‘Carnage’ on Everest horrifies filmmaker

A CANADIAN filmmaker has vowed never to return to Everest after describing the “carnage” at the top of the mountain this year, which included having to step over a dead body.

Elia Saikaly climbed Everest for the third time this month as he filmed a documentary about four Arab women making the ascent but was shocked by the scenes at the summit.

More than 800 people have reached the peak this year, with at least 10 fatalities. A photograph of the queue to reach the summit went viral last week.

“Death. Carnage. Chaos,” was how Mr Saikaly, an experienced mountain climber, summed up what he saw after setting off to summit Everest on May 22. Unsurprisingly, in an interview with the Ottawa Citizen, the newspaper of his home town, Mr Saikaly said that he would not be returning again. “Do I think I’ll go back? I don’t think so. Not after this season … It was pretty horrific.

“When we left at 9.30pm it was very alarming as within 20 minutes we saw two Sherpas had brought down a deceased climber,” Mr Saikaly told The Daily Telegraph.

“Within 45 minutes an Indian climber was brought down who was delirious and screaming and yelling, which are the signs of acute mountain sickness.”

Roughly three hours into the climb, his group was forced to walk over another dead mountaineer. “It was in- credibly bizarre ... every single climber making their way to the summit had to step over this person – absolutely devastating.”

With temperatures dropping, his group was then forced to wait in the “death zone” to reach the summit of the world’s highest mountain while “50 or 60” others at the top paused to take selfies. Many were traumatised after passing another dead body near to the summit.

“You are climbing this very famous iconic obstacle and just beneath you is a climber’s body, lifeless and lying there and you don’t know what to do or feel, but you know you have to move or else you could be the next victim,” Mr Saikaly said.