British climber latest to die on Everest amid overcrowding

A British climber has been named as the latest fatality on Everest, in a season marred by poor weather and overcrowding on the world’s highest mountain.

The death of Robin Fisher, who reportedly collapsed while returning from the summit, was announced by Mira Acharya, the director at the Nepalese Department of Tourism. According to Acharya, 44-year-old Fisher died at about 8,600 metres (28,200ft) after falling ill during his descent.

The Foreign Office is aware of the reports, but has not yet been officially informed of any incident.

Murari Sharma, at Everest Parivar Expedition, the company that had been guiding Fisher, said he had been part of a six-member expedition led by Dani Fuller. “The climbers, along with the Sherpa guide, made it to the summit at around 8.30am,” Sharma told local media, adding that Fisher, along with Jangbu Sherpa, had complained of illness during the descent.

Other guides changed Fisher’s oxygen bottle and offered him water, but could not save him, Sharma said.

Fisher’s family issued a statement describing how he had previously climbed Mont Blanc and Aconcagua and had “lived life to the full”. “We are deeply saddened by his loss as he still had so many more adventures and dreams to fulfil. Every one who ever met him in any capacity will always remember the positive impact he had on their lives.”

However, adding to growing criticism of the number of deaths this year, Garrett Madison of the US-based company Madison Mountaineering said many of those attempting Everest were not “well-qualified or prepared climbers” and lacked the support necessary to ascend and descend safely.

“If they were with a strong and experienced team, they would likely have been fine, but with minimal support, once something goes wrong, it’s tough to get back on course,” Madison said.

Concern over crowds on the mountain this year during last week’s brief weather window were underlined by the publication of a picture taken by the former British soldier Nirmal “Nims” Purja showing long queues on the summit slopes.

Climbers queueing near the summit of Everest.Photograph: Nirmal Purja/AFP/Getty Images

It also emerged that long delays at bottlenecks on the summit ridge – and during the descent – may have contributed to several deaths.

The American climber Don Cash died on Wednesday after being delayed in a bottleneck of climbers during his descent. Cash, 55, fell ill close to the summit and was being helped down by two Sherpas when he collapsed again while waiting in a queue for two hours to descend the Hillary step, a well-known chokepoint.

Like Cash, the Indian mountaineer Anjali Kulkarni appears to have died during her descent after being caught in the ascending queues.

“Anjali and her husband were forced to wait for hours to reach the summit as there was a long queue on the slopes of Everest,” said Thupden Sherpa, the head of her trekking company. “The Sherpa guides supported her while coming down, but she didn’t make it.”

Overcrowding and safety have been a growing cause for concern in recent years, not least since the emergence of cut-price Nepali trekking companies that offer Everest packages for half the price of trips organised by foreign companies. The deaths occurred despite Nepal’s tourism authorities instituting, but not implementing, plans to timetable ascents to avoid congestion.

This season’s summit crowding – the worst since 2012 – has been exacerbated by unsettled weather that left only five possible summit days in May so far, compared with between seven and 12 in recent years. This had caused hundreds of climbers to converge on several notorious sections where they can pass only one at a time.

Issues on the popular South Col route, on the Nepalese side of the mountain, have been growing for years partly due to an unwillingness by Nepal’s tourism ministry to tackle a constellation of concerns, including regulating cut-price trekking companies and permit numbers, and vetting potential climbers.

Alan Arnette, who chronicles each Everest season in his blog, described the conditions as insane. “In 2019, we are hearing horror stories of summit pushes from the South Col to the summit taking 10, 12, even 14 hours. And due to the jams, the return to the Col is taking up to another six hours, making for 20-hour pushes – that’s insane.”

Jase Wilson, a Leeds Beckett University researcher at base camp, confirmed that bad weather had meant few ascents before this week’s brief window. “The winds have been relentless so far … This has left around 300 climbers, along with climbing guides making around 600, all heading for the summit during the short lull [this week].”

Kenton Cool, who climbed Everest on 16 May for the 14th time while guiding a client, told the Guardian there were two overlapping issues: the growing popularity of Everest, not least among Indian and Chinese climbers, and declining levels of experience among those tackling the mountain – once regarded as the preserve of elite mountaineers.

“I’m not sure what the answer is. But looking at Nims’s picture, no part of that screams fun. I pride myself working one on one and being agile, avoiding queues [to] get up and down safely.” With the increasing number of inexperienced climbers, Cool said he saw some kind of capability assessment as a “step in the right direction”.

Simon Lowe, the managing director of UK-based Jagged Globe, said his firm got a team of 12 to the summit on 23 May after setting off as soon as large numbers appeared at the South Col.

“The queue this year isn’t the problem,” he said. “But it exacerbates an underlying issue, and that is incompetent climbers being led by incompetent teams. If you go up with a bare minimum of bottles of supplementary oxygen and stand in a queue for ages, that is going to cause problems.”

Without reforms, Lowe, like others, can see guiding on Everest for companies like his becoming questionable. “I think I do see a point where it becomes untenable, where it becomes a bit distasteful. And you would have to ask: do we want to be part of it?”