Everest Has Become More Conquerable. But Is It A Good News?

Mount Everest is witnessing more climbers lately with the changes in topography and the lifestyles of travelers.

Long queue of climbers on the way to summit

Photo: Facebook post by Nirmal Purja

Gone are the days when climbing Mount Everest was too ambitious of a dream. With the growing population and bucket lists, more and more people are conquering world’s highest mountain above sea level.

Guiness World Record holder, Nirmal Purja recently posted a picture from his way to the Everest summit. The picture shows an extremely long queue of people on the Everest trail. In absence of context, this image might even look like Lajpat Nagar covered in snow on a Sunday.

A lot of mountaineers have spoken of the growing infiltration and deterioration of Hillary Step.

Hillary Step, named after Edmund Hillary, is located right below the summit. Almost vertical and 12 metres long rock face was nearly impossible to tread earlier and was considered to be the toughest challenge on the way to top. Now, however, what remains of it is a snowy slope making way for more aspirants to reach the summit with lesser inconvenience.

The collapse could have been a result of earthquake and climate change, according to the experts. However, many claim that mountains and their topography tend to change inevitably.

Hundreds of people are climbing it at the same time as if it were a school trip to a cute little cliff. A grave consequence of this increasing foot traffic on Everest, however, is increasing death toll.

In a recent report, it was revealed that a few mountaineers died because of the traffic jam at and around the summit. The high altitude could not be endured by the climbers and they could not go back to the base camp either because of the human traffic. There were Indians among the deceased as well.

The very idea of climbing Mount Everest still sounds like doom but for entirely different reasons.