A video showing long queues of climbers on top of Mount Everest has gone viral on social media. According to New York Post, the climbers were stranded in the aftermath of Tuesday’s incident in which British climber Daniel Paterson and his Nepali Sherpa Pastenji were hit by falling ice as they climbed down from the summit. The clip was posted on Instagram by Rajan Dwivedi on May 20, which showed him waiting in a single line with dozens of climbers behind him trying to make the summit.
“Mt. Everest is not a joke and in fact, quite a serious climb,” Mr Dwivedi in the Instagram post.
He added that for him, “coming down was a nightmare and exhausting while huge line of climbers were coming up to maximise on the weather window!!”
He successfully summited Everest at 6 am on May 19.
This is just one of the many clips of an apparent constant rush hour getting to the top of world’s highest peak (at 8,848 metres), which has been dubbed “traffic jam” by many users on social media.
These videos of the queue up Everest and the aftermath of the cornice collapse that killed a couple of people…
There’s something about this that sums up so much of what’s wrong with the world.
😮 pic.twitter.com/S2qv1oBAOG— tern (@1goodtern) May 24, 2024
Many environmentalists and climbers have expressed concern at overcrowding on Everest. Its popularity hasn’t waned despite accidents and deaths on the mountain.
The latest duo feared dead are Mar Paterson, aged 39, and his guide Pastenji Sherpa, 23. They reached the top of the peak on Tuesday as part of a group but have not been heard from since, as per a BBC report.
The company, which organised the expedition, said the collapse happened on Hilary Step, a vertical rock face near the summit and that the men “fell down towards the Tibet side through a very vertical steep”.
The peak is considered dangerous because oxygen levels and air pressure at such height are not sufficient to sustain human life for a long time.
Mr Paterson undertook the challenge to help raise money for the family of a gym member, who had recently died from cancer.
