Perils of Climbing Mount Everest

Perils of Climbing Mount Everest

Ashim Kumar Paul

Mount Everest, located in the Himalayan mountain range on the border between Nepal and Tibet, China, is the highest mountain in the world with the summit reaching a peak of 29,029 feet (8,848 m) where hikers and adventurers from all over the world come and attempt to ascend this mountain. It literally means “the top or the head of the sky. Mount Everest, to the local Nepalese, is known as ‘Sagarmatha’ whereas, to the Tibetans (China), it is known as ‘Mt. Quomolongma’ that means "The Third Goddess" in Tibetan.

There are two main routes for mounting Mt. Everest. One is from south-east of Nepal and the other is from north of Tibet. The most preferred route out of the two is the one from Nepal. The best time to start off climbing is in May before the summer monsoon since the direction of the wind is quite favourable during that time. A whole team of climbers can help both amateur and novice climbers get to the peak. If one follows the standard route to climb, it can be quite safe. However, the problem is that the Himalayas are faced with bad weather and fast wind, leading to difficulty breathing at the high altitude.

Alongside the aura of the beauty surrounding Mount Everest, there are some “death zones” that claim many lives who are in attempt to ascend this mountain. Many climbers have died on Mount Everest since 1921 and over 200 of them are still on the mountain. Some are buried in crevasses. Some fell down remote parts of the mountain. Some are buried in snow and ice. Some lie in the open. And some sit beside the popular routes up Everest. The first recorded deaths on the mountain were the seven porters who perished in an avalanche in the 1922 British Mount Everest Expedition. George Mallory, who was present, blamed himself for the deaths. During the initial 1921 British Reconnaissance Expedition, there were two deaths en route to the mountain - an unidentified porter as well as heart attack victim Dr. A. M. Kellas. The latest victims  are a young Bangladeshi filmmaker and his South Korean companion died on Mount Everest on May 20, 2013, while they were on their way back after conquering the mountain.
The deceased were identified as Mohammad Khaled Hossain from Bangladesh and Sung Ho-Seo of South Korea. Both died in their tent a few hours after successfully ascending the summit. It was reported that they were attempting the ascent without supplementary oxygen and died on his way down the mountain.

While precarious for the novice mountaineer, the mountain has also claimed the lives of some of the most experienced climbers. Babu Chiri Sherpa had ascended the mountain several times, and in 1999 spent 20 hours on the summit of Everest, then a new record. He also mounted to the summit twice in two weeks and held the record climbing time from base camp to summit of 16 hours and 56 minutes. Experienced guide Rob Hall died on Everest shortly after becoming the first non-Sherpa to have summitted five times (1996).

The most infamous tragedy on the mountain was the 1996 Mount Everest disaster on May 11, 1996, during which eight people died while making summit attempts. In that entire season, fifteen people died trying to reach the summit, making it the deadliest single year in the mountain's history. The disaster gained wide hype and has been written about many times; both “Into Thin Air” by Jon Krakauer and “The Climb”  by Anatoli Boukreev were written by those mountaineers who were on Mount Everest at the time, and they gave conflicting accounts about the events. Intriguingly, 1996 was statistically a safe year for Everest climbers. Up to 1996, one in four climbers had died making the ascent; 1996 saw huge numbers of people attempting the climb and the statistics for 1996 reveal that only one in seven died.

Another notable incident occurred in 1998 when Francys Arsentiev and her husband, Sergei Arsentiev, became separated and then died while looking for each other. Francys's frozen body lay next to the main route to the summit for nine years before climber Ian Woodall lead an expedition to push her over an edge and out of view.

Another note is unconfirmed Russian deaths on the north side of Everest. After the Chinese invaded Tibet and took control of the region, they enacted strict travel restrictions against westerners. The Chinese government, however, did allow some Russian Soviet climbers near the mountain and reports leaked out of a Russian expedition in 1952. The alleged expedition, apparently led by Pavel Datschnolian, was said to have been a disaster, resulting in the deaths of Datschnolian and five other men. However, Russian and Chinese authorities have consistently denied that such an attempt took place, no physical evidence has ever been found to confirm its existence, nor is there any record of a person named Pavel Datschnolian.

Due to the difficulties and perils in bringing bodies down, most of those who die on the mountain remain where they fall, although some are moved by winds and ice. Two Nepalese climbers died on October 24, 1984, while trying to recover the body of Hannelore Schmatz. While searching for George Mallory's body in a "catchment basin" near the peak in 1999, searchers came across multiple bodies in the snow, including Mallory's.