Everest Base Camp has become a high-altitude metropolis. Today, experts say, it is not the unpredictable weather that poses the greatest danger at the summit, but a combination of overcrowding, inexperienced tourists and cheap services that weaken safety measures.
On May 10, 1996, more than 30 climbers were stranded high on the world’s highest mountain by a sudden, powerful storm. Deprived of oxygen, exhausted, and lost in the dark, their story became a battle for survival in the face of winds of up to 113 km/h and temperatures of -40 degrees.
Eight people died in what was then the deadliest 24-hour period on Everest. But it was the media attention that followed, led by Jon Krakauer’s bestselling book “Into Thin Air,” written from his own personal experience, that turned the disaster into a cultural phenomenon. Everest was no longer just the territory of professional climbers. With a little training and a lot of money, an ordinary person could be guided step by step up to the 8,849-meter peak to stand on top of the world. “It was a cultural turning point,” said Will Cockrell, author of “Everest Inc.” Everest, he said, “suddenly became part of the list of things people thought they could do in life.”
After Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary became the first people to reach the summit in 1953, it took until 1989 for the number of ascents to reach 270. The mountain is known in Nepal as “Sagarmatha,” meaning “Goddess of the Sky.” On May 20, 274 climbers reached the summit in a single day, a new record. Thirty years after that powerful storm, technological advances, better equipment, and a new generation of Nepalese operators have made the mountain safer and more profitable than ever before.
Everest Base Camp has become a high-altitude metropolis. Today, experts say, it is not the unpredictable weather that poses the greatest danger at the summit, but the combination of overcrowding, inexperienced tourists and cheap services that make the measures taken unsafe.
STORM IN THE “DEATH ZONE”
Just a few decades ago, the idea of even leading paying clients to the top of Everest was considered “completely absurd,” Cockrell said. Expeditions were usually organized as part of national or donor-sponsored teams. But that changed in 1992 when New Zealand-based climbing company Adventure Consultants took six clients to the top of Everest and, more importantly, brought them back down safely. Others quickly followed suit.
“We had no idea how big this industry would become,” said Guy Cotter, CEO of Adventure Consultants and a guide on that historic climb. “We didn’t even see it as an industry in those days,” he added. Four years later, on a fateful day in May, Adventure Consultants was one of three teams in Nepal trying to reach the summit when a snowstorm hit. The exhausted climbers, guides and Sherpas (an ethnic group that lives near the Himalayas) were left exposed on a dangerous ridge, trapped above the highest camp in the so-called “death zone,” where there is not enough oxygen to survive for long without help. Frostbite and hypothermia were starting to take their toll. At the time, Cotter was leading an expedition on a nearby mountain when he realized his friends and colleagues were in trouble.
“I could see them on the summit ridge with my binoculars,” he said. “When things seemed to be going badly overnight, I went to Everest Base Camp to help the camp manager and the doctor.” Cotter and his small team were the only ones in the area, and they were tasked with organizing a major rescue operation at extreme altitude, as well as providing medical care to the many injured. “Almost everyone was up there. We were all in complete shock,” he explained.
According to Will Cockrell, author of “Everest Inc.”, a catastrophic combination of poor decision-making by the guides and even worse weather conditions led to the deaths of eight climbers. Survivors’ accounts blamed the fact that ropes had not been set in advance and that a jam created by slower climbers delayed the climb. Some climbers were reaching the summit well past the 2 p.m. cutoff time—the latest time to turn back to reach camp before dark. The tragedy, one of the first to occur in the new age of the internet and satellite phones, became infamous because of the media storm that followed. Stories of heroism, dramatic rescue operations, decisions with far-reaching consequences, and extraordinary will to survive continue to be analyzed and debated today, thanks to the book “Into Thin Air,” the memoirs of survivors, the 2015 film “Everest” starring Jake Gyllenhaal, and countless news articles.
One of the most touching stories was that of Adventure Consultants co-founder and renowned climber Rob Hall, whose decision to stay with a disabled client near the summit cost him his life. Stranded on the mountain with no hope of rescue, he managed to make one last call to his pregnant wife via satellite phone.
