Nepalese climbers prepare for risky mission in face of criticism as death toll on mountain reaches 10 this season

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Nepalese climbers are preparing for a risky mission to retrieve the body of an Indian national who died on Mount Everest at the weekend, as another rescue team discovered four more bodies on the mountain.

Ravi Kumar, who was 27, reached Everest’s summit on Saturday afternoon but died hours later after descending to about 8,400 metres (27,560ft). He was one of four people who died on the mountain at the weekend, including American doctor Roland Yearwood and Australian climber Francesco Marchetti.

A further four climbers were discovered dead in their tents on Wednesday at camp four, at a height of about 7,950 metres, by a team dispatched to retrieve the body of a Slovakian climber who died on the mountain on Sunday. Local media said two of the dead were foreign climbers and two were Nepalese guides.

It was unclear on Wednesday whether the bodies were from a recent expedition or one whose members had gone missing during last year’s season and were presumed to have died.

“We tried to check each and every expedition team [currently on the mountain] but no one has said their members are missing,” said Gyanendra Shrestha, a Nepalese tourism ministry official.

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Kumar’s body was spotted on Monday deep inside a 200-metre crevasse well into the “death zone”, where oxygen levels plummet and the risk of altitude sickness is high. Other retrieval missions are searching for bodies thought to be along known climbing routes.

The chair of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, Ang Tshering Sherpa, criticised the mission to recover Kumar’s body. “It’s not just risky, it’s a most dangerous act to try to bring a frozen dead body from such a dangerous zone,” he said.

Kumar’s body may have accumulated enough ice to weigh about 130kg, he said, and ferrying such a heavy load at an extreme height was putting other climbers’ lives at risk.

“It would have been a different thing if [Kumar] was alive,” he said. “We should be mindful and not be taking the decision to get the body from such a danger zone. The family should understand that.”

The agency that organised Kumar’s climb and is conducting his retrieval told the Guardian it was undertaking the mission reluctantly. “It’s too dangerous to recover a body from such a difficult place,” said Chowang Sherpa, the managing director of Arun Treks.



“There are many bodies of those killed in the past several years buried in the route of Everest that we haven’t been able to dig out. This one is more difficult. It’s not on the proper route. It’s in a steep place.”

He said the mission was being undertaken under great pressure, including from the Indian embassy in Kathmandu. “The family has put pressure on us to anyhow bring the body. The family has used sources like the Indian embassy, which is putting pressure on us,” he said.

“We have been saying that it’s too dangerous to go to such a difficult place, and we had discussions with the Indian embassy, but they told us the same.”

Asked why his company did not refuse the request, he said: “It would not be logical and would show our weakness. So we are trying at least once, adopting all safety measures and by carrying all gear that is needed.”

A spokesman for India’s external affairs ministry confirmed the Indian embassy in Kathmandu had been in touch with the Sherpa team but said there was “no question of any pressure”.

“How the Sherpas extricate the mortal remains [of Kumar] is purely their professional call,” the spokesman said.

The spate of deaths this season has fuelled complaints that standards among climbers and their Nepalese guides are slipping, leading to preventable deaths.

A veteran mountaineering commentator, Alan Arnette, said winds near the peak had been extremely strong in recent days, but it appeared the latest four deaths had been the result of toxic fumes from camping stoves used inside the climbers’ tent.

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“This is not just sad, it is totally irresponsible – to die from carbon monoxide poisoning is to break a basic rule of camping,” he wrote on his blog.



“The foreigners paid the ‘guides’ to take care of them. While I promote self-sufficiency, and will suggest the ‘climbers’ should have also known better, these so-called Sherpa ‘guides’ clearly did not do their job.”

This year, a record 373 permits were issued to foreign climbers to reach the summit of Everest from the Nepal side, with a further 136 granted permission to ascend the north face in Tibet.

The British mountaineer Tim Mosedale said at the time the combination of potential overcrowding and inexperienced climbers was a “toxic mix”. He repeated the phrase in a Facebook post on Monday, criticising the proliferation of cut-price climbing companies in recent years.

Sherpa and Indian-owned climbing firms can charge $18,000 (£14,000) to guide climbers up Everest, compared with western companies such as Mosedale’s, which charges $45,000.

“Over the years there has been a huge dilution in the cumulative experience of staff while at the same time there has been a net increase in inexperienced or poor expedition providers,” said Mosedale, who has reached Everest’s summit six times.



“When you combine this with a decline in the amount of experience of the clients who are accepted on board it’s a worrying equation.”



More than 380 climbers have reached Everest’s summit from the south side this season, and at least 120 from the Tibet side. Last year, five people died trying to climb the mountain and 640 people reached the summit.

Additional reporting by Ishwar Rauniyar in Kathmandu