When climbers try to reach the summit of Mount Everest, they must face a morbid fact: when the mountain takes a life, it often holds onto it for quite some time.

The body count of people remaining on Everest is now more than 200: when climbers die, often it is impossible to retrieve them. As Rachel Nuwer wrote for BBC Future last year: “Climbers and Sherpas lie tucked into crevasses, buried under avalanche snow and exposed on catchment basin slopes – their limbs sun-bleached and distorted.” The bodies on the peak are now so abundant that in some cases, climbers must step over some to reach the summit.

Now BBC News reports that three more climbers have died on the mountain in the space of four days: Subhash Paul from India, Eric Ary Arnold from Holland and Maria Strydom from Australia. And Paul’s team-mates have also been reported missing since Saturday.