In his latest video dispatch, Ben Ayers explains what day-to-day life is like at Mount Everest Base Camp during the spring climbing season. There are a plethora of stories out there about the extravagant infrastructure at the base of the world’s highest peak, such as fancy espresso machines, massages, and five-star cuisine. But is life in Base Camp too cushy? Ayers explores this topic.

Want to stay up on 国产吃瓜黑料鈥檚 2025 Everest Season coverage? Sign up for our听.

Ben Ayers听is a filmmaker, journalist, and adventurer who splits his time between Vermont and Nepal. In 2022 and 2024, he chronicled the Mount Everest climbing season for听国产吃瓜黑料.

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What do climbers and guides eat at Mount Everest Base Camp to keep their bodies moving at 17,500 feet?

In this week’s Dispatches from Everest video, Ben Ayers explains the cuisine that you will find at the different expedition tents dotting the Base Camp.

At more budget-friendly expeditions, chefs serve hearty vegetables, sausages, and other food with long shelf lives. At fancier and more expensive camps, chefs whip up a variety of delicious and nutritious foods to keep climbers fueled and happy. You will also find different national cuisines being cooked for climbers from China, India, and elsewhere on the mountain. All of the food has one purpose: fueling the human body to thrive in an extreme environment.

Want to stay up on 国产吃瓜黑料鈥檚 2025 Everest Season coverage? Sign up for our听.

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The official end of the 2025 springtime climbing season on Mount Everest fell on Friday, May 29. The occasion was marked by a from the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, the non-governmental organization that handles trash on the mountain. In one of the video clips, a team of climbers ascends the Khumbu Icefall a familiar gusts of winds buffet the camera microphone.

Indeed, these powerful jet stream winds, which blew across the Himalayas throughout spring, will be the lasting memory for many climber guides who ascended the world鈥檚 highest peak this year. These tempests created unpredictable conditions on the peak, confounded meteorologists, and stymied elite climbers hoping to set speed records.

The winds also narrowed the window to ascend the peak to just a handful of days. Hundreds of climbers and guides packed the route between Camp II and the summit on two days this year: Sunday, May 18, and Monday, May 19. Photos and videos showed enormous queues of climbers on the peak, ascending the Lhotse Face like an army of ants.

Nepal鈥檚 Department of Tourism told听国产吃瓜黑料 that 722 people reached Mount Everest鈥檚 summit from the Nepal side: 272 foreign and nine Nepali clients, plus 434 guides and seven rope fixers. that another 100 or so climbers reached the summit while climbing from the mountain鈥檚 Tibet side, bringing the total number of successful climbs to nearly 850, well up from the 600 or so climbers who reached the top in 2024.听

Surprisingly Few Deaths This Season

Other than the winds, the biggest headline on Mount Everest in 2025 was the surprisingly low number of climber fatalities. Just three people died on Mount Everest above Base Camp this year: clients Phillip II Santiago of the Philippines, who died at Camp IV, and Subrata Gosh, of India, who died on the Hillary Step. Pen Chhiri Sherpa, a mountain worker, suffered apparent cardiac arrest at Camp I and died days later in Kathmandu.

Two other Nepali workers died in Base Camp: Lha Ngima Sherpa died from altitude sickness, and Ngima Dorje Sherpa died of a brain hemorrhage.

All deaths on Mount Everest are tragic. Yet the 2025 death totals鈥攖hree on Mount Everest’s upper reaches, five total鈥� represents a decrease from 2024 when eight people died, and in 2023, when 18 lost their lives. The last time fewer people perished was in 2022, when just three died.

The Four Things That Saved Lives

Absent in 2025 were the mass-casualty events that often generate global headlines: avalanches, falls, or fatalities caused by deteriorating conditions.

Experts credited the relatively safe season to several factors: weather patterns, the preparedness of expedition teams, and the condensed window of summits. 鈥淭his year’s weather was actually more stable than before,鈥� said Tashi Sherpa of expedition company 14 Peaks Expedition.

The perspective may sound counterintuitive, especially given the prevalence of high winds on the peak. But guides said that the poor conditions in early May pushed the main summit window back to the 18-19, so few teams attempted the ascent in the weeks before this. This allowed expedition operators to fully stock Camp IV at 26,000 feet with oxygen bottles. In previous years, some teams had to rush to the summit to take advantage of weather.

鈥淚 honestly think it was a combination of pure coincidence and enough oxygen on the mountain for the main wave of summit teams on May 18,鈥� Austrian guide Lukas Furtenbach told 国产吃瓜黑料. 鈥淚 think with a different weather pattern next year with a longer or earlier weather window we can easily be back at 15 deaths again.鈥�

But Mount Everest experts pointed to another factor in the diminished loss of life: the use of helicopters to save stricken climbers at Camp III, which sits at 23,500 feet. These rescues are tricky operations, since Camp III sits within a few feet of the operation ceiling of Nepal鈥檚 high-performance helicopters. Some of these rescues require a complex approval from officials in the Nepali government, and pilots have to be careful to not exceed the elevation limit of the helicopter. At that altitude, doing a skids-down rescue is too risky, so crews instead tie the stricken climber to the craft via a long rope.

Lhapka Sherpa, the coordinator for the Himalayan Rescue Association鈥檚 Base Camp hospital, said these operations saved multiple lives in 2025.

鈥淭his year casualties were low because of long-line rescues,鈥� Lhakpa Sherpa told 国产吃瓜黑料. 鈥淐aptain Marutizio Folini rescued three people from Camp III, and Captain Bibek Khadka rescued another.鈥�

Without the helicopter rescues, perhaps three more climbers would have died, he said. 鈥淭here were also a lot of timely rescues from Camp II that helped too,鈥� Lhakpa Sherpa added.

