05-25-2019, 12:47 PM
A total of five people have died this week on Mount Everest, as crowds of climbers experienced bottlenecks in the rush to take advantage of a short window of good weather to attempt the world's highest summit.
Three deaths were reported on Thursday, and two others died on Wednesday.
The deaths come amid reports of massive crowding on the mountain. Around the Hillary Step, where climbers have to go single-file, there were reports of two-to three-hour delays on Wednesday.
In addition, this season's weather has forced large crowds up at once. Climbers wait for favorable weather forecasts to make summit attempts, and this year, there have only been two windows with five summit days so far, as Arnette detailed on his site. Typically, there are seven to 12 favorable days, according to Arnette.
Because of this, many climbers are going up to make their attempts all at once, creating bottlenecks
At least one death was partially attributed to the crowds. Bagwan was "exhausted and dehydrated due to long hours spent at the death zone (above 8,000 meters) due to heavy traffic," Krishma Poudel, manager at Peak Promotion, told ABC News.
https://www.yahoo.com/gma/3-more-die-mou...ories.html