"It was like a zoo": Death on an undisciplined and overloaded Mount Everest

NEW DELHI – Arizona doctor Ed Dohring had dreamed all his life of reaching the summit of Mount Everest. But when he got to the top a few days ago, he was shocked by what he saw.
Climbers jostled for selfies. The flat part of the summit, which he estimated at about the size of two ping-pong tables, had 15 or 20 people. To get there, he had to wait for hours in a line, one chest at a time, one swollen jacket after another, on an icy, rocky ridge with a fall of several thousand feet.

He even had to bypbad the body of a woman who had just died.
"It was scary," he said by telephone in Kathmandu, Nepal, where he was resting in a hotel room. "It was like a zoo."
This climbing season was one of the deadliest of Everest, with at least 10 deaths. And at least some seem to have been avoided.
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The problem does not concern avalanches, blizzards or high winds. Seasoned mountaineers and industry leaders attribute responsibility for the presence of too many people on the mountain, in general, and too many of them. inexperienced mountaineers, in particular.
Adventure flying companies recruit untrained mountaineers who pose a risk to everyone in the mountains. And the Nepalese government, hungry for every dollar of increase it can get, has issued more permits than Everest can handle safely, according to some seasoned mountaineers.
Add to that the inimitable appeal of Everest to a growing number of people seeking thrills around the world. And the fact that Nepal, one of the poorest countries in Asia and the site of most Everest climbs, has a long list of poor quality regulations, mismanagement and corruption.
The result is a crowded and unruly scene reminiscent of the "Lord of Flies" – at 29,000 feet. At this altitude, a delay of an hour or two can be synonymous with life or death.
To reach the summit, mountaineers throw out every kilo of gear they can and carry with them just enough canisters of compressed oxygen to reach the summit and the descent. It is difficult to think straight of this altitude, say the mountaineers.
According to Sherpas and mountaineers, some of the deaths this year were caused by people stranded in long lines on the last 1,000 feet of the climb, unable to get up and down fast enough to replenish their stock d & # 39; oxygen. . Others were just not fit enough to be on the mountain in the first place.
Some mountaineers did not even know how to put on a pair of crampons, clip-on points that increase traction on the ice, Sherpas said.
Nepal does not have strict rules regarding who can climb Everest, and experienced mountaineers say it's a recipe for disaster.
"You have to qualify to do the Ironman," said Alan Arnette, eminent columnist and Mountaineer of Everest. "You have to qualify to run the New York Marathon, but you do not have to qualify to climb the highest mountain in the world?" What's wrong with this photo? "
The last time 10 or more people died on Everest, it was in 2015, during an avalanche.
In some ways, the Everest machine has become totally out of control.
Last year, seasoned mountaineers, insurance companies and news agencies exposed a large-scale plot between guides, helicopter companies and hospitals to pocket Millions of dollars from insurance companies evacuating hikers with minor signs of altitude sickness.
Mountaineers complain about theft and piles of garbage on the mountain. And this year, government investigators have uncovered huge problems with oxygen systems that save the lives of many mountain climbers. Mountaineers said the bottles had exploded or had been leaked or had been poorly filled on a black market.
But despite complaints about security breaches, the Nepalese government issued a record number of permits, 381, as part of a larger effort to commercialize the mountain. Climbers say the number of permits is increasing steadily every year and traffic jams have been heavier than ever this year.
"This is not going to improve," said Lukas Furtenbach, a guide who recently transferred his mountaineers to the Chinese side of Everest because of overpopulation in Nepal and the rise in power inexperienced climbers.
"There is a lot of corruption in the Nepalese government," he said. "They take everything they can get."
Nepali officials denied any wrongdoing and said trekking companies were those responsible for mountain safety.
Danduraj Ghimire, chief executive of Nepal's tourism department, said in an interview Sunday that the high number of deaths this year was not related to the crowd, but was due to fewer days sunny for mountaineers. . He said the government was not inclined to change the number of permits.
"If you really want to limit the number of climbers," says Ghimire, "let's finish all the expeditions on our holy mountain."
Of course, the race at the top depends on the weather. May is the best month of the year to climb to the top, but even then there are only a few days left when the weather is clear enough and the winds are mild enough to make an attempt at the top. .
But one of this year's critical issues, veterans say, seems to be the sheer number of people trying to reach the summit at the same time. And as there is no government agent at the top of the mountain, it is up to mountaineering companies to decide when groups will attempt their last climb.
Climbers themselves, experienced or otherwise, are often so motivated to finish their quest that they can continue even if they see the dangers worsen.
A few decades ago, people who climbed Everest were largely experienced mountaineers willing to pay a lot of money. But in recent years, say the long-time climbers, low-cost operators working in small storefronts in Kathmandu, the capital, and even more expensive foreign companies that do not put the emphasis on safety are entered the market and offered to take anyone to the top.
Sometimes these trips go very badly.
According to interviews with several mountaineers, it seems that the closer the groups are to the summit, the more the pressure increases and the more people lose their sense of decency.
Fatima Deryan, an experienced Lebanese alpinist, was recently heading to the summit when less experienced mountaineers began to collapse in front of her. Temperatures dropped to -30 Celsius (-22 Fahrenheit). The oxygen tanks were weak. And about 150 people were packed together, tied to the same security line.
"Many people panicked, worried about themselves – and no one thought of those who collapsed," Deryan said.
"It's an ethical issue," she said. "We are all under oxygen, you think that if you help, you will die."
She offered to help some sick people, she said, but then calculated that she was starting to put herself in danger and that she was going to the summit, currently being measured at 29,029 feet. On the way back, she had to fight again among the crowd.
"It was terrible," she said.
Around the same time, Rizza Alee, an 18-year-old mountaineer from Kashmir, was climbing the mountain. He said he was stunned by the lack of empathy that people had for those who struggled.
"I saw people like they had no emotion," he said. "I asked people for water and no one gave it to me.People are really obsessed with the summit.They are ready to kill themselves for the summit."
But Alee himself took risks; he has heart disease and says that he "somehow lied" to his expedition company when they asked him if he had any health problems.
Dohring, the American doctor, represents the other end of the spectrum.
At 62, he climbed summits around the world. He read articles about the explorers in his childhood and said that he had always wanted to go to "the place where you can stand higher than any other place on the planet." ".
To prepare for Everest, he sleeps at home in a tent simulating high altitude conditions. His total experience at Everest cost $ 70,000.
Yet he could only prepare to the extent of his possibilities. Last month, while traveling to Everest Base Camp at altitudes above 17,000 feet, Mr. Dohring said he was impressed.
"You look at a circle of mountains above you and you say to yourself," What am I doing here? "
He continued, after long and cold days he progressed early on a thorny path to the top and hit the crowd" jostling for photos. "
He was so scared, he said, that he dropped on the snow not to lose balance and asked his guide to take a picture with a small sign saying: "Hello, my mother, I love you."
As he descended, he encountered two other corpses in their tents.
"I was not ready to see sick mountaineers being dragged down by the mountain by Sherpas or the surrealist experience of finding corpses, "he said.
But on Sunday he had managed .He climbed into a helicopter after reaching base camp and returned to Kathmandu.
He counted his bulbs at the hotel Yak and Yeti, where he claimed to be serving i have a thick steak and have opened a cold beer. "Everest Lager, of course," he says.