If you want to reach the world’s highest summit, you’d better get in line—and hold on for dear life.
Hi everyone, welcome to this Thursday edition of Plain English, the podcast that helps English learners explore the world in their new language. This is episode 161 and you can find the full transcript of this program at PlainEnglish.com/161
Coming up today: The quest to reach the summit of Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain, has become a deadly free-for-all. A photo that went viral on social media shows people in a long line waiting to get to the top. But that’s only part of the story, as experienced climbers and novices alike tell horror stories of what this year’s climbing season was like.
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Hiking Mt. Everest? Get in line
This year’s climbing season on Mt. Everest was chaos: eleven people died, and many climbers tell horror stories of overcrowding, mountains of trash, pushing and shoving, and inexperienced climbers getting sick and passing out. What went wrong this year? Expert Everest-watchers have identified three factors: weather, overcrowding, and the proliferation of low-cost operators taking inexperienced climbers to the summit.
Let’s talk about each of these, starting with the weather. You can’t climb Mt. Everest any time you like. The punishing climate means there is just a short window each year in which humans can reach the summit; that season is April and May. That’s the climate—essentially, the broad patterns of conditions. The weather is a different story; the weather is the day-to-day changes in conditions: wind, temperature, snow, things like that. In a typical climbing season, the weather allows climbers to reach the top on about a dozen days. This year was especially bad, and there were only a few days of clear weather in which climbers could reach the top.
The second factor is overcrowding. Over 825 climbers and Sherpas reached the summit of Mt. Everest this year, the greatest number ever. The Nepalese government issued the most permits ever in a year, and they don’t plan to limit the number of permits. Many climbers say there are few regulations and that Nepal is desperate for the cash it claims from issuing more and more permits every year. There are also no authorities up there on Mt. Everest. The guide companies are the authority, and they are the ones who direct traffic—but obviously they are serving their own customers, too. So there really is no neutral arbiter up there whose job is to keep order and ensure the safety of everyone attempting the summit.
Okay, so now you’re starting to get the picture. More people trying to get to the top, fewer days in which people can go, no real way to control or direct traffic. This is when the story takes an unfortunate twist, which is that the people who are up there are not always prepared for what they find.
Climbing Mt. Everest has changed from something experienced climbers do at the peak of their climbing careers to something that anyone can do with enough money. There are almost no legal requirements to climb Mt. Everest. You pay $11,000 to the Nepalese government and you’re good to go. Climbers need oxygen, equipment, and support when they’re up there, so they hire an expedition company. These have traditionally been staffed with Nepal’s famed Sherpas, the most experienced and strongest guides able to help climbers from around the world. And they would only take people with proven climbing experience.
That’s how it should work. But unfortunately, the number of expedition companies has expanded in Nepal and the competition has reduced the cost from about $50,000 to only about $30,000, and many of the new companies are less interested in safety than in collecting the cash. Some new companies say they’ll teach you everything you need to know once you get to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. That has enticed a lot of inexperienced people who are not prepared for the demands of the climb.
This turned into a toxic combination this year. Mt. Everest is 8,848 meters above sea level. At that level, you don’t have enough oxygen to breathe; you need an oxygen tank. A tank will only last a limited amount of time. Climbers leave all their gear at Base Camp and only take enough oxygen to get them to the top and back; that means that waiting politely in line can mean a climber runs out of oxygen. So everyone in line feels an urgency to get to the top quickly.
You also cannot think straight at 8,000 meters. Your brain needs oxygen to make difficult decisions; with less oxygen, your ability to make decisions, including decisions about your own safety, is compromised. A lot of people know this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. As the saying goes, Everest will always be there—but you won’t be. This all leads to climbers making bad decisions for themselves, and for others around them. It also puts peoples’ ethics to the test. If someone else is out of oxygen, do you offer that person some of yours? You only have enough for yourself. If someone in front of you has collapsed, do you stop and help that person—and risk not making it to the top yourself?
Climbers tell stories of having to literally step over climbers who had fallen. They saw Sherpas dragging sick climbers back down the mountain. One person said he encountered two dead bodies in a tent. In the final push to the top, you have to wait in a long line, one by one, connected to a guide rope fixed to the mountain, with a 1,000-foot vertical drop just a few feet away. In this scene, people were pushing and jostling for selfies.
This doesn’t at all sound like what “climbing Mt. Everest” is like in the popular imagination. It’s supposed to be a personal triumph, a romantic connection between man and the punishing Earth he lives on. Instead, it’s like a bucket-list item. It’s something to brag about. There are deaths on Everest almost every year, but eleven people died this year, the most in four years—and that year had an avalanche.
Here is how Alan Arnette, an experienced climber, summarized it in an online article: “Inexperience kills, not all guides are the same, money buys access, and the weather has the last word.”
You know, one of the places I’d like to go someday is Machu Picchu, in Peru. But I think that Machu Picchu is also suffering from many of the same issues as Mt. Everest—obviously it’s a different thing and there aren’t the same dangers. People aren’t dying on the way back to Cusco, for example. But part of the reason why I haven’t planned a trip to Machu Picchu is that I don’t want to be part of the problem. I wouldn’t go for the selfie—I don’t even like being in pictures—and I wouldn’t go for the bragging rights or anything. But I just don’t feel right joining the masses of people all jostling for the right photo-op from sunrise to sundown at such a special place. It just seems like the whole thing gets cheapened; how can you truly enjoy the historic or natural beauty of a place when it’s so crowded with people chasing the best Instagram picture? I don’t know. I’m open to being convinced about Machu Picchu, by the way.
Quick hello to a few listeners: Liliana and Andrés listen together at work in Bogotá. Daniel found Coca-Cola con Café in Monterrey, Mexico. He says it tastes like coffee candy! I haven’t seen it in the States yet, but it’s obviously spreading. Tiago from Portugal translated the Frank Sinatra song “New York, New York” for me into Portuguese—that was clever. And John from Costa Rica. I knew this would happen! I told you the Crossfitters can talk your ear off. John from Costa Rica admits to it! He said that if you ask him about it, he’ll talk your ear off because he really enjoys it and he wants other people to know how much fun it is. Thanks for all your notes—I’ll share our contact information a little later in the episode.
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