Following the record number of people climbing to the summit of Everest on 22nd May 2019 and the publishing of Nims Purja's dramatic picture of queues on the summit ridge the world's media are full of stories about crowds on Everest.
The Jagged Globe expedition spent the past eight weeks climbing Everest, reaching the summit on the morning of 22nd May. Here is my story of what we experienced, and some suggestions for managing the numbers of climbers wanting to climb Everest in the future.
Clearly the numbers of trekkers and climbers visiting the Everest region will continue to grow. Some of this growth will come from the traditional mountaineering nations, but much will come from new sources such as China and India. The Nepalese authorities have no long-term plan for how to manage the growth in trekkers and climbers in the National Park. With good management, increasing numbers of visitors to the mountain regions of Nepal will be beneficial to both local communities and to the Nepalese economy as a whole.
Two separate management plans are needed; one for trekkers operating below the snow line, and one for climbing activities on the popular peaks, particularly Everest. The issues faced by Nepal are not unique and useful lessons can be learnt by studying the management practices used in other popular National Parks and famous mountains. The Nepalese could learn a lot by copying best practices from Denali in the USA, Aconcagua in Argentina, Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Switzerland's Matterhorn and also avoid the mistakes and failures that have been made on these other mountains.
Restricting the numbers of climbers on Everest seems like a quick fix, but it is hard to think of a method of doing this that would be fair and transparent. This would also serve to curb growth in an important sector of the Nepalese economy. The Nepalese authorities are collecting large amounts of money from Everest climbers already. The total amount of permit fees, liaison officer expenses, environmental charges, and rope fixing fees collected this year exceeded USD $5,000,000. A tiny proportion of this was used on the mountain for safety or environmental benefits.
If more of this money was set aside to prepare the facilities on the mountain many of the issues associated with larger numbers of climbers could be mitigated. A well-funded and well-equipped group of professional Sherpa climbers, with some technical assistance from organisations that have done similar elsewhere, could be created to manage the rope fixing each season. This would ensure that all potential 'bottleneck' areas were equipped with separate 'up' and 'down' lines. This would largely eliminate the queues that were seen this season on some sections of the route including the Khumbu Icefall, the Yellow Band and the Hillary Step.
The only thing that is stopping this from happening is the lack of engagement by the authorities in Kathmandu, and the infighting between the various interest groups in Nepal who want a share of the money generated by Mount Everest.
But on to our own experiences on the mountain this season...
We made three 'rotations' onto the mountain before the summit bid. We climbed first to Camp 1 (6,150m) and returned to Base Camp. We then climbed to Camp 2 (6,350m) and made a short trip to the foot of the Lhotse Face, returning again to Base Camp. We made a longer trip, through a period of bad weather to sleep at Camp 3 (7,150m) and returned again to Base Camp. During these six journeys through the Khumbu Icefall (between Base Camp and Camp 1), we experienced very few issues with overcrowding. On a few occasions we may have waited for 10-15 minutes for groups of Sherpas to pass, but this does not seem unreasonable. We achieved this by choosing our travel times carefully, both to avoid obvious 'busy' times and to avoid being caught in the heat of the sun.
We planned to climb to the summit on 21st May and this required leaving Base Camp very early on the 17th May using a weather forecast for a 5-6 day period ahead. This would put us in front of the main wave of summit climbers. Initially this worked well, and we saw few other people on the days that we climbed to Camps 1, 2 and 3. The trail became a little busier when we went to Camp 4 (7,950m) but, as there was only 'up traffic’ and no 'down traffic’, there were no significant delays.
Once in Camp 4 on the afternoon of 20th May, we learnt that the weather forecast had changed. Summit winds on the 21st were going to be 25-30 knots but reducing to 15-20 knots the next day. We made the reluctant decision to forego the chance to summit on the 21st (with an estimated 40 climbers) and go on the 22nd (when there might be over 200 people).
Our team of 6 climbers and 9 Sherpas rested at Camp 4 on the South Col (breathing supplemental oxygen at a low flow rate) and brought our intended start time forward from 9:30pm to 7:30pm to ensure that we did not get stuck at the back of the summit queue. As we left our tents on time, we could see the lights of a few other teams on the snow slopes above, several hours ahead. Conditions were surprisingly warm at first and I wondered if my down suit might become uncomfortably hot as the day wore on.
