This year’s climbing season Mount Everest was one of the most tragic in history.
As of 2023, more than a dozen climbers have died and five people remain missing. With 17 people missing, dead or presumed dead on the world’s highest peak, 2023 is the second deadliest climbing season on record, just behind 2018, when 18 climbers died in an earthquake.
A tragic season on Mount Everest. -40 degrees
Expedition organizers and government officials cited two reasons for the situation: extremely low temperatures caused by climate change and neglect by foreign tourists trying to reach the famous peak.
Yuba Raj Khatiwada, director of Nepal’s tourism department, said a “change in weather” was the cause of the death.
“The weather conditions were not favorable this season, they were very variable,” Khatiwada said, according to The Guardian. “Climate change is having a major impact on mountains,” he added.
Temperatures usually drop to a maximum of -27 degrees Celsius, but this year they fell to -40 degrees Celsius, Al Jazeera reported.
Mingma Gyalje, a Sherpa whose team opened the route to the summit this year, told Al Jazeera that extremely low temperatures and a lack of attention to safety led to the deaths.
Sherpas told Al Jazeera that even experienced guides were suffering from frostbite, meaning camps on the mountain were not fully supplied.
This year, Nepal issued a record number of permits to climbers wishing to attempt to conquer Everest.
The Sherpas said the unprepared foreign climbers were too eager to conquer the mountain and headed to the summit without being fully resupplied.
“The customers were impatient and started climbing,” says Sherpa Mingma Gyalje. “I think some accidents could have been avoided if all the supplies had been in place,” he added.
Above, a translation of the article by US edition of Insider.
Translation: Mateusz Albin
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