TWELVE DIE ON EVEREST N 2019 DURING “ZOO-LIKE” CLIMBING SEASON

TWELVE DIE ON EVEREST N 2019 DURING “ZOO-LIKE” CLIMBING SEASON

In 2019, 12 people died on Everest in what was a particularly deadly climbing season on Mt. Everest. The New York Times reported: “Ed Dohring, a doctor from Arizona, had dreamed his whole life of reaching the top of Mt. Everest. But when he summited he was shocked by what he saw. Climbers were 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. To get up there, he had to wait hours in a line, chest to chest, one puffy jacket after the next, on an icy, rocky ridge with a several-thousand foot drop. He even had to step around the body of a woman who had just died. “It was scary,” he said by telephone from Kathmandu, Nepal, where he was resting in a hotel room. “It was like a zoo.” [Source: Kai Schultz, Jeffrey Gettleman, Mujib Mashal and Bhadra Sharma, New York Times, May 26, 2019]

“This has been one of the deadliest climbing seasons on Everest....And at least some seem to have been avoidable. The problem hasn’t been avalanches, blizzards or high winds. Veteran climbers and industry leaders blame having too many people on the mountain, in general, and too many inexperienced climbers, in particular. Fly-by-night adventure companies are taking up untrained climbers who pose a risk to everyone on the mountain. And the Nepalese government, hungry for every climbing dollar it can get, has issued more permits than Everest can safely handle, some experienced mountaineers say.

“Add to that Everest’s inimitable appeal to a growing body of thrill-seekers the world over. And the fact that Nepal, one of Asia’s poorest nations and the site of most Everest climbs, has a long record of shoddy regulations, mismanagement and corruption. The result is a crowded, unruly scene reminiscent of “Lord of the Flies” — at 29,000 feet. At that altitude, there is no room for error and altruism is put to the test.

“One of the critical problems in 2019, veterans say, seems to be the sheer number of people trying to reach the summit at the same time. And since there is no government traffic cop high on the mountain, the task of deciding when groups get to attempt their final ascent is left up to mountaineering companies. Climbers themselves, experienced or not, are often so driven to finish their quest that they may keep going even if they see the dangers escalating. A few decades ago, the people climbing Everest were largely experienced mountaineers willing to pay a lot of money. But in recent years, longtime climbers say, lower-cost operators working out of small storefronts in Kathmandu, the capital, and even more expensive foreign companies that don’t emphasize safety have entered the market and offered to take just about anyone to the top.

Everest Deaths in 2019 Linked to Traffic Jams and Inexperienced Climbers

The New York Times reported: “According to Sherpas and climbers, some of the deaths this year were caused by people getting held up in the long lines on the last 1,000 feet or so of the climb, unable to get up and down fast enough to replenish their oxygen supply. Others were simply not fit enough to be on the mountain in the first place. To reach the summit, climbers shed every pound of gear they can and take with them just enough canisters of compressed oxygen to make it to the top and back down. It is hard to think straight that high up, climbers say, and a delay of even an hour or two can mean life or death. [Source: Kai Schultz, Jeffrey Gettleman, Mujib Mashal and Bhadra Sharma, New York Times, May 26, 2019]

“Some climbers did not even know how to put on a pair of crampons, clip-on spikes that increase traction on ice, Sherpas said. Nepal has no strict rules about who can climb Everest, and veteran climbers say that is a recipe for disaster. “You have to qualify to do the Ironman,” said Alan Arnette, a prominent Everest chronicler and climber. “But you don’t have to qualify to climb the highest mountain in the world? What’s wrong with this picture?”

Garrett Madison of the US-based Madison Mountaineering company that sponsors climbers to Mt. Everest told Reuters many were not "well qualified or prepared climbers" and were without the support necessary to ascend and descend safely. “If they were with a strong and experienced team they would have likely been fine, but with minimal support, once something goes wrong it's tough to get back on course," Madison told Reuters.

