This Season Is Marked As The Worst Season On Record

2019 has been one of the deadliest years on record for climbers hoping to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. In the last week alone, eleven people have died. What’s behind the spate of deaths? Experts blame overcrowding.

A video posted to Instagram this week by a user named Rohtash Khiler showed dozens of mountain climbers standing in line waiting to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, the highest mountain peak in the world. According to experts, waiting in line so long increases the risk of death from low oxygen and deadly altitude-related conditions, such as high-altitude pulmonary edema and cerebral edema, which causes fluid to enter the brain. Jeffrey Gertsch, a neuroscientist at the University of San Diego, told the Daily Beast that inexperienced climbers often ignore the warning signs of serious illness because they’re so eager to get to the top.

“They’ll do anything, even when it starts to defy logic, to tag the summit. Then they realize, wow, I don’t have what it takes to get back down. Lots of people who look to be clearly in need of help, a lot of people won’t help—because they’re too focused on the summit, or don’t have enough energy left, because they didn’t belong there anyway,” Gertsch said.

(Photo Credit: Rizza Alee/AP)

Many concerned citizens are calling on the country of Nepal to limit the number of climbers allowed on Mt. Everest in order to minimize the death toll from overcrowding. Gertsch said he found the videos of people waiting in line to reach the summit “horrifying.”

“As a climber, I’m offended, and as a physician, I’m horrified,” Dr. Jeffrey Gertsch said. “It’s just a cattle call in a really dangerous place.”