No mountain on Earth inspires more fear and fascination than Everest — but just how many human lives have been lost on its slopes?
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00:00No mountain on Earth inspires more fear and fascination than Everest. But just how many
00:06human lives have been lost on its slopes? With the summit 29,032 feet above sea level,
00:13Mount Everest invokes awe and defiance in equal measure. Maybe it's just the thrill
00:17of surmounting one of the greatest challenges on the planet. Maybe it's a desire to ascend
00:22to a realm traditionally considered sacred by human beings. Or maybe people just like
00:27really big stuff. One thing is for sure, though. The privilege of climbing a peak like
00:32Mount Everest exacts a heavy toll. It's unlikely that Sir Edmund Hillary and
00:38Tenzing Norgay realized what they had truly begun when they became the first people to
00:42stand at the summit of Mount Everest in 1953. Hillary and Norgay had a support team as bottom-heavy
00:49as Everest itself. 350 porters carrying a massive load of supplies, 10 climbers and
00:5620 Sherpas to guide them all. Now, though, there are five-step how-to articles online
01:01made specifically for climbing Everest, complete with gear and itinerary breakdowns, while
01:07entire businesses specialize in taking people up Everest, assembly line fashion. Despite
01:13this familiarity, however, Everest still kills every year.
01:16We all realize the risks involved and you accept those risks or you don't play the game.
01:23These days, would-be ascenders of Mount Everest can follow a generic itinerary and set path
01:28that is pounded into the snow by thousands of climbers. That's not to say that the task
01:33is easy, of course. You've got to be extremely healthy and trained for years, especially
01:39when it comes to your cardiovascular system. Otherwise, the 70% drop in oxygen will straight
01:45up kill you. Plus, you've got to carry months worth of heavy equipment and supplies on your
01:50back for the entire trek up and down. Generally speaking, it's a 19-day round trip just to
01:56get to Everest Base Camp and 40 days from there to the peak. Altogether, the journey
02:01takes about three months. Climbing Everest isn't cheap, either. Aside from the travel
02:06expenses to get to Nepal and the money you'll need to take all the time off work, you need
02:11a permit to actually climb the mountain in the first place. A solo permit is $25,000.
02:17Taking all your expenses into account, you're looking at about $200,000 per person. And
02:23yet, despite all of these enormous hurdles, some 800 people attempt the climb every year.
02:29Over 4,000 climbers have reached the top, not counting multiple ascents by the same
02:34person, and since 1990, a steady 1% of them have died.
02:39The University of Washington has published an extensive breakdown of success and death
02:44rates of Mount Everest climbers. The number of people embarking on first-time trips jumped
02:49from 2,200 per year from 1990 to 2005 to 3,600 per year from 2006 to 2019. Over 60% are successful,
03:01a number largely attributed to improved weather forecasting. Critically, those figures don't
03:06include Sherpas, photographers, and other support crew. And yet, more people climbing
03:11means more people dying. 11 people died in 2019 during Everest's summit window, between
03:17May and September. That's 11 out of 891 people who reached the summit, a 1.2% death rate
03:23consistent with the University of Washington's findings. Contrarily, Outside Online says
03:29that during the bulk of the May 2023 summit window, a full 10 people died out of the 500
03:35that reached the summit. That's not just a slightly higher number of deaths than usual,
03:39it's double the percentage. Is this because of climber bottlenecks, post-COVID over-eagerness,
03:45sloppy planning, poor conditions, or something else? Right now, we simply don't know.
03:50So what's the total number? Well, in November 2022, Climber News reported 310 total deaths
03:56on Everest, to which we can add 10 more from 2023. And yet, because of the high number
04:01of climbers, more people have died on Everest than any other mountain. Perhaps more grim
04:07than the number of people who have died, however, is the amount of bodies left unretrieved.
04:12Tragically, we don't know where most of the 200 or so dead who remain on the mountain
04:16are located, or even how they died. Meanwhile, some of the bodies that would be too dangerous
04:21to retrieve remain inside of climbers. Today, they serve as markers for those making the
04:27attempt.
04:28There is a makeshift memorial to the dead situated along Everest's space camp route.
04:34Formally called the Scott Fisher Memorial, in honor of the climber Scott Fisher, who
04:38tragically lost his life on Everest in 1996, the memorial is basically a conical pile of
04:44rocks decorated with colorful, flag-like pieces of fabric. Sherpas, family members, and those
04:50wishing to pay respects continue to build it piece by piece, in memory of the people
04:55who never came down from the mountain.