Time is of essence a people can only stay in the “death zone”, even with supplemental oxygen, a limited amount of hours. According to Associated Press, “From Camp Four at 8,000 meters to the 8,850 meters peak, the final push on Everest in the “death zone”, “Every minute counts there,” said Eric Murphy, a mountain guide from Bellingham, Washington, who climbed Everest for a third time on May 23. He said what should have taken 12 hours took 17 hours because of struggling climbers who were clearly exhausted but had no one to guide or help them. Just a handful of inexperienced climbers, he said, is “enough to have a profound effect”. [Source: Associated Press, May 29, 2019]

Richard Salisbury of the Himalayan Database, which records all expeditions in the Nepalese Himalayas, said the duration of the “traffic jam” in 2019 was among the longest but it was certainly not new. “These have been occurring off and on for the last 20 years or so, depending upon the weather forecasts,” he said. To surge get to the top is pushed by the weather. May is the best time of the year to summit, but even then there are only a few days when it is clear enough and the winds are mild enough to make an attempt at the top. [Source: Omkar Khandekar, South China Morning Post, June 16, 2019]

Everest Deaths in 2019 Linked to Poor Management

In 2018, the New York Times reported, “veteran climbers, insurance companies and news organizations exposed a far-reaching conspiracy by guides, helicopter companies and hospitals to bilk millions of dollars from insurance companies by evacuating trekkers with minor signs of altitude sickness. Climbers complain of theft and heaps of trash on the mountain. And earlier this year, government investigators uncovered profound problems with some of the oxygen systems used by climbers. Climbers said cylinders were found to be leaking, exploding or being improperly filled on a black market. [Source: Kai Schultz, Jeffrey Gettleman, Mujib Mashal and Bhadra Sharma, New York Times, May 26, 2019]

“But despite complaints about safety lapses, this year the Nepali government issued a record number of permits, 381, as part of a bigger push to commercialize the mountain. Climbers say the permit numbers have been going up steadily each year and that this year the traffic jams were heavier than ever. “This is not going to improve,” said Lukas Furtenbach, a guide who recently relocated his climbers to the Chinese side of Everest because of the overcrowding in Nepal and the surge of inexperienced climbers. “There’s a lot of corruption in the Nepali government,” he said. “They take whatever they can get.”

“Nepali officials denied any wrongdoing and said the trekking companies were the ones responsible for safety on the mountain. Danduraj Ghimire, the director general of Nepal’s department of tourism, said in an interview on Sunday that the large number of deaths this year was not related to crowds, but because there were fewer good weather days for climbers to safely summit. He said the government was not inclined to change the number of permits. “If you look at the profiles of those who died, most of them were experienced mountaineers,” he said. “All climbers had a two-week window to reach the summit this year, but bad weather from May 18 to 21 forced us to cut it short by four days. The photograph that you see is from May 24 when there was considerable pressure on the peak. And even then, the traffic jam was only for a few hours, not at all times. If you really want to limit the number of climbers, let’s just end all expeditions on our holy mountain.”

When Thing Go Wrong on Everest

The New York Times reported: “ From interviews with several climbers, it seems that as the groups get closer to the summit, the pressures increase and some people lose their sense of decency. Fatima Deryan, an experienced Lebanese mountaineer, was making her way to the summit recently when less experienced climbers started collapsing in front of her. Temperatures were dropping to -30 Celsius. Oxygen tanks were running low. And roughly 150 people were packed together, clipped to the same safety line. “A lot of people were panicking, worrying about themselves — and nobody thinks about those who are collapsing,” Ms. Deryan said. “It is a question of ethics,” she said. “We are all on oxygen. You figure out that if you help, you are going to die.” She offered to help some of the sick people, she said, but then calculated she was beginning to endanger herself and kept going to the summit, which is currently measured at 29,029 feet. On the way back down, she had to fight her way again through the crowds. “It was terrible,” she said. [Source: Kai Schultz, Jeffrey Gettleman, Mujib Mashal and Bhadra Sharma, New York Times, May 26, 2019]

“Around the same time, Rizza Alee, an 18-year-old climber from Kashmir, a disputed territory between India and Pakistan, was making his way up the mountain. He said he was stunned by how little empathy people had for those who were struggling. “I saw some people like they had no emotions,” he said. “I asked people for water and no one gave me any. People are really obsessed with the summit. They are ready to kill themselves for the summit.” But Mr. Alee himself took some chances; he has a heart condition and says he “kind of lied” to his expedition company when they asked if he had any health issues.

