‘Traffic Jam’ on Mount Everest as 200 Climbers Attempt the Conquest
The climbers representing many countries across the world have reached above the Camp IV early in the morning but had to wait for more than two hours in queues for their turn to the summit point of the 8,848-metre peak.
On Wednesday, for the first time the world’s highest peak, Mt Everest has witnessed a traffic jam like situation when over 200 mountaineers attempted to reach the summit point.
The climbers representing many countries across the world have reached above the Camp IV early in the morning but had to wait for more than two hours in queues for their turn to the summit point of the 8,848-metre peak.
Gyanendra Shrestha, a liaison officer who has been deployed by the Nepal’s Tourism Ministry at the Everest base camp has said, “Over 200 climbers including high-altitude climbing guides headed from the South Col to the summit point early this morning after they found a second weather window to attempt to stand atop the roof of the world”.
Shrestha also said among the many climbers who were earlier stuck on the traffic jam finally reached the top of the peak by afternoon but the exact number of successful summiteer is still not revealed. Also after ascending the peak many of the climbers also started to return, though the exact number of the summiteer could only be known a day after.
On 14th May, Nepal opened the climbing route to the world’s highest peak, when a team of eight Sherpas including Kami Rita Sherpa, successfully scaled the Mount Everest and cleared the way for the climbers, also thereby becoming the first team to reach the summit.
50-year-old Nepali Sherpa, Kami Rita Sherpa, scaled Mt Everest for the 24th time, breaking his own record for the most Everest ascents within a week.
Hundreds of climbers come to Nepal each year, when a window of good weather opens up between late April and the end of May. Nepal is also the home to several world’s highest mountains.
According to Nepal’s Tourism department, so far more than 4,400 people have scaled the Mt Everest since Edmund Hilary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay first conquered the mountain in the year 1953.
This year nearly 750 climbers are permitted to try to reach the top of the 8,850-metre (29,035-foot) peak from Nepal side and at least 140 other climbers are preparing to scale Everest using the northern route, which is from the Tibet side.
Last year, 807 climbers reached the top of the Mt Everest with 563 climbers climbing from the south side in Nepal and 244 from the northern side in Tibet. The mountain also claimed the lives of five climbers, including an experienced Sherpa guide last year.