Death on Everest: The Boom in Climbing Tourism Is Dangerous and Unsustainable

A new generation of guides offering cheap expedition rates attracted a rash of novice mountaineers, which contributed to the high number of deaths.

Mountaineers make their way to the summit of Mount Everest, as they ascend on the south face from Nepal on May 17, 2018. PHUNJO LAMA/AFP/Getty Images

The last days of Mt. Everest’s spring window for 2019 witnessed the deaths of 11 climbers. Images of hundreds of mountaineers queuing to reach the summit and reports of climbers stepping over dead bodies dismayed people around the world, many wondering how human beings had got it so wrong.

After the conquest of Annapurna and Everest in the 1950s, mountaineering became popular among the more privileged. But in the past two decades, mountaineering has taken on an increasingly commercial angle, with disastrous results.