Mr. Dohring, the American doctor, represents the other end of the spectrum. At 62, he has climbed peaks all over the world. He read about explorers as a boy and said he had always wanted to get to the “one spot where you can stand higher than any place else on earth.’’ To prepare for Everest, he slept at home in a tent that simulated high-altitude conditions. His total Everest experience cost US$70,000.

Still, there was only so much he could prepare for. Last month, when he hiked into base camp at Everest at an altitude of more than 17,000 feet, Mr. Dohring said he was overcome with awe. “You look at a circle of mountain peaks above you and think, ‘What am I doing here?’’’ he said. He pressed on. After long, cold days, he inched up a spiny trail to the summit early and ran into crowds “aggressively jostling for pictures.” He was so scared, he said, that he plunked down on the snow to keep from losing his balance and had his guide take a picture of him holding up a small sign that said, “Hi Mom Love You.’’

“On the way down, he passed two more dead bodies in their tents. “I was not prepared to see sick climbers being dragged down the mountain by Sherpas or the surreal experience of finding dead bodies,” he said. But he had made it out. He boarded a helicopter after reaching base camp and flew back to Kathmandu. He counted his blisters at the Yak and Yeti Hotel, where he said he treated himself to a thick steak and cracked open a cold beer. “Everest Lager, of course,” he said.

Those Who Died on Everest in 2019

Many of the dead in 2019 had reached the summit and were on their way down. Four climbers were from India and others were the United States, Britain, Austria, Ireland and Nepal .Many local guides blame the risks on the difficulty of terrain and human error — mostly of the climbers. Climbers, they say, have to push themselves hard to they will never reach the summit, despite advise from the Sherpas. Some expend most of their energy on the way up and have no energy for the descent, which can tricky and demanding. The New York Times provided the following description of the dead:

Séamus Lawless, 39, an Irish professor who studied artificial intelligence, is presumed to have died on May 16 after falling up to 1,600 feet from the balcony area of the mountain. Lawless texted his wife to say he had reached the summit and was headed home. He was said to be an experienced climber who had reached the summit before. His expedition leader told The Times of London that Mr. Lawless was the victim of a “freak accident” after he unclipped himself from his safety ropes. [Source: Karen Zraick and Derrick Bryson Taylor, New York Times, May 29, 2019]

Ravi Thakar, 28 an Indian climber, died on May 17 while in his sleep in his tent on the mountain’s highest camp site. Thaneswar Gurgai of Seven Summit Treks told The Associated Press that Mr. Thakar successfully reached the summit but began experiencing issues during his descent. Mr. Thakar’s body was discovered hours later.

Donald Cash, 54, of Utah, had achieved his goal of climbing the highest mountain on each of the seven continents, collectively known as the seven summits, before he collapsed on May 22. Mt. Everest was the last mountain on his agenda. Mr. Cash, a former software salesman, quit his job in December to take on the final two mountains in his goal. After scaling Everest, he initially fainted at the summit, according to Pioneer Adventures, a company that organizes trips on the mountain. He collapsed again while descending near Hillary Step and could not be revived.

Anjali Kulkarni, 54, of India, scaled the peak with her husband, Sharad Kulkarni. An expedition organizer told The Times of India that Ms. Kulkarni died from “energy loss” on her way back to Camp 4. A family friend, Ameet Singh, told the paper that the couple had climbed other mountains together, including Kilimanjaro. “Their fitness level was good,” Mr. Singh said. “Besides, there was no bad weather, no contention on availability of Sherpas. This is a sad turn of events.”

Nihal Bagwan, 27, of Solapur, India, suffered from acute dehydration and exhaustion on his way down from the summit on May 23, according to the Times of India. It was his second attempt to climb Everest after falling short five years ago. Mr. Bagwan recently received a master’s degree in physical education and planned to teach at a local institution, the paper reported. “We had planned a grand welcome for him, but were left stunned,” his friend Anand Bansode told the paper.

