This year’s climbing season for Mount Everest has come to a close, after the Nepalese government offered fewer climbing permits to reduce congestion on the mountain.
In 2023, a record-breaking 18 climbers lost their lives. This year saw five climbers die on the climb, with three others still missing.
Dan Stretch from Global Rescue coordinates high-altitude rescues on Mount Everest.
Rescue coordinator Dan Strech explained to The Briefing why Mount Everest is so deadly:
“The death zone is really above camp 3. They call it the death zone because there’s not enough oxygen to sustain life.”
Stretch said even if you’re acclimatised, nobody can spend a long time in the death zone.
“Anything above 7000 meters the helicopter isn’t going to come and save you it’s up to yourself to get down,”
“This is where the deaths occur, where people go up, they can’t get down from 8000 meters they have to rely on somebody to help them down.”
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