Two Ultrarunners Come Up Short

The 2025 Mount Everest season will also be remembered for the unsuccessful attempts by two runners鈥擜merican Tyler Andrews and Swiss-Ecuadorian Karl Egloff鈥攖o set a speed record on the peak.

Both men hoped to set a new mark for ascending the peak from Nepal鈥檚 Base Camp without using supplemental oxygen. The current mark, 20 hours and 24 minutes, was set by Kazi Sherpa in 1998.

Egloff made his sole attempt on May 23, amid heavy winds, and turned back near Camp III, that he had 鈥渁 bad feeling.鈥�

Andrews, 35, made three separate attempts. On May 10, he set off alone and was on record-breaking pace, but turned back just above Camp III after his climbing boot malfunctioned. He made another attempt on May 24, this time with supplemental oxygen, but abandoned that effort just above Camp IV due to dangerous weather conditions.

Andrews鈥� expedition leader, Dawa Steven Sherpa of guiding company Asian Trekking, told 国产吃瓜黑料 that he made the decision to end that attempt due to foul weather. 鈥淚 turned him around above the South Col. My team who were waiting at the Balcony and South Summit reported extremely strong winds.鈥�

Andrews made his final attempt on May 27, departing Base Camp at 9 p.m. He sped through the Khumbu Icefall and up past the higher camps.

鈥淚’ll be honest, when I left Camp IV I thought, 鈥榯here’s no way that I don’t get this record,鈥欌�� he told 国产吃瓜黑料.

But as he pushed into the so-called 鈥渄eath zone鈥� above Camp IV, Andrews began to slow, and his mind became foggy. He believes his earlier attempts, and his travel to and from Kathmandu between attempts, sapped him of too much energy from his body.

鈥淚 was just out of gas by the time I got up there. I was totally fried and just moving too slowly,鈥� Andrews told 国产吃瓜黑料. 鈥淭he thing that did it for me, I was having hallucinations high in the mountain from fatigue. I was by myself. There’s no one else on the mountain. And I just thought, I don’t really trust my brain to be working on autopilot and doing the safety stuff that I need to feel good about being on that terrain.鈥�

Ultimately, Andrews abandoned his third attempt after 19 hours of climbing. He was just 1,500 feet shy of the summit.

Rapid Ascents From Sea Level

Climbers on Mount Everest chased speed records of a different nature in 2025, attempting to travel from sea level to the summit in just a matter of days. These rapid ascents require climbers to pre-acclimatize at home using altitude tents and other methods, and thus skip the traditional acclimatization hikes to high camps on the peak, which can take two months to complete.

The highest profile rapid ascent was completed by the Mission: Everest team, a group of four military veterans from the United Kingdom who traveled from London to the top of Everest and back in just one week. The group used the media coverage to raise money for charity.

Prior to their ascent, the Mission: Everest climbers traveled to Germany and underwent an unorthodox treatment. They inhaled xenon gas that some scientists believe boosts erythropoietin, or EPO, and improves performance at altitude. Xenon is also banned by the world anti-doping agency as a performance-enhancing drug.

The Mission: Everest team left London on May 16th, and reached the summit on the morning of May 21st, after narrowly avoiding an avalanche in the Khumbu icefall on their way up. They returned to London on May 22, beating the seven-day window.

The publicity around the expedition prompted the Nepal Department of Tourism to open an investigation into the ascent and their use of Xenon gas.

Mission: Everest wasn鈥檛 the only team to complete a rapid ascent. Two days before they summited, a Ukrainian-American climber named Andrew Ushakov topped Everest less than four days after departing his home in New York City.

Ushakov did not use xenon to prepare鈥攊nstead, he used a hypoxic altitude tent for four months prior to his trip. 鈥淣ot many people know about pre-acclimatization,鈥� he told 国产吃瓜黑料. 鈥淚 wanted to show that a regular guy, a non-athlete, with a broken arm could climb it in four days. Then others might think they can climb it in 15 days, not 45 days.鈥�

Other Notable Ascents

Similar to past years, a number of record-chasing climbers reached the top of Mount Everest.

Nepali climbing legend Kami Rita Sherpa made his 31st ascent, breaking his own world record, while guiding an Indian Army expedition to the top. He summited in the second weather window on May 27th.

Tashi Gyaltzen Sherpa of Nepal climbed Everest four consecutive times in 15 days, setting a new mark for successive ascents. On his third trip to the top, Sherpa guided Bangladeshi climber Ikramul Hasan Shakil, who had walked 800 miles from his home on the Bay of Bengal to reach the summit.

A group of 19 Indian Army cadets, aged 16-20 years old known as the National Cadet Corps, also reached the top. This massive group was led by Jenjen Lama, 33, an IFMGA-certified guide, and managed by Seven Summits Treks – Nepal鈥檚 largest Everest operator.

The 19 Indian climbers were selected from an initial pool of 1.7 million candidates across India. They spent a year training for the ascent.

The group departed Base Camp on May 14 and climbed steadily up the peak. In addition to the 19 Indian climbers, Jenjen oversaw 22 mountain workers who had spent the early season ferrying oxygen, food, and fuel to high camps.

When the group pushed for the summit on May 18, they encountered a massive queue.

鈥淲hen we reached Camp III, there were 800 people there,鈥� Lama told 国产吃瓜黑料. 鈥淎nd when we climbed up towards Camp IV it was so crowded we could barely move. It should have taken us eight hours to reach the camp, but it took us 11.鈥�

Knowing the summit push would be just as bad, if not worse, Lama鈥檚 team rested for a few hours at Camp IV, and then departed at 6 P.M. on the evening of May 17th to beat the crowds. They passed the body of Santiago as they departed camp.

