As luxury camps and professionally managed expeditions draw record numbers to Everest, delays and fatalities are becoming an accepted part of the climb
Mount Everest’s most revealing modern image is no longer the solitary climber above the clouds. It is the queue: dozens, sometimes hundreds, of climbers in bright down suits clipped to the same rope, waiting near the top of the world for a few seconds of private triumph on a mountain that has become increasingly public.
Tashi Gyalzen Sherpa, 30, a guide with Kathmandu-based 8K Expeditions, has seen what that moment now looks like from close range. Climbers arrive at the summit exhausted after weeks on the mountain, plant their country’s flag, remove the oxygen mask for a quick photograph, take the flag back and step down because another queue is already forming behind them. “It is like taking a selfie with a celebrity,” Tashi told TOI from Kathmandu.
Tashi Gyalzen Sherpa, 30, a guide with Kathmandu-based 8K Expeditions, has seen what that moment now looks like from close range. Climbers arrive at the summit exhausted after weeks on the mountain, plant their country’s flag, remove the oxygen mask for a quick photograph, take the flag back and step down because another queue is already forming behind them. “It is like taking a selfie with a celebrity,” Tashi told TOI from Kathmandu.