and is a huge source of income to the government and tourism board. The Nepalese government has issued more permits than Everest can safely handle. There are no exact figures on how many people have died on Mt. Everest but estimates put it at just over 280 people. Most deaths are from avalanches or falls making recovery of bodies nearly impossible, mountain sickness also causes deaths with symptoms of dizziness, vomiting and headaches.