The team climbed up the steep final ridge towards the summit in the absolute darkness, reaching the top of the world at 3:25 A.M.

Even then, they weren鈥檛 alone.

鈥淭here were more than a hundred people on the summit with us,鈥� Jenjen Sherpa said. By 5 A.M., his entire team reached the summit and began their descent, which was slowed by a line of climbers ascending in the opposite direction. 鈥淲e were lucky to get down through the Hillary step without anything going wrong.鈥�

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The helipad at the northern end of Mount Everest Base Camp was buzzing with energy when I arrived on a sunny Monday afternoon in mid-May. Men clad in DayGlo vests and hardhats chatted as the whine of a flying cargo drone echoed through the valley. A few hundred meters beyond, the massive Khumbu Icefall cascaded from the flanks of Mount Everest听like a powerful waterfall, frozen in time.

This area is the staging zone for the drone operations of the so-called 鈥淚cefall Doctors,鈥� a team of mountain workers that build and maintain the route through the shifting Khumbu Icefall, the most dangerous section of the Everest climb. Before any climbers can venture onto the peak, these workers must ascend frozen cliffs and navigate a labyrinthian and alien landscape made of ice. They lay ladders across deep crevasses and place them on the sides of skyscraper-sized frozen blocks. They twist titanium ice screws into the frozen environment and string safety ropes through the glacier, up 1,300 vertical feet.

Their work creates the key artery that climbers and guides use to access the higher camps on the mountain. Perhaps no job on the mountain is more important鈥攜et more wrapped in paradox. On one hand, the job of the Icefall Doctors is changing with the influx of new technology and the swelling crowds on Mount Everest. On the other hand, perhaps no job on Mount Everest is as irreplaceable. The work they do must be done by hand, and with patience and attention to detail.

鈥淲ithout the Icefall Doctors, Everest is impossible,鈥� Jangbu Sherpa, whose official Icefall Doctor title is Second Leader, told听国产吃瓜黑料. 鈥淭he routes we open through the icefall, no other mountain guides can. They don鈥檛 have the courage.鈥�

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It recently took me 25 minutes to walk a across Mount Everest Base Camp to the edge of the Khumbu Glacier to meet American ultrarunner Tyler Andrews.

I had to stop frequently along the rocky path鈥攚hich is at 17,500 feet above sea level鈥攖o cough and catch my breath. During the stroll I often thought about Andrews’ upcoming attempt to run from Base Camp to the summit of Mount Everest and back without using supplemental oxygen. Andrews’ goal is to break the current speed record for ascending the world’s highest peak without oxygen, which currently stands at 20 hours and 24 minutes.

The whole thing seemed crazy.

When I found Andrews, he and his pacing partner and close friend Chris Fisher were both sitting cross-legged on the floor of a large yellow tent on ether side of a large black exercise bike. Next to the bike stood a mini-fridge-sized medical device. Two plastic hoses snaked out from the base of the machine, across the tent floor, underneath the exercise bike, and up to two large masks attached to both men’s faces.

鈥淥ne hose puts out the hypoxic air, and the other one is basically the vent for the hyperoxic air,鈥� Andrews said through the mask. He was inhaling oxygen-rich air, recovering from one of his daily training sessions on the exercise bike. Fisher, meanwhile, was breathing in oxygen-deficient air to help with his acclimatization.

These devices are part of the infrastructure that Andrews has brought to Mount Everest to help him with his record. In addition to the machine, Andrews is going to need strong legs and, admittedly, better luck.

An Aborted Ascent at 21,000 Feet

On May 10, Andrews made his first attempt at the record, but the ascent ended prematurely. Andrews and Fisher left late at night, sped through the Khumbu Icefall, and reached Camp I at 19,900 feet elevation in just 1 hour, 56 minutes. Less than an hour later, the duo reached Camp II at 21,000 feet.

鈥淚 was actually much warmer than I expected,鈥� Andrews said. 鈥淚 wore running shoes with MICROspikes and that was totally fine.鈥�

A fit Mount Everest climber takes two full days of hiking to reach Camp III at 23,600 feet. But Andrews reached the camp, at the top of the Lhotse Face, just 4 hours and 32 minutes after beginning his run. He was well on pace to break the record.

And that’s when calamity struck.

Andrews told me that, several months ago, he recorded a podcast with his father, who asked him what he worried about ahead of the Everest ascent.

“A month ago, my response was, ‘The thing I’m most stressed out about is that some weird little thing that has nothing to do with my fitness is gonna screw me up,'” Andrews said. “And that鈥檚 pretty much what happened.鈥�

At Camp III, Andrews changed his footwear, removing his running shoes and putting on heavy climbing boots for the remainder of the ascent. These boots, rated for 6,000 meters and above, have a hard plastic shell with an integrated gaiter that goes over the knee. Most boots of this style are either secured with buckles or zippers.

鈥淚t’s my big-mountain boot, and in the cold metal gets brittle,” Andrews said. “You know how those zippers can be super stiff. So, I was really yanking on it and the whole piece, the whole track broke right in half.鈥�

A broken boot at extreme altitude could lead to frostbite. Andrews and a member of his crew at Camp III attempted to fix the problem.

鈥淟uckily, the boot had a Velcro attachment at the top, so that was closed, but the rest was wide open,” he said. Andrews and his crew member then improvised another solution. “We took one of those Hyperlite bags鈥攜ou know, the super thin Teflon kind of bags鈥攁nd wrapped that around the gaiter,” he said. “I put my crampon over that, but the boot wasn’t closed. It was wide open.”

