‘Walking over bodies’: mountaineers describe carnage on EverestAn experienced mountaineer has described the “death, carnage and chaos” at the top of Mount Everest as climbers pushed past bodies to reach the world’s highest summit.
The death toll on the mountain grew to 11 in the past day after an American doctor was killed while descending from the peak. It emerged also that an Australian climber was discovered unconscious but had survived after being transported downhill on the back of a yak.
Elia Saikaly, a film-maker, reached Hillary Step, the final stage before the summit, on the morning of 23 May, where he said the sunrise revealed the lifeless body of another climber. With little choice at that altitude but to keep moving, his team – including Joyce Azzam, the first Lebanese woman to climb the world’s “Seven Summits” – made it to the peak a short time later.
“I cannot believe what I saw up there,” Saikaly said of the last hours of his climb in a post on Instagram. “Death. Carnage. Chaos. Lineups. Dead bodies on the route and in tents at camp 4. People who I tried to turn back who ended up dying. People being dragged down. Walking over bodies. Everything you read in the sensational headlines all played out on our summit night.”
This year’s Everest climbing season is so far the fourth deadliest on record, with mountaineers blaming poor weather, inexperienced climbers and a record number of permits issued by the Nepalese government, which, along with a rule that every climber has to be accompanied by a sherpa, led to there being more than 820 people trying to reach the summit.
“There were 200-plus climbers making their way to the summit,” Saikaly told the Guardian of his ascent. “I came across a deceased climber … that person’s body was fixed to an anchor point between two safety lines and every single person that was climbing towards the summit had to step over that human being.
i am posting about this again because i am really disturbed by this situation!
i think it is dumb to want to climb Mount Everest! I understand that it used to be a big achievement, but when you have to wait in a line of 200 people to get there? How is that unique or special anymore?
They are lining up at the elevation known as the "
Death Zone."
if climbers want to summit Mount Everest, the tallest peak in the world at 29,029 feet (8,848 meters or 5.5 miles) above sea level, they have to brave what's known as "The Death Zone" — the altitude above 8,000 meters where there is so little oxygen that the body starts to die, minute by minute and cell by cell.
You are actually in the process of dying for every second you stay above 8k! And you are spending those seconds waiting in a line of 200 people!
I understand maybe in the 20th century, having summitted Everest was a cool accomplishment to have. But not when 200 people already beat you there THAT DAY.
And it sounds like people turn into monsters up there! They put themselves in a life-or-death situation and use the situation as an excuse not to help people dying in front of them, then just climb over the bodies.
It's just so metaphorical...for something