How the deadly wait to summit Mount Everest exposed human nature at its worst
Eleven climbers died on Everest in May 2019, making the season one of the deadliest on record. Survivors recall the fatal rush-hour crush that shook their faith in humanity
Nirmal Purja is someone who responds to a crisis by becoming completely calm. When the Nepalese mountaineer saw the line of about 100 people waiting to reach the crest of Everest on May 22 last year, he knew there was no way he could overtake the slower climbers. Mentally, he abandoned the record he was attempting, for the fastest climb between the neighbouring peaks of Lhotse and Everest.
Poor weather at the start of the climbing season had meant there was only a small window of time in which people could attempt the summit – three clear days. The year before, there had been 11 good days, allowing climbing companies to stagger their teams. Purja had known there would be queues, but was taken aback by the numbers.
The 36-year-old veteran of the British Royal Navy’s elite Special Boat Service has climbed Everest four times, and was philosophical. “It is what it is. I always try to stay calm on the mountain,” he tells me, speaking from his home in Winchester, southern England. In normal circumstances, he would have been up Everest this year, but he is defusing the frustrations of lockdown by writing a book about climbing all 14 of the world’s highest mountains in just 189 days last year.
He took a picture of the queue at the top of Everest, which he later posted on Instagram, mainly as an explanation to his sponsors and supporters – a vivid image of the obstacle that had slowed him down. Then he tried to assess how he could help.
He knew things could go catastrophically wrong, and quickly; this stretch of Everest, from the sheer rock face of the Hillary Step to the summit, was the most exposed part of the climb, with drops of up to 3,000 metres on either side. As people queued, they got colder and used up unplanned-for quantities of their oxygen supplies. It was literally the worst place on Earth to get stuck in a queue.
Looking at the line, with climbers travelling in both directions, Purja quickly realised it would be impossible to rescue anyone who needed to be taken off the summit. Every climber was clipped to a safety rope, and the path is too narrow to allow more experienced climbers to unclip and pass the slower ones. The queue continued to build. Purja couldn’t be confident other climbers would be helpful in an emergency.