Mount Everest climbers are facing hours-long delays as human traffic jams form near the summit, with footage showing hundreds of people shuffling shoulder to shoulder amid a record number of visitors to the world's highest peak.
Record Crowds on the World's Highest Peak
Video published on social media captures a massive queue of climbers slowly making their way up Hillary Step, a 40-foot vertical rock section on the mountain's southeast ridge. Many climbers were seen waiting motionless for extended periods. The video caption read: 'Nearly 3 hours to cross this area due to congestion and difficult movement conditions at high altitude.'
Hillary Step, situated at 8,790 metres above sea level, lies halfway between the South Summit and the true summit. Located in the 'Death Zone,' it is considered the most technically challenging part of the Everest climb and the final obstacle before reaching the top.
Officials confirmed that a record number of climbers reached the summit from the Nepal side in a single day. An estimated 275 people scaled the 29,032-foot peak on Wednesday, marking the highest single-day summit count from that route. This surpasses the previous record of 223 climbers set on May 22, 2019.
Renewed Fears of Overcrowding
The milestone has reignited concerns about overcrowding on the world's highest mountain, with long queues forming during the narrow weather window. Experts frequently criticise Nepal for permitting large numbers of climbers, which can lead to risky traffic jams in areas where oxygen levels are dangerously low.
Expedition organisers acknowledge the dangers but argue that risks can be managed. Lukas Furtenbach of Austria-based Furtenbach Adventures told Reuters: 'If teams carry enough oxygen it is not a big problem. We have mountains in the Alps like the Zugspitze where we have 4,000 persons on top per day. So 274 is actually not a big number, considering this mountain is 10 times bigger.'
Camp IV Turned into a Garbage Heap
The influx of climbers has also transformed Everest's highest campsite, Camp IV, into a garbage heap. Social media footage shows abandoned tents, empty oxygen bottles, and human waste littering the snow. Situated on the South Col between Everest and Lhotse, Camp IV is the highest campsite on Earth.
Everest Today, an account dedicated to climbing, posted on X: 'What should be one of the most extraordinary places on the planet has, in many ways, become one of the ugliest faces of Everest's commercialisation. Abandoned tents, empty oxygen bottles, food cans, torn gear, and other waste are scattered across the South Col, turning the world's highest campsite into a graveyard of climbing equipment. The mountain deserves better.'
Clean-up efforts have been attempted, but the high altitude and extreme weather make the task highly dangerous. Good weather can quickly descend into blizzard conditions, and oxygen levels are about a third of normal.
Record Permits and Clean-Up Efforts
Almost 500 foreign climbers have been granted permits to scale the peak this year, also a record high, as experts continue to raise alarms about overcrowding and safety risks. In 2024, a group of Sherpas and Nepalese soldiers cleaned up 11 tons of rubbish and retrieved four bodies from the mountain. The mission was arduous: it took two days to recover one corpse completely encased in ice.
Ang Babu Sherpa, who led the Sherpa team, said: 'The garbage left there was mostly old tents, some food packaging and gas cartridges, oxygen bottles, tent packs, and ropes used for climbing and tying up tents.' Some debris dated back 69 years.
Since September 2025, climbers have been required to pay $15,000 (£11,164) for a permit, up from the longstanding fee of $11,000, marking the first price increase in nearly a decade.
