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As 2019 marks a record year for deaths on Mount Everest, experts worry that the mountain’s commercialisation is misrepresenting the severity of the climb.
When asked in a 1923 interview with The Times about his determination to climb to the top of the world’s highest peak, George Mallory replied ‘because it’s there’.
Mallory’s statement lies at the heart of the fascination human beings continue to feel for Everest, and goes a long way to explain why over 4000 people to date have been willing to risk their lives in order to follow in his icy footsteps, of which over 400 have died. Everest represents a kind of sanctioned madness for those who attempt it. For many it sustains the human need for the superlative, giving an upper limit to the human experience that can become an obsessive goal for many. Marvin Gaye hit the nail on the head when he said that there ain’t no river wide, valley low, or mountain high enough to stop humanity from attempting to conquer it.
But the rhetoric around Everest has changed vastly since the exalted times of Mallory. Where Everest was once the pinnacle of human endeavour, it’s now easier than ever to climb the mountain with the help of Sherpas if you’re willing to fork out for it. With social media providing both an avenue for mountaineering companies to advertise trips to laymen audiences and for climbers to widely share picture of themselves summiting, the commercialisation of Everest has made it seem like merely a decent opportunity for the ‘gram, rather than a life-threatening challenge.
During the 2019 climbing season a record 381 climbers ascended Everest, leading to 11 deaths – almost double that of last year. The mountain is not only more crowded, but more polluted than ever before, leading experts to question whether what was once an individual achievement for the exaltation of many has become a selfish endeavour.
Advertising
Successfully climbing Everest requires years and years of training, and a significant amount of previous climbing experience. Solo climbs – misleadingly named given that a Sherpa must be present on every climb – are far rarer than the commercial ‘group’ climbs offered by mountaineering companies.
These companies make a large profit from stacking expenses onto the $11,000 USD (£8,675) per person climbing permits issued by the Nepalese government, hiring large groups of Sherpas to lay ropes and plan routes, making the trip safer and more manageable. Given that the fees of these climb operators can reach up to $200,000 USD, competition for customers is growing as more professional guides seize the lucrative opportunity Everest presents.
In order to be first off the bat to attract the richest 1%, it’s within the interest of these companies to advertise heavily, and to make the climb seem achievable. A quick glance at the website of one of the most popular trekking groups, Adventure Consultants, shows a rhetoric of seduction. ‘To stand at the pinnacle of the earth is one of life’s most rewarding experiences’, announces the banner. Who wouldn’t be tempted?!
Contributing to the view of Everest as a feasible half-term break are well publicised stories of socialites and millionaires, such as Sandy Hill in 1996, successfully climbing the mountain in guided tours. In 2013, 80-year-old Yuichiro Miura became the oldest person to summit the mountain. However, what’s often left out of these tales of victory is that these people had a lot of help – instead of making the descent, Miura was airlifted off the summit. Far younger and more experienced climbers have died in similar conditions.
But the ‘if they can do it so can I’ mentality persists. Whilst the Adventure Consultants website does clearly state that the trek has a ‘high’ level of difficulty, and requires an ‘extremely high’ level of fitness, it avoids any explicit mention of past deaths or disasters, with the carousel of pictures showing happy, healthy mountaineers achieving their summit dreams wearing smiles on their faces.
What’s more, if you go on this website (anyone can) you’ll immediately see the cogs begin to turn in the programmatic ad section of your computer. Not even half an hour after researching this article I began receiving ads for Everest tours on my Facebook and Instagram. Me, who gets puffed climbing the stairs to my office.
In a culture of digital advertising run by algorithms, it seems professional guides and tech are (perhaps unwittingly) catfishing well-off travellers into believing that tackling one of the world’s most difficult tasks is well within their wheelhouse.
Social Media
Further contributing to the misrepresentation of the danger of Everest, many of those who do have the right experience – or the right guides – to reach the top have taken to sharing their achievement on social media.
On May 22nd of this year, during the second ‘window’ for summit attempts from Camp IV, Nepalese climber Nirmal Purja took a photo that quickly went viral of a traffic jam at the ‘Hillary Step’ – the final wall of ice separating the climbers from the peak of the mountain.
Around 250 climbers attempted to reach the summit on the 22nd – far more than the single-file Hillary Step allows for. Instead of turning back, however, many queued in extremely dangerous conditions, with their oxygen tanks rapidly depleting, in order to get the coveted ‘summit selfie’.
Film-maker Elia Saikaly, who summited on May 23rd this year, describes people clambering over one another in order to take photos. He then describes the descent, the most dangerous part of the journey, as ‘Death. Carnage. Chaos. Lineups. Dead bodies on the route and in tents at Camp 4.’ It’s likely that the delays caused by the photo ops, and the rabid attempts to capture the ‘perfect Everest selfie’, cost climbers crucial time.
Adventurer and TV star Ben Fogle told The Daily Mail that, of all the dangers Everest poses, he fears crowds most. ‘Those making their descent had to wait hours to get past the slow-moving mass of climbers still ascending. No one could move faster than the slowest person. The extra hours could spell the difference between life and death.’
