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NEW DELHI – Ed Dohring, a doctor from Arizona, 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 get around the frozen body of a woman who had just died.
"It was scary," he said by phone from Kathmandu, Nepal, where he was resting in a hotel room. "It was like a zoo."
This was one of the deadliest climbing seasons in Everest, with at least 10 deaths. And at least some seem to have been avoided.
The problem was not avalanches, blizzards or high winds. Seasoned mountaineers and industry leaders are held responsible for the fact that there are too many people in the mountains and too many inexperienced mountaineers in particular.
Fly-by-Night adventure companies hire untrained mountaineers who pose a risk to everyone on the mountain. 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 incredible 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 location of most Everest climbs, has a long history of poor quality regulations, mismanagement and corruption.
The result is a crowded and unruly scene reminiscent of the "Lord of the 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 top, mountaineers throw out every kilo of gear they can and carry just enough cans of compressed oxygen to get to the top and the bottom. It is difficult to think straight of this altitude, say the mountaineers.
According to the Sherpas and mountaineers, some of the deaths this year are attributable to people stranded in long lines during the last 1000 feet of the climb, unable to get on and off fast enough to replenish their oxygen supply. 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, claw points that increase traction on the ice, Sherpas said.
Nepal does not have strict rules on who can climb Everest, and seasoned mountaineers say it's the recipe for disaster.
"You have to qualify to do Iron Man. You must qualify to run the New York City Marathon, "said Alan Arnette, eminent columnist and Mountaineer of Everest. "But you do not have to qualify to climb the highest mountain in the world? What's wrong with this picture? "
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 even more out of control.
Last year, seasoned mountaineers, insurance companies and news agencies denounced a large-scale plot by guides, helicopter companies and helicopters. hospitals aiming to pocket millions of dollars from insurance companies by evacuating hikers with minor signs of altitude sickness.
Climbers complain about theft and piles of garbage on the mountain. And earlier this year, government investigators discovered huge problems with oxygenation systems that save lives and are used by many mountain climbers. Mountaineers said the bottles leaked, exploded or were poorly filled on a black market.
Despite complaints about security breaches, the Nepalese government has issued a record 381 licenses this year as part of a larger campaign 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 of inexperienced climbers .
"There is a lot of corruption in the Nepalese government," he said. "They take everything they can get."
Nepali officials have denied any wrongdoing and said trekking companies were those responsible for mountain safety.
Danduraj Ghimire, chief executive of Nepal's tourism department, said Sunday in an interview that the high death toll this year was not related to the crowds, but at least because of the least good weather 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," said Ghimire, "let's just stop all expeditions on our holy mountain."
To be sure, the race at the top is dictated by 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. .
According to veterans, one of this year's critical issues seems to be the sheer number of people trying to reach the top 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.
The climbers themselves, whether they are experienced or not, are often so motivated to finish their quest that they can continue even as 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 entered the market and offered to take anyone to the top. .
Sometimes these trips are very bad.
According to interviews with several mountaineers, it seems that the closer the groups are to the summit, the more the pressure increases and some people lose their sense of decency.
Fatima Deryan, an experienced Lebanese mountaineer, was recently heading to the summit when less experienced alpinists began to collapse in front of her. Temperatures dropped to -30 ° C. Oxygen tanks were weak. And about 150 people were packed together, tied to the same security line.
"A lot of people were panicking, worrying about themselves – and no one is thinking about those who are falling apart," said Deryan.
"It's an ethical issue," she said. "We are all under oxygen. You understand that if you help, you will die. "
She offered to help some of the sick people, she said, but then calculated that she was starting to put herself in danger and was continuing to go to the top, currently measured at 29,029. feet. On the way home, she had to make her way back through the crowd.
"It was terrible," she said.
Around the same time, Rizza Alee, an 18-year-old mountaineer from Kashmir, a disputed territory between India and Pakistan, was heading for the mountains. 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 nobody gave it to me. People are really obsessed with the summit. They are ready to kill themselves for the summit. "
But Mr. Alee himself took risks; he suffers from heart problems and says he "lied" to his expedition company when they asked him if he had any health problems.
Dr. 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 as a boy and said he always wanted to go to "a place where you can stand higher than any other place on the planet".
To prepare for Everest, he slept at home in a tent simulating high altitude conditions. His total experience at Everest cost $ 70,000.
Yet he could only prepare for it. Last month, while he was traveling to Everest base camp at over 17,000 feet above sea level, 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 said.
He pressed. After long and cold days, he progressed slowly in a path leading to the summit on Thursday and met crowds "jostling for pictures."
He was so scared, he said, that he dropped on the snow so as not to lose balance and asked his guide to take a picture of him holding a small sign saying, "Hi Mom, I t & # 39; love. "
While going down, he crossed two other corpses in their tents.
"I was not ready to see sick mountaineers being dragged by the mountain by Sherpas or the surreal experience of finding corpses," he said.
But Sunday, he had succeeded. He boarded a helicopter after reaching base camp and returned to Kathmandu.
He counted his bulbs at the Yak and Yeti hotel, where he said he'd be served a thick steak and opened a cold beer. "Everest Lager, of course," he says.
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