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Ottawa climber and filmmaker Elia Saikaly says his third time standing on the roof of the world will be his last.

“It’s a really messed up thing to be in a position where you have to walk over a dead body,” Saikaly said in a phone call from Kathmandu, three days after reaching the summit of Mount Everest.

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“Do I think I’ll go back? I don’t think so. Not after this season … It was pretty horrific.”

More than 800 people have reached the 8,848-metre summit of Everest this year and at least 10 people have died on the mountain. By the deadly standards of the world’s highest mountain, that’s a pretty typical year. But for Saikaly, whose team had the summit to itself when he last reached the peak in 2013, the crowds and the chaos this year were just too much.

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“Death. Carnage. Chaos” was how he described it on his Instagram account, @eliasaikaly.