Mass marketing of Mount Everest is killing climbers: Umesh Zirpe

At an altitude of nearly 8,300 metres, Donald Lynn Cash experienced hallucination as he descended from Mount Everest. The American national jumped off an edge on May 21. He is still missing.

Irish citizen Séamus Lawless, 39, plunged up to 500 metres as he clambered down the snow-laced peak. He is untraceable and rescuers have called off the search.

Nihal Bagwan from Akluj in Solapur collapsed during descent at South Col. The sherpas accompanying sought help and brought him to the nearest camp where he had soup. But died after five minutes. The same day, Anjali Kulkarni from Thane and Achala Das from Odisha lost their lives in the Himalayas.

The tragedies tell the risks surrounding 'Everest tourism', which was recently captured in an iconic picture – of a long queue of climbers at the summit of the peak.

Umesh Zirpe, a senior mountaineer and founder director of Pune-based Guardian Giripremi Institute of Mountaineering that organises mountain expeditions, explained how scaling Everest has become a marketing event, as he stressed the importance of sticking to basics.

Zirpe, who witnessed some of the mishaps and was involved in rescues, said the bodies of Kulkarni and Bagwan remain completely frozen. "They have been kept in water at room temperature. It will take two to three days for the bodies to be ready for post-mortem. Then the bodies will be handed over to their respective families." Das's body has already been sent to Odisha.

The expert mountaineer said the Indian embassy in Kathmandu was of great help and readily agreed to bear the expenses towards the rescue of the Indian climbers. "Nearly $50,000 is needed to retrieve a body from treacherous Himalayan peaks."

At Everest, wind speed can touch 100 km per hour and temperatures range between minus 40 degrees Celsius and minus 60 degrees Celsius amid the risk of low oxygen concentration and avalanches. Also, there is only a small weather window – April and May – for the trip.

Mountaineering is an adventure sport where one needs to be well trained with essential technical skills and physical and mental fitness, said Zirpe. "Along with training, prior experience of mountaineering under experienced trainers or groups help build the confidence to achieve mighty goals like Everest." It's expensive too. The expedition costs nearly Rs 35 lakh per person, he said.

With a "traffic jam" on Everest, climbers were restrained with limited space this time. As they were forced to stay longer on the peak, many of them got frostbite, suffered blindness and dehydration, while eight died, said Zirpe. One more mountaineer lost life on Monday.

Incidentally, the Nepal government has not laid down any rules limiting the number of people allowed on the mountain peak, said Zirpe. "There are recognised government and non-government training institutes. I want to sincerely request to all the aspiring mountaineers and Everest dreamers to please stop climbing for the sake of making fancy records."