Reaching the world’s highest peak, “Mount Everest” (Qomolangma), at an altitude of 8,848 meters is every climber’s dream. Coupled with clear weather, this led to massive “traffic jams” at the summit, resulting in 11 deaths within just 13 days — the highest fatality rate during Everest ascents in nearly four years. Tan Hai (a pseudonym), a 50-year-old mountaineer from Hunan who survived the ordeal, said he was left shaken at the sight of corpses strewn everywhere, his legs going weak, and at that moment, he deeply felt “he was close to death.”
According to mainland media reports, Tan Hai, the chairman of a group in Hunan, spent 480,000 RMB (approximately NT$2.19 million) on this journey, reaching the summit of Everest at around 10 a.m. local time on the 23rd of this month — just hours after the traffic jam incident on the southern slope of Everest on the 22nd.
Tan Hai revealed that around 1 a.m. on the 23rd, their group set off from Camp C3 on the north side of Everest (at 8,300 meters altitude). When they reached the Second Step, the team began moving slowly, eventually leading to a 1.5-hour traffic jam. At that time, he felt his hands and feet go numb with cold, but fortunately, he had brought enough oxygen tanks, allowing him to avoid an oxygen shortage crisis and ultimately survive.
Recalling the climb to the summit, Tan Hai said that when the sky began to brighten slightly, the steep mountain peaks became fully visible. He also spotted corpses lying in the snow, with only their torsos exposed and heads buried in the snowdrifts — this sight instantly made his legs go weak, and he deeply felt “he was close to death.”
His fellow climbers also became emotional, crying uncontrollably when they thought about how some people on the mountain had died due to improper technique, their bodies hanging mid-slope by safety ropes, while they themselves had just escaped danger and were now standing on flat ground.
With Everest climbs becoming more “mainstream,” many experts have pointed out that the sharp rise in fatalities this year, in the absence of any major disaster, is mainly due to lack of experience. Adrian Ballinger, a renowned mountaineer and guide, noted that this year’s Everest challengers and the companies providing summit services had relatively low levels of experience, causing some climbers to make wrong decisions during the ascent, unknowingly putting themselves in life-threatening situations and ultimately paying with their lives.
Indian climber Rizza Alee also lamented in a post-climb interview that the “massive traffic jam” made it almost impossible to move. “Climbers were supposed to be trying to reach the summit, but what they were actually doing was queuing up to commit suicide.”