Industry News
The bodies of four deceased climbers were found in a tent at Camp IV (highest camp located at South Col, located at 8,000 m/26,247 ft) on Mt. Everest on Tuesday night by Sherpa rescuers, according to authorities and Mingma Sherpa. Ten climbers have died on Everest this season already. Everest averages around 6 deaths per climbing season.
These Sherpa rescuers were at Camp IV to retrieve the body of a Slovak climber who died over the weekend, according to Tourism Department official Hemanta Dhakal.
The identities of the four dead climbers is unknown at this time outside of them being two Nepali and two foreigners.
“We are trying to verify all shreds of evidence before naming the victims.” – Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation
This season has already been a deadly one with Ravi Kumar (India), Dr. Roland Yearwood (USA), Vladimir Strba (Slovenia) and Francesco Enrico Marchetti (Australia) dying over the weekend. Famous mountaineer Uli Steck also died on Everest this season, as well as one other climber. With the addition of the latest 4 deaths, Everest has seen 10 deaths this season – well above Everest’s average of 6 deaths per season.
Recovery of these bodies will require Sherpa to transport the bodies down to Camp II where they can be loaded into helicopters. This will require many Sherpa, along with large outputs of energy and time.
The Nepalese Tourism Department issued a record number of permits for Everest this year: 371. More climbers will likely mean more problems due to traffic jams on summit day.
“The Nepalese Tourism Department issued a record 371 permits this year to people to scale the mountain. The increased number of climbers this year is likely because many people were unable to climb in 2014 and 2015, when deadly avalanches disrupted the climbing seasons.” – AP
A permit to climb Everest normally costs about $11,000.
