As much as we have touristifiedas much as we have accustomed to see their camps and slopes full of mountaineersEverest still is a resort. Today the planet’s summit is much more busy than in times of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay (The pioneers who crowned the top in 1953), but the mountain is still a dangerous space full of challenges.
And if we had forgotten Everest himself, he has just remembered us big.
What happened? That Everest has just remembered own and strangers that it is not a tourist attraction, but a mountain with extreme climatic conditions that can be twisted at the most unexpected moment. That is at least what just learned the hundreds of mountaineers who were surprised on their slopes this weekend for an intense and copious snow.
Snow was expected, but the intensity of the storm surprised even the most experienced, which forced the authorities to be launched to rescue the trapped groups. “The weather this year is not normal. The guide said he had never faced such a climate in October,” Explain a mountaineer affected.
Where did it happen? On the eastern slope, where the blizzard caught hundreds of people in the camps. Chinese media talk about about a thousand Of affected, hundreds of hikers who were stranded by the storm that started on Friday at the last minute and lasted throughout Saturday. Other sources They point out that temporary surprised more than 500 people in the TINGRI region.
And how are they now? According to The latest information Shared by Laura Bicker, a correspondent for the BBC, rescuers have already guided 350 people to a safe place located in the municipality of Qudang, on the Tibetan side. They have also managed to contact another 200 hikers. The British chain Precise That hundreds of villagers and rescuers have been deployed through the area to clear the access roads, blocked by snow, at an altitude of more than 4,900 m. It is not clear if the snowfall has affected hikers of the north face.
How strong was it? “When we woke up, the snow already had about a meter deep,” Geshuang Chen recountswho on Friday had left Qudang with a group of more than ten mountaineers heading to the Base camp of Cho Oyu. On Saturday, however the storm frustrated its plans. “We are all experienced hikers, but even so this blizzard was extremely difficult.”
Another mountaineer, Eric wen, has counted To the Reuters agency that his group could barely sleep because the snow fell so copious that they had to remove it from the covers of their stores every ten minutes. “If not, they would have collapsed.” Despite their care and equipment, three colleagues suffered hypothermia.
How was it possible? For a sum of factors. The main is the meteorology. They have not been easy days in the region. To the south of Tibet, in Nepal, heavy rains have caused landslides and floods that, in addition to blocking roads, have left several deaths. In the last hours Europa Press He spoke Already 52 dead and 53 injured, in addition to a long dozen of missing.
The other key factor is the festive calendar. China is in full Golden Weeka high season period for local tourism. “Many people come to do hiking, but this year snow is exceptional,” Chen points out. That coincidence of dates and climate explains that this week they arrive at the Karma Valley, which leads to the Eastern Kangshung face of Everest, hundreds of people.
Why is it important? What happened this weekend at Everest is not important just because of the event itself. It is also (and above all) for what it reveals about the mountain and tourist saturation of Himalaya, a problem that experts They have been warning and of which the authorities They are aware.
Some calculations estimate that every year they visit the Sagarmatha National Parkdominated by Everest, some tens of thousands of people that generate in turn 20 tons of garbage. In the mountain the challenge is so serious that the authorities They have already raised Forcing mountaineers to bring bags to collect their feces.
Does so many people go to Everest? Yes. The problem of Everest Massification became especially palpable a few years ago, in May 2019when a Nepalese mountaineer took a photo in which more than 200 people are seen in a row in full rise to the roof of the world. A human traffic jam like the one we would expect to find ourselves in a commercial street in Madrid in full discounts … only in one of the most inhospitable places on the planet. Statista calculates that only in 2023 they were recorded 656 successful promotionsstill from the more than 800 from before pandemic.
What happened this weekend reminds us that despite this enormous popularity and the growing massification of the mountain, even has increased ratesEverest is far (very far) from being a place for sports tourism to use. You don’t have to go very far to confirm it. In 2023 they disappeared Three Sherpas experienced in the Khumbu ice cascade, swelling the extensive list Dead and missing in the mountain.
Images | Guillaume Baviere (Flickr), EMIFAULK (Flickr) and Statista
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