There’s something about the human spirit that makes us push ourselves to the limit in order to feel like we’ve made our mark on the world.
Some want to make groundbreaking discoveries or right wrongs from the past to improve the quality of life for future generations. Others want to achieve personal greatness and ensure their legacy by conquering a unique feat.
And it is the latter group that was the focus of a photo that rocked the world this year. But the question is, what’s its real impact?
There is perhaps no greater physical feat recognized throughout the world than summiting Mount Everest.
It’s one of the toughest things a human being can accomplish – and very few people can say they’ve done it.
Surviving this feat is so extraordinary that it’s become synonymous with doing the impossible. “It was like climbing Mount Everest,” we say when we’ve done something we never imagined we could do.
It is one of the most dangerous endeavors one can take on. The mountain has claimed more than 300 lives since deaths were first officially recorded in 1922.
Many of them still lay where they fell on the mountain because it is too dangerous – and expensive – to retrieve their bodies.
So why would anyone choose to risk their lives to do something that’s so painful and uncomfortable, so frightening and life-threatening?
Because of the human need to fight our mortality and make our mark on the world.
But just how far do we need to go?
Pushing the Limits
Just under 1000 people attempt to climb Everest each year, and about 500 of those reach the summit – but this total also includes native Sherpas, professional guides, and climbers who have done it before.
Thousands have tried it and made it. It’s an incredible endeavor when you take into account the small percentage of human beings who have succeeded – but it’s not something that will get you into the history books.
Sure, you may get your name in the paper; the enviable photo of planting your flag – your 15 minutes of fame.
But the real reason people try to summit Everest is not because it’s impossible and completely unique.
It’s because we want to prove our strength and courage to ourselves. It’s not really a conquest of a mountain, but of our fears – of death and the unknown – and being able to come back from the edge of it all.
Death – everyone’s greatest nemesis. To conquer death is impossible, of course, (except for the Son of God), so surviving Everest is about as close as we can come to it.
Over the Edge
People have died on Everest nearly every year since fatalities first began being recorded in 1922.
But 2019 was a particularly terrible year for casualties on Everest – and a group of survivors have talked about one day in May that turned extremely deadly.
On May 22nd, the short climbing season was well underway. Hundreds of climbers from all over the world were trying to cheat death by climbing to the top of the world before the next blinding storm would stop them in their tracks.
That day, a climber from Nepal named Nirmal Purja took a photo of the chaotic scene on the way to the top. It would both shock and surprise the world.
It would surprise, because we think of climbing Everest as something very few people try to do. Shock, because the photo showed just how many people really were crazy enough to risk their lives.
Dozens of climbers in a traffic jam of sorts, waiting to make their mark. Some dying while waiting to do so.
So what is going on? If it’s so dangerous and difficult, why are so many more people trying to do it – and who’s allowing them to?
Books and movies have chronicled the horrific loss of life during Everest expeditions that go bad – a sudden storm, lack of preparation, or ignoring instincts of self-preservation.
Into Thin Air, released in 1996, was a cautionary tale about the dangers of making an Everest summit commercialized and commonplace.
It detailed the circumstances surrounding the deaths of eight climbers, thought to have been partially caused by irresponsible guides allowing ill-prepared but wealthy thrill-seekers to do something they had no business doing.
And it’s only gotten worse from there. While it’s still incredibly expensive to try to summit Everest – nearly 40 thousand dollars in most cases – some “budget” companies are targeting those with less means to follow their dreams.
These budget companies draw clients from lesser-developed countries and charge a quarter of the typical rate. But they also have less to pay experienced guides or take proper precautions.
Four of the eleven deaths in 2019 were clients of these budget companies – mostly from India. Of the 17 who died on other “eight-thousanders” like K2, eight were Indians summiting with a budget company.
Experienced climbers and guides say that Everest has become a “circus” of sorts. Too many permits being issued; too many climbers being taken on; too much naivete and not enough respect for how close death really is at all times.
In 2019, Nepal granted the largest number of permits ever – 381. In the last ten years, the number of people granted approval to summit Everest has nearly doubled.
Budget agencies run on a “don’t ask; don’t tell” business model, taking on those who are nowhere near physically or mentally fit enough to make the climb.
They may have never summited another mountain even close to that of Everest. They have no business even being there.
On the day after Nirmal Purja’s now-famous photo, Everest was as unforgiving as she could be, and the crowd was as big as it could possibly get.
The photo would end up proving a point – people were going to die if Everest was not given its due respect. It was never meant to be a tourist destination.
And May 23rd would be deadly.
Kalpana Das had climbed Everest before. He collapsed and died after trying to do so again at age 54.
Donald Cash from Utah had quit his job to become one of the elite “Seven Summit Climbers.” He made it to the summit of Everest, but collapsed on the way down. Despite rescue attempts, he didn’t make it. His family asked that he be left on the mountain.
Anjali Kulkarni summited with her husband the same day as Cash, then suddenly collapsed and died.
Kevin Hynes died in his tent after turning back for camp. He knew he couldn’t make the summit, and likely died of a heart attack.
Nihal Bagwan, who had failed to make the summit in 2014, died of altitude sickness just before midnight after making it to the top earlier in the day.
Reinhard Grubhofer, an experienced climber, was only yanked from the jaws of death when a Sherpa found him struggling with an empty oxygen tank. He had gotten to Grubhofer just in time.
“At the end of the day, money talks.”
This comment comes from an insider who spoke with a journalist from GQ and doubts changes will ever happen.
The Nepalese government has proposed new rules, for example, that potential climbers must have previous experience in high-altitude climbs.
But the rules will likely never be enforced because the government would lose millions in revenue that comes from approving more and more permits every year.
Expert climbers agree something needs to change, but don’t know specifically what those changes would entail.
And then we circle back to the reason people try to summit Everest in the first place – the will of the human spirit.
Is it arrogance? Pride? A sense of accomplishment? All, perhaps.
People will never stop climbing Everest as long as they get attention for doing so. “Bragging rights” – to be able to say they’ve done something that more than 99 percent of the world’s population would never try.
And Nirmal Purja, who took that famous photo, thinks things had better change – and soon – before it’s reduced to “dead people and tourists.”
Everest’s beauty and grandeur are not meant to be taken for granted, yet that seems to be what’s happening – and will continue to happen if things don’t change.
And people are paying dearly for it.