Featured Image Credit: R.M. Nunes / @dracosweeney/TikTok
Topics: World News, Viral
Emily Brown
Frustrated internet users have claimed Mount Everest has been 'ruined' by climbers trying to reach the summit of the Earth's highest mountain.
For the vast majority of us who have never successfully climbed more than 8,000 metres to the top of a mountain, it's easy to imagine a desolate, snow-covered peak, with nothing around for miles.
However, in reality, scenes on Everest aren't that different from a busy supermarket, right down to the queues at the end.
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James Whittaker became the first American to successfully climb Everest in 1963, when he was accompanied by Sherpa Nawang Gombu.
Only six people reached the top of the mountain that year, but less than 50 years later in 2012, there were more than 500 people celebrating reaching the summit.
Thousands of people can now say they've successfully climbed Everest, but the more people that take on the task, the less space there is on the top of the mountain.
Footage from climbers shows people literally waiting in line to reach the summit, risking their lives as they're forced to move slowly through the freezing conditions.
After seeing the people clogging up the top of the mountain, one internet user wrote: "Everest has been ruined by rich people wanting to complete their bucket lists."
Another commented: "Yep Everest is meaninglessness dribble now."
Last year, Tali Natter of National Geographic reported that roughly 90 percent of the climbers that now take on Everest are customers who have paid between $30,000 (£24,900) to $120,000 (£99,700) to be guided to the summit.
“Only half the people here have the experience to climb this mountain,” Panuru Sherpa, who accompanied Natter, said. “The half without experience are the most likely to die.”
As well as resulting in queues at the ridge, the increased popularity of Mount Everest has led to pollution on the mountain in the form of both garbage and literal human sh*t which, of course, can't exactly be disposed of in conveniently placed toilets.
Some adventurers have suggested limiting the number of available permits to climb the mountain, but Guy Cotter, owner of Adventure Consultants, which has led 19 expeditions to Everest, dismissed the idea.
“That will not happen,” he said. “Everest is big business for Nepal, and they will never turn down the money.”
Ang Tshering Sherpa, owner of Asian Trekking, said expeditions on Everest pulled in almost $12 million (£9.9m) in Nepal in the spring of 2012.
By July 2022, 6,098 people had already successfully climbed Everest that year.