For tens of millions of years, the collision and squeeze of the Indian subcontinent and Eurasia has formed the highest peak of our blue planet, Mount Everest, transliterated as "Mother Earth".
▲Mount Everest
Since 1852, mankind has worked hard to measure Mount Everest for 171 years, through countless efforts and corrections by countless people. In 2020, China organized the 7th Everest Surveying and Mapping, which recorded an altitude of 8848.86 meters above sea level, which was widely recognized by the international community. And, as the two continental plates continue to squeeze, Mount Everest is still "growing taller" at a rate of about 4.4 millimeters per year.
As the top of the earth, there has never been a lack of human attention, and since the 19th century, it has attracted the attention of countless scientists and explorers.
The ascent of Mount Everest began at the beginning of the last century, and the first official climb of Mount Everest was made by the British team in 1921. But until 1938, the British mountaineering team failed eight attempts to climb from the northern slope of Mount Everest in Tibet, China. Between 1939 and 1946, due to World War II, mountaineering activities throughout the Himalayas came to a standstill. After 1947, mountaineering on Mount Everest resumed.
On May 29, 1953, mankind climbed Mount Everest for the first time, and New Zealand mountaineer Edmund Hillary and his Nepalese Shaba guide, Tansin, became the first people to conquer the world's highest peak. They climbed hand in hand from the southern slope of Mount Everest, fulfilling mankind's dream of reaching the top of the earth and completing mankind's first ascent of Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world.
▲Edmund Hillary (left)
On May 24, 1960, the Chinese Mount Everest mountaineering team (commander-in-chief Han Fudong, captain Shi Zhanchun), led by Wang Fuzhou, the leader of the assault team, climbed the world's highest peak, Mount Everest, the world's highest peak, from the northern slope of China for the first time. The four members of the commando team of the mountaineering team: Wang Fuzhou, a graduate of Beijing Institute of Geology, Kampot, a soldier of the People's Liberation Army, Qu Yinhua, a lumberjack from Chongqing, and Liu Lianman, a clerk of Harbin Electric Machinery Factory, set out from the assault camp at an altitude of 8,500 meters, overcame all kinds of difficulties and dangers, and successfully climbed Mount Everest at 4:20 a.m. on the 25th from the northern slope that is said to be "impossible for birds to pass and impossible to succeed", standing on the top of the world. On September 30, 2019, the movie "The Climber" was released, which is based on the history of the Chinese team reaching the top twice in 1960 and 1975.
In 1978, after climbing two peaks above 8,000 meters, 34-year-old Messner successfully climbed Mount Everest alone without carrying any oxygen supply equipment, writing the first time in the history of human mountaineering.
▲ Messner
Countless mountaineers braved hardships and dangers to climb to the top of the earth, composing a magnificent mountain and river, touching the heavens and the earth.
According to the statistics of the Slovenian Amigo Exploration Agency, as of 2022, 6,098 people have climbed Mount Everest, not excluding the record of one person multiple times, with a total of about 11,346 summits.
▲Climb Mount Everest
Climbing Mount Everest is one of the challenges that many mountaineers dream of, testing both physical fitness and willpower and team spirit. On this majestic mountain, there are also countless people who have paid with their lives for honor.
"It's clear that great risk has always been with [climbers]: it's a test of life and death... In order to win the game of being the first person to reach the summit - but at the same time, he must return safely. The more difficult and challenging the challenge, the greater his victory. ”
- George Mallory, 1924
Although the development of technology and equipment has given ordinary people the opportunity to try their hand at high-altitude peaks, reality is still a reminder that these peaks are still wild places.
Historically, climbing Mount Everest, which is 8,848.86 meters above sea level, was the ultimate dream of generations of top climbers around the world. As the mountain continues to be commercialized, it has become a paradise for inexperienced explorers. Every year, hundreds of ambitious customers from all over the world try to conquer the world's highest peak. However, facing extremely challenging conditions such as extreme environments and lack of oxygen at high altitudes requires extreme physical strength and perseverance. Unfortunately, sudden weather changes, lack of oxygen, mountain sickness and other reasons are extremely prone to unexpected events, due to weather conditions, high altitude effects, and personal reasons, people do not always get what they want.
Climbing Mount Everest puts the climber's physical and mental abilities to the limit, so the process is no easy task. One mistake can lead to the loss of life on the mountain wall.
Recently, during the spring 2023 climbing season, the southern slope of Mount Everest was roped to the top, and although the first round of summit attempts has just appeared, six people have already died on the mountain wall:
- On the morning of April 12, three crew members from Minma G's expedition company, Imagine Nepal, Dachiren Sherpa, Rabattendi Sherpa and Labarita Sherpa were transporting supplies to Camp No. 1 on the mountain peak during the Khumbu/Khumbu Glacier, the road ice tower collapsed, burying three people.
- On May 1, Jonathan Sugarman, a 69-year-old retired doctor from the United States, died at Camp 2 on the southern slope of Mount Everest, most likely due to high-altitude illness.
- On the evening of May 16, a Nepalese mountaineering guide in the Nepalese Army mountaineering team clearing debris in the Everest area died while evacuating from the summit.