Kalpana Das, 50, of Odisha, India, scaled Everest twice, but did not survive the second expedition. The New Indian Express reported that she became ill and died on her way down the mountain, around the balcony area, on May 23. Odisha TV reported she tried to climb the mountain in 2004 and 2006, and succeeded in 2008. The clothes she wore during her 2008 trek have been put on display at Odisha’s State Museum. “It is a matter of great pride for every Odia that she had scaled the Mt. Everest,” said Jayanti Rath, the museum superintendent.

Ernst Landgraf, 64, an Austrian builder, also died on May 23 on his way down from the summit, Kobler & Partner, a mountaineering company based in Switzerland, said in a statement.

Mr. Landgraf was an experienced mountain climber who was in good physical shape, Austrian media reported. His trip up Everest had been his final climb of the seven summits. “He lived for his family, his profession, and his great passion, the mountains," his family wrote in a death notice published in the newspaper Kleine Zeitung.

Kevin Hynes, 56, an Irishman who lived in London, died in his tent on the Tibetan side on May 24 at an elevation of about 23,000 feet, the BBC reported. He had trekked to a higher altitude a day earlier, but decided to turn back, CNN reported. He had previously reached the summit of Everest in 2018. He didn’t make the summit in 2019. He was climbing on the Chinese side of the mountain as part of a group led by a Britain-based climbing company, 360 Expeditions. In a statement, the company said he had been “one of the strongest and most experienced climbers on our team.”

Dhruba Bista, 32, a Nepali climbing guide, fell while trekking down the mountain on May 24, said Mona Shahab, a Saudi climber and friend. She said that a Sherpa administered CPR, but Mr. Bista did not respond. Ms. Shahab called Mr. Bista “lighthearted, funny and skillful,” and a devoted husband and father. She noted that he and other guides often climbed to steep heights carrying heavy loads for their clients. “He was a good guide, very careful, always clipping into lines, knew exactly what to say when I hit my wall, and had a way in keeping me going and pushing a little harder,” she said. Elia Saikaly, a Canadian filmmaker who climbed Everest to make a documentary about Ms. Shahab and three other Arab women on the trail, said seeing Mr. Bista being airlifted out was devastating. “With the amount of lives lost, you ask yourself a lot of questions about what you’re doing there, is it worth it,” he said.

Robin Haynes Fisher, 44, a British climber, died 45 minutes after reaching the summit on May 25, according to the BBC. Several days earlier, he had warned of overcrowding on Mt. Everest in a post on Instagram and announced plans to delay his ascent. “With a single route to the summit delays caused by overcrowding could prove fatal so I am hopeful my decision to go for the 25th will mean fewer people,” he wrote. “Unless of course everyone else plays the same waiting game.” A statement from Everest Parivar Expedition said that Mr. Fisher was 492 feet below the summit when he suddenly “fell down.” A company official said guides were not able to revive him.

Christopher John Kulish, 62, a Colorado lawyer, had returned to South Col after reaching the summit, his seventh and final climb in his seven summits journey, said Mark Kulish, his brother. Mr. Kulish said his brother was “aware, fit and in a good mood” before entering his tent in the early morning of May 27. A guide later found him and administered CPR for 25 minutes, he said. A cause of death is not yet known. “He saw his last sunrise from the highest peak on Earth,” according to a statement from his family. “He passed away doing what he loved after returning to the next camp below the peak.”

Nepal Says Everest Rules Might Change After Crazy 2019 Climbing Season

At the end of the disastrous climbing season in 2019, Nepalese officials said they were considering changing rules about who was allowed to climb Everest. Bhadra Sharma and Jeffrey Gettleman wrote in the New York Times: After human traffic jams at the top of Mt. Everest and an aggressive, unruly atmosphere that has been likened to “a zoo,” Nepalese officials said that they were considering changing the rules about who was allowed up the world’s highest mountain. “It’s time to review all the old laws,” said Yagya Raj Sunuwar, a member of Parliament. Until now, just about anyone could get a permit to climb Mt. Everest. But this year has been marred by pileups at the top and a surge of inexperienced climbers. [Source: Bhadra Sharma and Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times, May 29, 2019]

“Several government officials in Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, said that they were analyzing what had happened and leaning toward requiring all climbers to submit proof of mountaineering experience and a verifiable certificate of good health. “Certainly there will be some change in the expedition sector,” said Mira Acharya, a senior official with Nepal’s tourism department. “We are discussing reforming some issues, including setting criteria for every Everest hopeful.’’ At a recent meeting, she said, “We raised the issue of inexperienced climbers.” China also runs expeditions to the top, but on the Chinese side it appears to be less of a free-for-all. There have been two deaths this year on the Chinese side out of about 300 climbers, compared with nine in Nepal, though almost 800 people climbed from the Nepal side.