It took the team around 4hrs to reach the first significant feature on the climb: the 'Balcony' at 8,450m. The trail was quite busy but most people were moving at a speed similar to our own. There must have been approximately 100 people visible ahead of us when we left Camp 4 and we passed 20-30 of these on the way to the Balcony. All the climbers changed to their second bottle of oxygen once there. We left the partially used bottles for collection on descent and pre-placed some 'reserve' bottles as well. One of our seven climbing Sherpas said he felt unwell and we agreed he should descend to Camp 4.
From the Balcony to the South Summit (8,750m), the route follows an exposed ridge and here we felt a cold wind blowing at 15-20 knots. Now, I was very glad to be wearing my down suit. The trail is mostly steep snow but passes through a few steep rock bands. Here, it was impossible to pass anyone, but the people ahead seemed to be climbing at our speed and, probably, we would not have travelled much faster if we had had the route to ourselves.
Just before the South Summit, the winds strengthened to 25 knots. I reached the South Summit around 3:30 am together with Rui, Mary and three Sherpas (Chimi, Mani and Yula). By this time, Sean with Rakesh and Roxanne with Pem were ahead, moving along the final summit ridge. Mary was feeling the effects of the very cold wind and we stopped for about 30 minutes in a sheltered spot just below the South Summit to warm her up. As we did so, 30 or 40 people passed us. Unknown to us at the time, Roland and Nima Rinji were among the group who passed us at this point on their way to the summit.
On the move again, we now joined the slow-moving line of people on the summit ridge. In previous years, I have climbed this section on difficult rock ledges. Fortunately, this season there was a lot of snow which made progress easier. We waited somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes in the sunshine below the Hillary Step. Progress was slow because the first summiteers of the day were now making their way back causing a jam on the narrow passage of the Hillary Step. Once we were able to overcome this obstacle, I unclipped from the fixed rope and used my ice axe to pass a line of slow people, reaching the top at 6:15 am. I took some pictures and waited for the others to arrive. First was Roland with Nima Rinji and I helped him take some pictures with his DHL flag. They set off down after a short time on the summit and I waited about 30 minutes for Mary and Rui to arrive. We took a group picture with the Jagged Globe flag and set off down ourselves a little after 7 am.
This is where we encountered the only unpleasant queue of the whole expedition. Climbers were backed-up not just on the Hillary Step itself but for 20 to 30 metres on the far side. Plus, there were as many as 70 people wanting to get down from the summit but the climbers at the bottom had control of the ropes. As soon as one group came up, another group appeared from beyond the South Summit and started on the ropes straight after them. There was no chance for those climbing down to move until all the ascending climbers had made their way up the ropes. The paradox of this situation is that the downward climbers would have been quicker and would have got down the Hillary Step sooner, clearing the ropes earlier for the ascending group. In all, we waited approximately 2 hours before we could navigate the Hillary Step in descent.
The journey from the South Summit to the top and back again had taken approximately 5 hours; 2 of which had been spent moving and 3 hours queuing. Despite our earlier than usual start the evening before, it was obvious to me that a queue might develop around us anyway. So, I had prearranged our oxygen supplies accordingly and our team members were not at much of an additional risk, but the situation was not ideal.
By 10 o’clock, we had reached the South Summit again, stopped for some food and water, collected our stored oxygen bottles and set off down the mountain. The descent was problem free with no noticeable queues or blockages. We made steady progress to the Balcony and collected our final stash of oxygen. Our first summiteers of the day, who had beaten the crowds, were back to the South Col (camp 4) before 10 o’clock; my group brought up the rear at 2:30 pm.
It had been a long and busy summit day but, in the end, we came up with a strategy to deal with the crowd. As I said above, it should be possible to design a better way of fixing the ropes on the mountain to reduce the bottlenecks and delays. But this will need an investment in trained personnel and material.
Nims Purja's excellent picture of queues on the summit ridge has provoked huge interest and negative comment from around the world on the problems facing Everest climbers. Let’s hope that it leads to pressure on the Nepal Government to invest some of the USD $ 5,000,000 collected each year to improve the safety of team members and Sherpas as they climb to the Top of the World.
David Hamilton, Everest Base Camp, 25 May 2019