- On May 17, a Moldovan climber died on the southern slope of Mount Everest on the morning of May 17.
In 2021 and 2022, with travel restrictions during the pandemic and other reasons, the number of victims on Mount Everest was 4 and 2, respectively.
In the spring of 2019, 11 climbers died on Mount Everest within days of reaching the summit. News of the deaths of 11 people on Mount Everest made headlines overwhelmingly. This is one of the deadliest climbing seasons in the history of the mountain. In 2014, ice towers on the Khumbu/Khumbu glacier collapsed, killing 16 Sherpa and Nepalese mountain workers, and a 2015 earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale killed 22 people at base camp. In addition, Mount Everest has many horrific mountain disasters.
In 2019, during the most chaotic climbing season in the history of Mount Everest, filmmaker Elia Saikaly from Canada wrote on her Instagram page after climbing the peak, "Death. Massacre. Confusion. Lined up. Corpse of the climbing line. ”
According to the Himalaya Database (HDB) website
(Himalayan Database: A continuation of the work of Ms. Elizabeth Hawley, a journalist living in Kathmandu who has spent much of her life collecting and organizing information on climbing the Himalayas in Nepal)
Published data shows that since the initial attempt at Mount Everest in the twenties (1920s), between 1922 and 2022, 310 people on both sides of Mount Everest were killed during the climb. Some of the remains were found, some were taken away from the peak, but there are still some whose bodies have never been found and remain somewhere on the peak.
▲Himalaya database
Between 1924 and late 2021, 305 people were killed during the Everest attempt, with a fatality rate of 2.9%. Among them, the death toll of climbers was 186, 100 on the southern slope of the mountain, 86 on the northern slope, accounting for 61% of the number of victims, as a corresponding, the death of the staff on both sides of the mountain, the southern slope, 95, the northern slope, 24, the rate is 39%. Since the first attempt at the peak in 1921, the average annual death toll on the mountain has been 4. However, between 2011 and 2021, the number of deaths rose to an annual average of 6.5. Through a deeper analysis, between 1953 and 1999, due to the trial of new routes and Sherpa's main material transportation, the number of climbers killed was much higher than that of the staff, during which 157 people died, 97 climbers and 60 Sherpas.
Other than that:
- 167 people lost their lives during attempts to climb without supplemental oxygen
- Of the 305 climbers killed, 113 died during the evacuation, or 37% of the total
- As of December 2021, there were 7,023 summits on the Nepalese side of the mountain, and 195 people were killed during the climb, or 2.9%, a rate of 1.16. Of these, 119, or 61 per cent, did not use supplemental oxygen
- As for the peak on the Tibet Autonomous Region side of China, the number of successful climbs during the same period was 3,633, or 3.0%, a rate of 1.09. 48 people were killed during a climb without using supplemental oxygen
- The main causes of death on both sides of the mountain were avalanches 77, slips 71, high-altitude illness 6 and exposure 26
- About 62% of all expedition teams have at least one member at the top
- Between 1922 and 1999, 170 people were killed on Mount Everest, during which the number of summits was 1,169, and the fatalities vs summit rate was 14.5%
According to the popular saying now, the main reason for the high mortality rate on Mount Everest is excessive congestion and a large number of less experienced customers coming here to try. In recent years, the death toll on the mountain has decreased, but many bodies remain on the peak. Some of the bodies that did not move were preserved in extremely cold weather conditions. Some of the bodies even served as obvious signposts for other climbers, in addition, some bones were found. With climate change, massive avalanches and melting ice surfaces eventually exposed the remains.
▲ Everest victims
When a climber dies during an attempt at Mount Everest, transporting the body from high altitudes is an extremely difficult task from a practical point of view, not only expensive, but also killing the staff, and in 1984, two climbers died while searching for a victim on Mount Everest.
A large number of climbers' remains remain on the peak, but China and Nepal have removed some of the bodies within sight of the climbing route.
Sometimes, however, the search process is extremely dangerous and time-consuming due to difficult environmental conditions or being buried in snow and ice. The location of the body is difficult to pinpoint; Either it is distributed on the ridge, or it falls into the ice crack and disappears.
Of course, there have been some successful cases of successful discovery of the bodies of dead climbers on Mount Everest, one of which is a Sherpa's attempt to find the body of Goutam Ghosh. Companies, governments and loved ones raise funds to pay for mission expenses.
Some climbers said before their death that if they died, they did not want their bodies to be taken away from the mountain, and were willing to leave their bodies in place. So, there are also cases where the climber's family chooses to respect the wishes of the deceased.
Climbing Mount Everest is a very difficult challenge that requires great physical fitness and perseverance, as well as adequate preparation and equipment. Climbing Mount Everest not only tests people's physical fitness, but also tests people's willpower and teamwork spirit. The fact that every body of Mount Everest once belonged to an individual who dared to break through may be calming.
Each climber possesses unparalleled physical strength and perseverance, the courage to challenge self-confidence and push one's limits, the spirit to explore unknown territory and challenge human limits. They dared to fight hard for the highest honor of climbing Mount Everest, although they died without regrets. These spirits deserve our recognition and respect, and we feel courage and strength in them.