Stopping to try and fix the boot cost Andrews valuable energy and time. He set off for Camp IV, but the ad-hoc repair didn’t last for very long.

鈥淥nce I got up, I could feel my foot was getting wet,” Andrews said. To him, the chasing the record wasn’t worth, “Losing all my toes.鈥�

At 7 A.M. Andrews made the tough call to abandon the attempt. He shuffled down from 25,000 feet to Camp III and then on to Base Camp.

A Second Attempt in Late May

Andrews said his May 10 attempt gave him plenty of time to try it again. Andrews said he’s targeting Friday, May 23 for his next attempt at the Mount Everest record. You can

鈥淭hat鈥檚 why I tried in this early window, so that we would have time for something听weird and unexpected to happen,” he said.

We sat in the late morning sun, chatting as Andrews and Fischer pulled deep lungfuls of air through their masks. Andrews told me about a few future projects, and some of the pressure he鈥檚 been under after he launched his very public attempt to set the record on Mount Everest. The announcement set off an ultrarunning duel with one of his friends and mentors, Swiss-Equadorian athlete Karl Egloff, who is chasing the same record this season.

鈥淚’ve felt a lot of pressure for a lot of things in my career,” Andrews said. “Obviously, this is probably the biggest stage I’ve ever been on. But the last six months of training have gone so well that I know I can have a c-minus day and still take the record.鈥�

He’s continuing his daily training regimen at Base Camp: two hours of running plus two hours of riding the stationary bike while wearing the hypoxic mask.

He said the machine simulates the oxygen level at 36,000 feet鈥攚ell above the top of Mount Everest. That’s about the cruising altitude of a commercial jet.

I recently texted Andrews to see how his body was feeling after all of this preparation. 鈥淔antastic, much better than before attempt 1,” he replied.

Let鈥檚 hope his boots can keep up.

The post Tyler Andrews Was Running to the Top of Mount Everest When a Crucial Piece of Gear Broke appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Hundreds of climbers and guides are headed to the summit of Mount Everest to make the most of the first stretch of favorable weather of the 2025 climbing season.

Here in Base Camp, the chatter amongst expedition leaders is about the traffic jams and conga lines that will soon appear on the mountain. You’ve probably seen photos of the congestion on Mount Everest, with a line of several dozen climbers stretching down an icy slope.

This year, approximately 450 climbers are vying for the summit. Often, there are twice as many guides, climbing sherpas, and support climbers to help these clients reach the top.听 With all of these people heading for the summit, crowding is inevitable along the route, which ascends 11,400 feet over 5.5 miles.

国产吃瓜黑料 spoke to expedition operators about the traffic jams, why they occur, and how guides can safely navigate them.

Where Does Gridlock Occur and Why?

Due to the fickle conditions on the world’s highest peak, hundreds of climbers embark for the summit at the same time to make the most of the few “weather windows” that appear each spring. Hundreds of people hike along the same narrow route and use the same safety ropes during the trip.

Crowding occurs whenever the procession听slows down, either because of a tired individual, tricky terrain, or some other obstacle.

Guides told us about several areas where bottlenecks arise every year.听It’s no coincidence that these areas are some of the hardest sections of the route.

The yellow band (~7700 m) on Mt (8848.86 m), 20.05.2024. Video 漏: Rajan Dwivedi.

鈥� Everest Today (@EverestToday)

The first crowded sections are in the Khumbu Icefall, the cascading glacier that shifts each year as it spills over Mount Everest’s lowest flanks. In this twisted section of ice and crevasses, crowds occur next to vertical sections. Climbers use a combination of ladders, fixed ropes, and ascenders called “jumars” to scale these vertical ice and rock walls, but each person’s progress is slow, which causes logjams when many people arrive at once.

The next section of climbing occurs later in the route, near the deep crevasse or bergschrund just below Camp III near the top of the Lhotse Face. Climbers must ascend the icy and steep top of a glacier before they reach the snowy and stable slopes around camp.

Other slowdowns occur just above the Geneva Spur at 27,000 feet, where the slope becomes nearly vertical, and at a series of large rocks near the South Summit at 28,700 feet.

The final section is perhaps the most dangerous: the narrow summit ridge that extends from the Hillary Step to the summit. In 2024, two climbers fell to their deaths while attempting to sidestep crowds in this section.

Why It鈥檚 Hard to Avoid Crowding

Guides on Mount Everest must strike a delicate balance between the demands of clients鈥攕ome of whom are impatient to get to the summit鈥攁nd the weather windows on the mountain.

Ryan Waters, co-owner of the Boulder, Colorado-based company Mountain Professionals, told me that he informs his clients of his target date for climbing the peak. He also keeps a somewhat flexible schedule in case multiple other teams head up on the same day.

鈥淭here are a few ways to do it. The first is knowing when other groups are potentially leaving and going to summit from conversations you hear in the camps,” he said. “Secondly, changing up your departure time to try to not be around other groups can help a lot.”

But, Waters admitted this is often easier said than done, since concrete information is hard to come by in Base Camp. I can attest to his frustration. Throughout Base Camp, rumors frequently swirl about which group is targeting what date, and which climbers are getting ready to ascend the peak. The critical information about congestion on the mountain exists in this rumor mill.

Thus, sometimes groups simply cannot avoid the inevitable dynamic of heading onto the peak alongside everyone else.

鈥淚f we get into crowds, then it’s听just a situational management scenario,鈥� Walters shared.

How to Climb In a Crowd

I posed the question (how do you navigate crowds?) to Mingma David Sherpa, co-founder of Elite Eped guiding company, as we sat in the mid-morning sunshine and sipped coffee.

