“I do not believe in what I saw up there: Death Chaos Filas Bodies by the way and in tents in field Four People who tried to return back eventually died People to be dragged People to walk on corpses, said a climber who was on the scene.
The “overcrowding” of the Everest has already killed 11 since it became possible to ascend to the top of the Nepali mountain in March. Some of the climbers who were on the scene talked about the lethal impact of the excess of visitors and said they even had to “walk on corpses.”
On the day of the 66th anniversary since the first men, Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary, climbed the highest point in the world, the controversy about the high number of tourists on the mountain remains.
On May 22, a photographer released an image showing a long line of climbers, secured by a line of security. The same was done by a British director who was producing a documentary on four Arab women on the spot, Elia Saikaly , using social networks, last Thursday.
Elia Saikaly shared a publication that had since been deleted, in which one could see the line of climbers trapped by a rope and a person who seemed to be inert, lying on the mountainside.
I do not believe what I saw up there. Death. Chaos. Rows. Bodies by the way and in tents, in field four. The people who tried to turn back eventually died. People to be dragged. People walking on corpses. All that is read in the headlines of tabloids was what we watched during the climb, ” wrote the director, in the legend of the photo shared in the Instagram and that has already been eliminated.
Authorities estimate that this year about 600 people have climbed the mountain. The death toll climbed to 11 in just nine days after a series of avalanches hit the climbers. Most, however, passed away because of a condition called “altitude sickness,” caused by the lack of oxygen at high altitudes. No such large mortality has been recorded at the site since 2015.
No experience is required to apply for a license to climb the summit of Everest, which needs to be granted by Nepal’s public bodies. Each license costs about 10 thousand euros and the authorities guarantee that only 381 were given to tourists who do not reside in the country.
However, according to The Independent, Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world and fits in with about $ 300 million a year with the mountaineering industry. This factor may explain the record number of people climbing the mountain during this time.
There are more people on the Everest than they should be. There is a lack of regulations to determine the maximum number of people who can climb and at what time, ” said Kul Bahadur Gurung, Secretary General of the Mountaineering Association in Nepal, in an interview with AP.
Despite this, the government ensures that the licensing process has nothing to do with increased mortality.