Equally remarkable was the story of Beck Weathers, who, blinded by snow and severely frostbitten, was twice left for dead but survived against all odds. Or the story of Russian-Kazakh climber Anatoly Boukreev, who turned back in the middle of a storm to rescue three climbers. Cotter, who helped organize the first helicopter airlift from Camp 1 to rescue some of the injured, said many lessons were learned from that disaster. “It was the moment when the industry, as we call it today, came of age,” he said.
TECHNOLOGICAL EVOLUTION
Three decades later, the landscape of Everest climbing is vastly different, with vast improvements in safety and communication. “I had to convince our clients that this wasn’t going to happen every year on Everest, especially after seeing two industry icons, Rob Hall and Scott Fisher, lose their lives,” said Cotter, who took over Adventure Consultants after Hall’s death. Competing guide companies began collaborating on ropes and safety arrangements.
More oxygen tanks and medical supplies were placed along the mountain, specialist expedition doctors were hired, and a strict turn-around time was enforced. However, it was major advances in weather forecasting and technology that transformed the way the mountain is climbed. Today, attempts to reach the summit depend almost entirely on weather conditions. Operators choose to climb during a short period in May, when the powerful Himalayan air current shifts slightly north and brings calmer conditions.
Modern weather forecasting models, designed specifically for Everest, have become so accurate that a tragedy like the May 1996 storm “is practically impossible to happen again,” Cockrell said. The latest technological evolution that could save more lives is drones, capable of tracking routes and assisting in search and rescue. They can also carry heavy loads, reducing the number of trips Sherpas have to make to carry supplies over the Khumbu Glacier, the most dangerous part of the climb.
SHERPA TAKE THE DRIVE
Gelje Sherpa grew up in the Solukhumbu Region of Nepal and followed in his father’s footsteps by working in the mountains, first as a kitchen helper and porter, then as a guide. “Now it’s my passion,” he says. Gelje is one of the world’s most renowned climbers, with a career that includes climbing all 14 peaks above 8,000 meters. In 2021, he was the youngest member of an all-Nepali team that made history by making the first winter ascent of K2, the world’s second-highest mountain and technically more difficult than Everest.
He is also part of a growing generation of Nepalese who are professional high-altitude climbers, breaking records, becoming certified guides and business owners. This month, another Nepalese, Kami Rita Sherpa, broke his own record by climbing Everest for the 32nd time. Meanwhile, legendary climber Lhakpa Sherpa reached the summit for the 11th time, more than any other woman. Nepalese climber and photojournalist Purnima Shrestha, who last year climbed Everest three times in a single season, also reached the summit again. “More and more Sherpas are setting records, climbing new peaks, opening new routes and getting more training and opportunities,” Gelje said.
Nepalese climbers now oversee the securing of routes to the summit and the installation of ropes that help clients navigate the most difficult parts of the mountain. Today, Nepalese operators dominate the Everest guiding industry. “The Sherpas who are entering the industry today are people who have chosen this profession because they love the mountains,” said Cockrell, author of Everest Inc. “These are the people who are driving the industry now.”
Gelje says better compensation is still needed for the families of Sherpas who are injured or die in the mountains. He also wants better insurance for Sherpas, who have long been the mainstay of international mountaineering expeditions. “The families of those who work in the mountains need to be supported, especially for their children’s education. Right now they get about $10,000 when a Sherpa dies. That’s not enough,” he said. Gelje adds that rising temperatures due to the climate crisis are increasing the risks, as melting ice is making the Khumbu Glacier even more dangerous. The Khumbu is a moving glacier with deep crevasses and large, unstable ice masses known as “seracs.”
The dangers faced by Sherpas have been highlighted by a series of disasters in recent years. In 2014, an avalanche on Everest killed 16 people, all Nepalese workers who were installing ropes on the glacier. This led to a strike and the closure of the rest of the season. A year later, a devastating earthquake killed almost 9,000 people in Nepal, including more than 20 on Everest. Since records began in the 1920s, 344 people have died on Everest, according to the Himalayan Database. However, the ratio of deaths to the number of climbers who climb above Base Camp is less than 1%. By December 2025, more than 7,560 people had reached the summit, making nearly 14,000 total ascents. (CNN)