Death rate increases on Mt. Everest -written by Nitisha Gurjar (BA English Hons.)

Climate change leads to increasing deaths of climbers on Mt. Everest.

 

Recent news has confirmed the death of 12 people trying to reach the peak of Mt. Everest, it is being said that because of climate change, this incident took place. Almost 900 people have been given permission to climb Mt. Everest this year, and due to these deaths, there are increasing chances of death for future climbers too.

 

According to a BBC story, specialists have seen a 2-degree Celsius increase in temperature in the Tibetan Plateau, where Mount Everest is located, over the course of 40 years starting in 1979.

 

According to research done by the University of Maine's Climate Change Institute, as temperatures rise, glaciers' ice caps melt. The resulting water either pours down, making the entire journey more difficult and dangerous or evaporates.

 

According to the Himalayan Database, which keeps tabs on mountain fatalities, a  total of 12 persons have already been verified killed during Everest trips this season, and another five are missing, believed dead , as no contact has been made in these cases for at least five days.

 

Yuba Raj Khatiwada, the director of Nepal's tourism office, affirmed the number. This season on the mountain, we lost 17 people overall, he said. "Altogether this year we lost 17 people on the mountain this season. The main cause is the change in the weather. This season the weather conditions were not favorable, it was very variable. Climate change is having a big impact in the mountains.”

 

In terms of fatalities on Mount Everest, this year would rank second worst only to 2014, when 17 people perished, most of them local sherpas killed in an avalanche. Between five and ten individuals every year pass away on Everest on average, but there has been an increase in recent years.

 

According to a BBC study, there have been 40% more avalanche incidents in recent years. In 2014, such an avalanche claimed the lives of 16.

 

After the deaths of 12 individuals, Ang Tsering Sherpa, the previous president of the Nepal Mountaineering Institute, echoed the view by telling journalists that this year's snowfall was unique.

 

The impact of climate change, according to Lucas Furtenbach of an Austrian mountaineering firm, appears to be astonishing and unprecedented. Another factor contributing to the excessive number of fatalities this season is the unusually high number of permits—900 persons were given permission to ascend Mount Everest. Allowing beginners and unprepared individuals has also increased the number.