“It’s not like a traffic jam with cars in it,” he told me. “There are often opportunities to overtake or go around slow climbers. But the guide has to know their skills and their client’s skills.”

He described several methods that guides and climbers can employ to pass slower people along the route, all of which involved advanced rope techniques. But these techniques are challenging at higher altitudes, when all climbers must clip themselves into the safety ropes.

When passing a slower climber, a guide and client must unclip themselves from the line, pass around the slower climber, and then clip back in. It’s not impossible, but it’s a technique best left to experienced professionals.

Perhaps the most important element of passing is knowing whether or not a client can do it, he said.

“Having experience as a guide is really important,鈥� Mingma David said. 鈥淚t really helps a lot. I take time on the training rotations to get to know my clients鈥� speed and skill.”

The flow rate of oxygen can also speed up or slow down a client, he said. “As we climb, I adjust their oxygen flow rates鈥攚e reduce if the climbing slows, increase if the terrain is steep or overhanging,” he said.

An Emphasis on Courtesy

All of the sources I spoke to echoed a similar point: yelling at slow climbers never improves or speeds up the crowding.

鈥淵ou can adjust your time and start much earlier,鈥� Mingma David said, 鈥淏ut the client has paid all that money, and they want to be on the top in the daylight.鈥�

Dutch guide Arnold Coster, who is leading the Seven Summits Treks expedition this year, told me that “politeness helps” when attempting to overtake someone along the route.

“It鈥檚 not that big of a deal, especially when everyone is moving upwards together,” Coster said. “Crowds don鈥檛 really slow you down.鈥�

Instead, Coster said that climbers and guides need to focus more on the basics of mountaineering when ascending Mount Everest alongside dozens or hundreds of others. Proper hydration, nutrition, and oxygen support are critical during busy times on the mountain. And guides need to understand that their summit bid may be extended by several hours due to traffic jams.

鈥淚t鈥檚 like anywhere in life,” Coster said. “Remember that a lot of climbers up here become pretty unaware of their surroundings. If you shout at them politely, they鈥檒l step aside and let you by.鈥�

Want to stay up on 国产吃瓜黑料鈥檚 2025 Everest Season coverage? Sign up for our听.

Ben Ayers听is a filmmaker, journalist, and adventurer who splits his time between Vermont and Nepal. In 2022 and 2024 he chronicled the Mount Everest climbing season for听国产吃瓜黑料.

The post Overcrowding Is Inevitable on Mount Everest. Here鈥檚 How Climbers Deal With It. appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

The climbing season is in full swing on Mount Everest, with several dozen climbers and guides headed for the summit amid a window of clear weather.

But news has also come back to Base Camp of injuries, rescues, and even deaths.

On Friday, May 16, word circulated that a climber from India named Subrata Gosh had died on Mount Everest after descending from the summit to the Hillary Step at an elevation of 28,839 feet. 国产吃瓜黑料 confirmed the news with Snowy Horizon Treks and Expedition, the guiding company that Gosh had been climbing with.

“Last night the client summited very late, around 2 A.M. or 3 A.M.,” Bodha Raj Bhandari, chairman of the company, told听国产吃瓜黑料. Bhandari said that Gosh was unable to descend from the top after reaching the summit.

“His climbing sherpa managed to drag him down to the Hillary Step, where he sat and refused to move,” Bhandari said. “It took them a long time to reach that location.”

According to Bhandari, the climbing sherpa stayed with Gosh through the night, but the duo were unable to communicate with crews lower on the mountain because the radio batteries had died. The pair had enough oxygen to survive the night, Bhandari said, but unfortunately the climbing sherpa was unable to get Gosh to Camp IV at 26,000 feet.

“At around 7 A.M. this morning the sherpa arrived safely in Camp IV by himself. 鈥楬e’s gone,鈥� is all he said to us,” Bhandari said.

The death marks the second of a foreign climber on Mount Everest this year, and the fourth fatality. On May 14, a 45-year-old Filipino climber named Phillipp Santiago II died at Camp IV while heading toward the summit. Santiago was also climbing with Snow Horizon Treks and Expedition.

“Weather wasn’t a factor in this death either,” Bhandari told听国产吃瓜黑料.听“The climber had a plan to summit, and was just resting in his tent peacefully. He was on oxygen while resting, and just died peacefully. Our team tried CPR but it was ineffective. It was a sudden death.”

Deaths of this nature are not uncommon on Mount Everest during the spring season. Even with the use of supplemental oxygen, climbers can die at extreme altitudes due to exhaustion, pulmonary or cerebral edema, or sudden cardiac arrest. Climbers must limit their time in the so-called “death zone” above 26,000 feet due to the the inherent dangers of a low-oxygen environment.

Earlier this week, multiple climbers had to be evacuated from above Camp III at 24,000 feet due to medical issues caused by the elevation. On Wednesday, May 14, a Czech climber was plucked off the mountain by a helicopter using a long-line winch system.

On Thursday, May 15, another climber was saved via a long-line helicopter rescue from Camp III, Lhakpa Norbu Sherpa from the Himalayan Rescue Association confirmed.

On the Friday, May 16, a helicopter brought a climber from Morocco off the slopes Mount Everest to the Himalayan Rescue Association’s emergency room in Mount Everest Base Camp. The climber was suffering from chest pain and physical weakness. Both rescued climbers are expected to recover, officials told听国产吃瓜黑料.听

The two fatalities are the third and fourth of the 2025 season thus far. 国产吃瓜黑料 was able to confirm that two Nepali mountain workers died earlier in the season, but their deaths went unreported at the time.