“Amit Chowdhury, the president of the safety commission at the International Mountaineering Federation, said that the rules on some other mountains empowered guides to stop a climber from ascending if the guide felt the climber might not make it or was behaving badly. But, he said, “at Everest, it is not the same — you can hire a Sherpa on the streets of Kathmandu, or your travel agent says, ‘Here is your Sherpa,’ that’s it.” “There is no way to know whether that Sherpa can judge and determine the capability of the person who is climbing,” he added.

Under Nepal’s current rules, all climbers must submit a copy of their passport, limited biographical data and a certificate showing they are healthy enough to make it to the top. But Nepali officials admitted they did not have a way of verifying health information before granting permits. Foreigners pay US$11,000 for the permits alone, and the total cost of guides, equipment, food and lodging for the six-week expedition can easily surpass US$50,000. Nepali climbers pay about US$700 for a permit.

Different mountains have different rules. To scale Aconcagua in Argentina, climbers are asked to provide details of winter ascents they have made in the past. Similar experience is recommended for climbing Denali in Alaska and Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. For other peaks, such as Vinson in Antarctica or Elbrus in Russia, it seems there are fewer restrictions.

Suggestions to Improve the Everest Climbing Situation

Bhadra Sharma and Jeffrey Gettleman wrote in the New York Times: “Many veteran climbers attribute Everest’s problems to the proliferation of cheaper expedition companies that have popped up across Kathmandu in the past five to 10 years. These companies are hungry for climbing dollars, veterans say, and not nearly as discriminating. Adrian Ballinger, a mountaineer and head guide of Alpenglow Expeditions, said his company required all prospective Everest clients to be evaluated by a doctor if they had any health issues that could interfere with climbing the mountain. His company, he said, turns away 70 percent of applicants. “The problem is that so many of those people we denied for our teams, they probably just find a cheaper operator that is willing to take them,” he said. [Source: Bhadra Sharma and Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times, May 29, 2019]

“His suggestion? Nepal should mandate that anyone wanting to climb Everest, whose height is 29,029 feet or 8,848 meters, show proof of having scaled at least one other 8,000-meter peak. Since Nepal has several other peaks that high, getting climbers to work their way up to Everest could bring Nepal more money. “People would go to other mountains in Nepal before coming to Everest,” Mr. Ballinger said, “and you’d end up with people on Everest with much more experience.”

“Mr. Chowdhury had another suggestion: Set up an Everest nomination committee of international climbing organizations that would scrutinize an applicant’s statement of purpose and recommendations from guides on previous climbs. His biggest criticism of the Everest scene is that an increasing number of climbers are untrained and rely on guides to do all the work for them, like carrying oxygen cylinders. “If you look at the way Everest is climbed at the moment, it’s nothing but a guided trip up the mountain,” he said. “It is like you see people rafting in Colorado, or the Ganges in India — it’s the guide who does the rafting, the rest of the people are just passengers who are sitting there.’’

“Sherpas expressed concern about the unseasoned climbers but also complained about the Nepali government, saying it had failed to properly police the country’s most important mountain. Government officers sent to Everest base camp often come down with altitude sickness and desert their posts, the Sherpas said, leaving the expedition companies to monitor the flow of traffic themselves. “It would be great if inexperienced climbers were not allowed to climb Everest,” said Lakpa Dendi Sherpa, an experienced Nepali guide. “But who will do this? The government? I don’t think so. They can’t even remove the garbage from Everest. They do nothing other than collect revenue.”“

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, Nepal Tourism Board (ntb.gov.np), Nepal Government National Portal (nepal.gov.np), The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Wikipedia and various books, websites and other publications.

Last updated February 2022


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