An American died in Nepal during the ascent of Everest, announced Monday, May 1 the organizer of the expedition of which he was part. This is the fourth death of a climber on the highest mountain in the world since the beginning of the year. The 69-year-old mountaineer died on Monday while acclimatizing at Camp 2, about 6,400 meters above sea level.

Expedition leader Eric Simonson expressed his “great sadness” on the website of International Mountain Guides (IMG), the expedition organizer. “Efforts are [still] underway to bring his body back down,” said Pasang Tshering Sherpa, a member of Beyul Adventure, the expedition’s Nepalese co-organizer.

“This event is not the result of an accident during the ascent, nor of bad conditions which would have endangered the safety of the members of the expedition”, completes the American guide. On April 30, the expedition blogged that it was waiting for better weather conditions before reaching Camp 3. “There’s no reason to rush,” Eric Simonson wrote on the expedition, noting that the team members were then in the “best possible place to acclimatize”.

Mountaineers who attempt the adventure acclimatize themselves by gradually increasing the round trips from base camp to high altitude camps, before reaching the summit, in order to get used to the effects of lack of oxygen.

Three Nepalese climbers missing in April

The ascent of Everest, subject to a permit issued by the Nepalese authorities, is generally carried out in the spring, between mid-April and the end of May. Nepal has already issued a record 466 permits for this season. Since most climbers must be accompanied by a guide, more than 900 people will attempt to reach the summit.

Three Nepalese climbers went missing last month. The trio were crossing the dangerous Khumbu Icefall to deliver supplies to Camp 1, the first stage on the route to the summit of Everest, when they were hit by a mass of snow and dragged to the bottom of a crevasse .

Since the first conquest of Everest by Nepalese Tenzing Norgay and New Zealander Edmund Hillary in 1953, around 6,000 climbers have reached the summit, most of them in the last twenty years. More than 300 people have died there since the first attempt by a British expedition led by George Mallory in 1922.

The large number of climbers increases the risk of accidents

The large number of climbers increases the risk of fatal accidents, experts point out. At least four of the eleven deaths that occurred in 2019 were attributed to adverse effects of crowds.

Although no comprehensive studies have been conducted on the effects of climate change for mountaineering in the Himalayas, experienced climbers have reported the widening of crevices, the presence of streams on previously snow-capped slopes, and the increasing formation glacial lakes. A 2019 study found that the Himalayan glaciers are melting twice as fast as in the last century. “In the long term, higher temperatures make mountains unstable, which increases the risk (…) of rockfalls, icefalls and avalanches,” says Lukas Furtenbach, operator Furtenbach Adventures.