A record number of climbers reached the summit of Mount Everest in a single day from the Nepal side of the mountain, officials said. An estimated 275 people scaled the 29,032-foot peak on Wednesday, marking the highest ever number of single-day summits recorded from the route.
Overcrowding Concerns Renewed
The feat has renewed fears over overcrowding on the world’s highest mountain, with huge queues of climbers snaking towards the summit during the narrow weather window. Two Indian climbers later died during their descent, pushing this season's death toll on Everest to five. Pictures showed mountaineers walking in a long line as they prepared to make the ascent.
The world's highest peak can be scaled from either the southern side in Nepal or the northern face in China's Tibet, but Chinese authorities have closed the route this year. Officials said the final number of climbers will be verified using photographs and statements from expedition companies and guides before certificates are issued.
Record Numbers and Verification
'This is the highest ever number of single-day summits in the history of Mount Everest expeditions who have reached the peak of Mount Everest,' Himal Gautam, spokesman for the department, said. 'We still need to verify the official data, as we must issue certificates to them.'
In 2023, a higher number of mountaineers from China and Nepal sides reached the top of the Everest in a single day, he added without giving a number. A climbing boom has made mountaineering a lucrative business in Nepal since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa made the first ascent of Everest in 1953.
Season Statistics and Fatalities
The country has issued a record 492 Everest permits this season, with a city of tents set up at the foot of the mountain for climbers and support staff. Approximately 600 people, including mountaineers and support staff, have climbed Everest since the start of this year's spring climbing season last month.
The high numbers have rekindled concerns about overcrowding on the mountain, which straddles the Nepal-China border, especially if poor weather shortens the climbing window. The climbing season is likely to wrap up by the first week of June.
A Briton improved his own Everest record on Friday and notched his 20th ascent to the world's highest peak, as two Indian climbers died on the mountain, taking the season's toll to five, hiking officials said. Kenton Cool, 52, climbed the 8,849-metre (29,032-foot) peak before dawn and was descending to lower camps. He was expected to reach the base camp over the weekend, his expedition organisers said.
An Indian climber died at Camp II and another at the Hillary Step, Nivesh Karki of their expedition organising company Pioneer Adventure said. Both had climbed the summit on Thursday but died during descent, he said on Friday. Hillary Step is located below the summit in the 'death zone', so called because of the dangerously low level of natural oxygen. Details of their deaths were not available. 'One body is at very high altitude and we are trying to bring the second body from camp II,' Karki told Reuters.
Kenton Cool's Record
Cool, the British climber, is 'quietly rewriting the record books,' said four-time Everest climber and expedition organiser Lukas Furtenbach of the Austria-based Furtenbach Adventures company. 'More Everest summits than any non-Sherpa ever… and still making it look like just another walk in the hills. Absolute legend,' Furtenbach told Reuters from the base camp. Cool climbed with one of Furtenbach's teams.
Cool, who first climbed Everest in 2004 and has since repeated the feat every year except some years when authorities closed the mountain due to various reasons, said scaling the height of Everest was not routine. 'It never gets any easier or any less frightening. It's the tallest mountain in the world and with it comes an incredible sense of majesty,' Cool said in a statement. 'I rely on every bit of experience I have to move safely in this environment. Standing on the summit for the twentieth time is incredibly special.'
The record for the highest number of summits at Everest is held by a Nepali Sherpa, Kami Rita, at 32. Everest has been climbed by more than 8,000 people, many of them multiple times, since it was first scaled by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953.