Ang Chokpa Sherpa, the program manager of the Juniper Fund, a nonprofit that supports听families of deceased mountain workers, identified the two Nepali workers as Ngima Dorji Sherpa and Pem Chhiri Sherpa.

Ngima Dorji Sherpa, who was from Nepal’s remote Makalu region, died earlier in May of a brain hemorrhage while working at Mount Everest Base Camp, Ang Chokpa Sherpa confirmed. His employer, Seven Summits Treks, attempted a rescue, but he died before receiving further care.

Pen Chhiri Sherpa died on May 4 after suffering a heart attack at Camp I at 19,900 feet, Ang Chokpa said. His employer, TAG Nepal, initiated a rescue, but Pen Chhiri died in Kathmandu. He left behind a wife and a grown son.

Nine climbers died on Mount Everest in 2024, down from 18 in 2023.

Want to stay up on 国产吃瓜黑料鈥檚 2025 Everest Season coverage? Sign up for our听.

Ben Ayers听is a filmmaker, journalist, and adventurer who splits his time between Vermont and Nepal. In 2022 and 2024 he chronicled the Mount Everest climbing season for听国产吃瓜黑料.

The post Deaths and Rescues Amid the Summit Push on Mount Everest appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Mount Everest holds a special aura for hardcore climbers and casual fans of the sport alike. Every year, the world’s highest peak attracts several hundred climbers who attempt to reach the top. But not everyone is familiar with the dynamics on the mountain, the guiding industry, or even the route to the top. Below, we answer a handful of familiar questions that we often receive from 国产吃瓜黑料 readers (and also 国产吃瓜黑料 editors) about Mount Everest.

Do you have a question about Mount Everest? Email them to adventure@outsideinc.com.

And check out our 2025 coverage from Mount Everest Base Camp.

What Is Mount Everest Season?

Yes, there are 365 days in a year. But only a handful of those days produce calm, clear, and (relatively) warm enough weather on the summit of Mount Everest for humans to exist. And the only time when the top of Mount Everest consistently experiences multiple days of these conditions鈥攚hat climbers call a “weather window”鈥攊s in mid to late May. During a typical year, a few weather windows may occur during this brief stretch.

That’s why, in the international mountaineering world, late April through May is known as “Mount Everest Season.” It’s when climbers arrive in Base Camp, complete their acclimatization hikes onto the mountain, and then push for the top.

According to The Himalayan Database, a website that tracks Himalayan climbing in Nepal, May 23 is the most popular date for reaching the summit. Since 1950, 1,712 climbers have reached the top of Mount Everest on that date. May 21 is the next busiest day with 1,487 successful summits.

“All mountains in Nepal are best climbed in spring because there is less snow,” says Billi Bierling, who operates The Himalayan Database. “People think there’s so much snow, and yes there is, but not as much as there is during the summer monsoon.”

Climbers avoid Mount Everest in the summer because, in early June, monsoons sweep off the Bay of Bengal into the Himalayas. These storms dump heavy snowfall on the peak and buffet the top with dangerous winds. In the winter, the peak is simply too cold and windy.

Some climbers have scaled Mount Everest in the fall, when a shorter weather window sometimes opens up. But the finicky weather usually makes for a shorter window. According to Bierling, only 287 climbers have ever reached the top in the fall.

“The weather window is just too small in the fall,” Bierling said. “The monsoon is sometimes dragging on, and then the Jet Stream hits Everest earlier than other 8,000-meter peaks because it’s higher.”

But of course the lack of suitable days to climb Mount Everest is what creates those dramatic photos of traffic jams on the peak鈥攈undreds of climbers are pushing for the top at exactly the same time. If you were to snap a photo in the same location a day later, the trail might be empty.

Do Climbers Take the Same Route Every Year?

Yes鈥攖he lion’s share of Mount Everest climbers follow the same approximate route to the top. The South Col route from Nepal and the North Ridge route from Tibet represent the paths of least resistance on both sides of Mount Everest, and thus, they are the most common ways to get to the top. Think of them as the proverbial green circle runs at your local ski resort.

You can check out the South Col route from Nepal above.听

Both routes make slight deviations from year to year based on snowfall, avalanches, and shifting ice in the Khumbu Icefall.听Each year, sherpas and other mountain workers fix safety ropes along the route to the summit, and then guides and their clients use these safety ropes to reach the top. And as Mount Everest has become dominated by commercial ascents, these routes have only grown in popularity, since most of the climbers are not hardened alpinists.

Over the years, more experienced climbers have taken more challenging routes to the summit that require true Alpine-style climbing, such as ascending the Hornbein Couloir, or the Kangshung Face. In 2022 French climber Marc Batard attempted a new approach that circumvented the Khumbu Icefall. And for the last few years, German Alpinist Jost Kobusch has attempted to scale Everest via the West Ridge. These are black diamond-level routes鈥攐nly attempted by seasoned climbers.

How Much Harder Is it to Climb Mount Everest WITHOUT Supplemental Oxygen?

Here’s how Dr. Jon Kedrowski, a four-time Mount Everest climber, describes climbing the peak without using supplemental oxygen. “It would be as if I pulled your lower lip over your head and then kicked you in the stomach,” he said. “It hurts. Everything hurts.”

It’s no secret that the human body functions better in oxygen-rich environments and worse in oxygen-poor ones. At Mount Everest Base Camp, at 17,500 feet, there’s approximately half as much oxygen in the air compared to sea level. Atop Mount Everest, it’s approximately 33 percent of sea level.

Using supplemental oxygen effectively lowers the perceived elevation by giving your body more to absorb with each breath. The amount of oxygen in each breath鈥攖he “flow rate” of the oxygen mask鈥攃an add significant amounts of oxygen to your body.

