MOUNTAIN OF DEATH
GROWING CROWDS, LACK OF EXPERIENCE OFTEN SPELL DOOM ON EVEREST: FAMED CLIMBER’S SON
When Sir Edmund Hillary took his unprecedented trip to the top of the world 66 years ago, there was one obstacle he didn’t have to worry about: crowds.
Now hordes of humans are lining up to scale Earth’s tallest peak — including many who do not have proper experience.
Peter Hillary, son of the famous climber who first scaled Mount Everest in 1953, said this week his dad would be “horrified at the whole thing” and “quite sad” to see the spectacle the crush to reach the famous peak has now become — even as the ability of numerous mountaineers to arrive at the top is a testament to his father’s achievement.
Crucial differences exist between that day when
Sir Edmund Hillary and his guide Tenzing Norgay became the first humans to set foot on the mountain’s lofty plateau, the size of a standard living room, 29,029 feet up in the air.
“The mountain and its manners haven’t changed that much,” Peter Hillary told the Daily News in on Wednesday, the 66th anniversary of his father’s ascent. “I think the big change is knowing that we can do it.”
That knowledge has drawn hundreds of climbers of varying experience annually and spawned a multimillion-dollar industry.
“When all this guided climbing started … it was a bit of a shock to his system,” Hillary, 64, said. When his father and Norgay were on the summit, “they had the mountain to themselves.”
This year, more than 800 people got to the top, including guides, Sherpas and clients, in a shorter-than-usual time window of limited by weather. Many of those people are now home celebrating their achievement. But some were not so lucky.
Eleven people died, including two Americans, both experienced climbers. Christopher Kulish, 62, a laywer from Boulder, Colo., died Monday shortly after reaching the summit, and Don Cash, 55, of Utah, died descending on May 22.
Longtime mountaineers attribute the death toll to a confluence of factors, including an increase in climbers who have no idea what it takes.
There are several routes up, from Nepal in the south and Tibet in the north. Nepal issued 381 permits, nine more than last year, but without requisites for climbing prowess. China, which regulates the Tibetan side of the mountain, issued a fraction of that number.
“There are some very cheap guiding options out there that kind of lure people in without any experience,” Hillary said from his base in New Zealand.
He compared attempting to climb Everest without proper training to trying to fly a Boeing 747 if you’ve only ever piloted a Cessna. Some tour operators even suggest climbers “can acquire the skills and experience as they go,” he said — not a desirable starting point. “Everyone’s got to go through that sort of skills acquisition.”
Many Everest climbers spend years training on other peaks and ranges, then “work their way up through the Himalayas themselves.”
Those who don’t take the time to train are in the minority, “but they tend to command a lot of media attention,” especially when things go wrong, Hillary said. “It’s understandable and often it is lamentable.”
Stefen Chow is one climber who built up experience before tackling Everest.
“I trained full time [six times a week] for about three years, of which I was involved in six Himalayan expeditions prior to Everest during this time,” Chow told The News in an email from Beijing, where he is based. “This schedule was considered very intense.”
Longtime mountaineer and Everest expert Alan Arnette, who has been writing and speaking for years about the added danger of inexperienced climbers, said this year’s conditions worked together to perfectly illustrate the problems.
A stalled jet stream “stayed parked on the summit,” Arnette told The News. That allowed for only five days with winds under 30 mph, suitable for reaching the top, compared to the more typical seven to 11 days. Last year, 11 consecutive days were suitable, and a record 670 climbers reached the top “without the carnage we saw this year,” he said. Five people died during the whole 2018 season.
The second factor is a “new demographic of climbers being lulled to Everest by historic low prices,” Arnette said, with a rash of operators offering “budget” climbs at $30,000 rather than the $45,000 to $65,000 — or more — that it normally costs.
“People who simply can’t af
ford to gain the much-needed mountaineering and altitude experience on lesser peaks believing it’s not needed, jump on the low-cost Everest train,” Arnette said. These tour operators tend to hire “less-than-qualified individuals who lack the proper medical, mountaineering and client experience to respond properly in a crisis.”
Hillary said closing the mountain is not the answer — although he understands the question.
“Certainly it is an issue that has been raised a number of times, and my father wondered about it,” Hillary said. “I don’t think we could petition the Nepalese government to do that. Imagine if we decided to close Denali or Yosemite National Park. The cost to tourism would be immense. And in a place like Nepal, this is a very poor country.”
Some climbers are given the idea that “if you’ve got a lot of drive, you reach the top,” Hillary said, and they gloss over the danger — which is very real.
“The reality is, anyone can get mountain sickness, cerebral or pulmonary edema,” he said. “Some just get plain exhausted and dehydrated, and they collapse.”
At Everest base camp at 17,600 feet, the atmospheric pressure is half of sea level. At 26,000 feet, it’s less than a third of an atmosphere. So there is 66% or 70% less oxygen and pressure, which is “way beyond the threshold” for most human existence.
Humans — and essentially all mammals — breathe well only up to about 17,000 feet, he said. “After that you’re basically winding down.”
By way of comparison, Hillary said, if “you’ve got unacclimatized people in an airliner and it depressurizes, people lose consciousness in 90 seconds.”
Hillary is wary of imposing more rules on the mountain.
“I don’t want to see more regulations. I don’t want to see rules,” he said. “I don’t want to see officials lining up and checking how many pairs of woolen socks have you got, have you got the extra down jacket, let’s have a look at your résumé, is your curriculum vitae in order in terms of your mountaineering experience? I don’t want any of that. I want basically people to provide information about what you need.”
“The solution lies in governments having strict qualification on who can guide and climb and not simply accepting their money without question,” said Arnette. “You have to qualify for the Boston Marathon, but not to climb the world’s highest peak. Therein lies the problem.”
Nepal officials said this week the country will consider changing its rules, though Arnette noted they have said this before.
On the final approach to the summit, the mountain’s razorthink ridge is the only way up. It’s a 2-mile drop down one side and 1½ miles on the other, Hillary said.
Having the presence of mind to know when to turn back is key.
“If it doesn’t feel right, back off,” said Hillary, who has been on five Everest expeditions and reached the top twice.
“No mountain is worth dying for,” concurred Chow.