Kedrowski, who climbed 26,781-foot Manaslu without oxygen and attempted Everest without oxygen in 2015, said that every bodily movement at that altitude can push your body to exhaustion. You have to hike slower and make every bodily movement count.

“You have to learn how to stand, how to stabilize your body, and how to optimize your movement efficiency,” he said. “Even a little task like reaching your hand back to grab a water bottle can take your breath away and make you feel like you’re going to pass out.”

How Much Does it Cost to Climb Mount Everest?

In his annual , longtime Everest chronicler (and 国产吃瓜黑料 contributor) pegged the 2025 price range between $35,000 and $123,000 for climbing Mount Everest from Nepal.

Even a bare-bones expedition has costs you cannot avoid: a climbing permit from the Nepali government costs $11,000, payment to rope fixers and Nepal liaison officers is a few grand, and then of course you need to hire a yak or two to get your crap to Base Camp.

So, It’s Just a Bunch of Rich People Up There, Right?

Not at all. The vibe at Mount Everest Base Camp is way more scrappy climber than Prada. Some expedition operators do cater to high-end clientele and feature creature comforts like fancy espresso machines and private chefs. You can pay upwards of $100,000 for a trip like this. But these climbers are in the minority at Everest Base Camp.

“In 2012, I spent $29,000 on my first Everest trip,” Kedrowski said. “I was working as a ranger on Mount Rainier at the time and a ski guide. I paid some up front and put the rest on my credit card.”

Kedrowski said he found ways to cut costs on his ascent by carrying his own gear up to Camp I and Camp II.

“It was still an expensive endeavor, and rightly so,” he added.

Is There Any 鈥淭echnical鈥� Climbing Involved?

Not really. Think of the ascent of Mount Everest as a big, long, multi-day hike at extreme altitude, with sections of fairly dangerous exposure. There are tricky sections in the Khumbu Icefall, but the route builders erect ladders, and also fix safety ropes and anchors to help climbers pull themselves up.

“The only person experiencing true technical climbing is the first person leading the pitch,” Kedrowski said. “Last year there was one vertical wall in the Icefall but after so many people climbed it you’d barely rate it fifth-class.”

Why Do People Climb Mount Everest?

Throughout my time in Base Camp I’ve learned that everyone has their own reason for climbing. These explanations vary greatly. Sure, there’s some ego driving climbers, and everyone is asking themselves, “what am I capable of?”

But there’s also an infectious community of people who ascend these mountains, and for some, it’s this camaraderie that motivates them. I’ve met a lot of like-minded people who enjoy pushing themselves physically and mentally. Throughout my journey here I’ve decided that asking this question is like asking “why do people join CrossFit gyms?”

Throughout his time guiding, Kedrowski says he’s come across clients motivated by several reasons. “One client was working through a battle in his own life and he was trying to do something he could be proud of,” Kedrowski says. “He had worked really hard to change his life, and he had put in the time and training so that he felt he deserved to be on Mount Everest.”

Want to stay up on 国产吃瓜黑料鈥檚 2025 Everest Season coverage? Sign up for our听.

Ben Ayers听is a filmmaker, journalist, and adventurer who splits his time between Vermont and Nepal. In 2022 and 2024 he chronicled the Mount Everest climbing season for听国产吃瓜黑料.

The post What Is Mount Everest Season? We Answer Your Questions About the World鈥檚 Highest Peak. appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Rescuers and expedition operators in Base Camp buzzed with enthusiasm on the evening of Wednesday, May 14 after a helicopter pilot executed a daring rescue high on the slopes of Mount Everest.

The drama began at approximately 6:45 A.M. after a sizable early wave of climbers reached the summit and began to descend. Clear skies on the peak gave way to clouds and wind as the group made its way down. A Czech climber who was part of the ascent led by expedition operator 8K Expeditions began to show signs of altitude sickness on the descent, a company representative told 国产吃瓜黑料.听

The climber, whose identity was not shared, was able to make his way down from the summit to Camp III at 24,000 feet elevation, but he was unable to continue. Lhakpa Sherpa, director of 8K Expeditions, told 国产吃瓜黑料 that the company called for a helicopter rescue at approximately 4 P.M.

Kailash Helicopters, a transport company in Kathmandu, sent Italian pilot Maurizio Folini to attempt the rescue.

鈥淢aurizio is the best pilot for this kind of rescue in the world,” Lhakpa Sherpa said. “He鈥檚 an Everest summitter听and an IFMGA guide.”

Sources with the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, a local non-profit that helped manage the Everest route, confirmed details of the rescue with 国产吃瓜黑料.听

Folini piloted an Airbus AS350 B3e helicopter equipped with a long-line winch system. The helicopter flew from Kathmandu to Lukla, where Folini took over and began flying toward Everest.

As the helicopter was en-route, the Czech climber’s condition worsened, Lhakpa Sherpa said.

“We received reports that he was unconscious for a full ten minutes,” Lhakpa Sherpa said. “Our teams gave him CPR, and he regained consciousness.”

Camp III is located halfway up the steep Lhotse Face, an imposing wall of rock and ice that ascends nearly for nearly 3,700 vertical feet. It’s the last camp that climbers reach before entering the so-called “Death Zone” at 26,000 feet.

The camp’s elevation near the limits of the high-altitude helicopters flown in the Himalayas. Piloting a helicopter in the Himalayas is a harrowing job鈥攙iolent weather systems can appear without warning, and the thin air at extreme altitude creates less lift than air at sea level. There’s no room for pilot error.

At 5:30 P.M. Folini’s helicopter flew over Everest Base Camp and made its way up the Khumbu Icefall toward Camp III trailing a rescue rope, or a long line, below the aircraft. After making a pass of the landing zone, Folini hovered over the Camp.

Nepali laws forbid helicopter pilots from landing on Mount Everest. In Base Camp, a ground crew comprised of officials from the Himalayan Rescue Association, Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, and 8K Expeditions called Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority and requested permission to complete the mission.

Officials told听国产吃瓜黑料 that the group received the go-ahead, and radioed Folini to proceed. As he hovered, rescuers at Camp III secured the Czech climber to the long line, and Folini then flew the patient, dangling beneath the helicopter, back to Base Camp, where a team of emergency doctors was听waiting in the Everest Emergency Room operated by the Himalayan Rescue Association.

鈥淲e were very lucky today,鈥� Lhakpa Sherpa said. 鈥淭he doctors said his entire chest was swollen. He would not have survived the night.鈥�

Officials told听国产吃瓜黑料 that the Czech climber was diagnosed with severe pulmonary edema and needed to be taken to lower elevation. After Folini landed his helicopter at Base Camp, crews loaded the Czech climber into the craft and he departed for the town of Lukla in the foothills of the Himalayas.

The rescue was the focal point of a busy day on Mount Everest. Amid a window of good weather, approximately 40 climbers from two different companies reached the summit. Officials told 国产吃瓜黑料 that another rescue occurred later in the day after a climbing sherpa听slipped and fell on the Lhotse Face. The man survived, officials said.

Hundreds more are either still in Base Camp waiting for better weather, or are at lower camps on their way to the top.

Want to stay up on 国产吃瓜黑料鈥檚 2025 Everest Season coverage? Sign up for our听.

Ben Ayers听is a filmmaker, journalist, and adventurer who splits his time between Vermont and Nepal. In 2022 and 2024, he chronicled the Mount Everest climbing season for听国产吃瓜黑料.

The post There Was a Dramatic Helicopter Rescue on Mount Everest appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

In the social chatter of Mount Everest Base Camp, everyone has heard about “Wally.”

That’s the nickname given to Viorel Stirbu, a 74-year-old man who has become a crowd favorite in the mountaineering community. Wally is an American citizen who speaks with a thick Romanian accent. He was born in Romania but sought asylum in the United States 45 years ago. After settling in Chicago, he spent 28 years working for the city’s fire department.

Check out the above video for a behind-the-scenes look at Ben Ayers’ chat with Wally.

But Wally is also a seasoned climber, and he’s at Mount Everest to complete the so-called Seven Summits鈥攃limbing the highest mountains on all of the continents. He’s also trying to reach the roof of the world after two earlier attempts. In 2015 his climb was disrupted by the Nepal Earthquake, and in 2016 he reached Camp III at 23,600 feet but turned back due to shortness of breath.

If Wally reaches the top of Mount Everest this year, he will become the oldest Romanian to climb the peak, and the first person to fly the flag of the Chicago Fire Department from the summit.

Throughout my career covering Mount Everest, I have been admittedly skeptical about climbers trying to set age records on the mountain. As a whole, it seems like a risky idea that could place undue pressure upon guides and high-altitude Sherpa staff. But when I sat down to speak with Wally, I couldn鈥檛 help but be caught up in his infectious positive energy. Within minutes, I was entirely rooting for him.

Wally鈥檚 story began with his first failed attempt to escape Romania by swimming across the Danube River in 1974, when he was 24. He was captured by the Yugoslavian security forces and deported back to Romania鈥攖he attempt landed him in jail for 18 months. He swam again in 1978 and managed to make it to Austria, where he was granted asylum by the U.S. Embassy. A few years after arriving in Chicago on December 21, 1978, Wally joined the Chicago Fire Department, raised a family, and prospered.

As a retirement celebration in 2013, he took a trip to climb Kilimanjaro. During the ascent, he learned about the Seven Summits challenge. He climbed steadily thereafter, completing six of the seven by April 2015 when he arrived in Nepal to complete the circuit on Mount Everest.

And this is where, unbeknownst to me, our paths crossed.

When the 7.8 magnitude Great Nepal Earthquake unleashed a massive serac from the East face of 23,507-foot Pumori, the pressure wave blasted through Mount Everest Base Camp, killing 18 people and injuring dozens more. The entire complex was flattened.

Wally escaped injury during the blast and immediately went to work helping set up a triage hospital at Base Camp. He used his听skills as an emergency medical technician and firefighter to assess victims and assemble them for helicopter transport down to the small airstrip in Lukla. That’s where I happened to be helping set up the triage hospital that received the stricken climbers and guides.

Even now I can see the precise handwriting on the notes scrawled across medical tape on the down jackets of the dozens of casualties we processed and expedited to advanced care in Kathmandu that day. I recently learned that this was Wally’s handwriting鈥攖he revelation blew my mind.

While my conversation with Wally was brief, it was sprinkled with some Himalayan snow-dust of magic and serendipity. It closed a door for me that I didn鈥檛 know was left open, and it opened my mind.

When we parted, Wally shook my hand and leaned in. 鈥淵ou know,鈥� he whispered, 鈥淚f I pull this one off, I might try for K2 this year, too.鈥� If successful, that would make him the oldest summiteer by almost ten years. I wished him the best of luck.

Ben Ayers is a filmmaker, journalist, and adventurer who splits his time between Vermont and Nepal. In 2022 and 2024, he chronicled the Mount Everest climbing season for听国产吃瓜黑料.

The post Wally, Chicago鈥檚 Most Charming Retired Firefighter, Is Climbing Mount Everest at Age 74 appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.