KATHMANDU: A record number of 274 climbers scaled Mount Everest on Wednesday (May 20), a hiking official said, the highest number ever to reach the world's tallest peak on the same day from the Nepali side.
The 8,849-metre Everest straddles the border between Nepal and the Tibet region of China and can be climbed from both sides.
Expedition operators say there were no climbers on the Tibetan side this year as Chinese authorities had not issued any permits.
Rishi Bhandari, secretary general of the Expedition Operators Association of Nepal, said on Thursday that the previous highest number of ascents from the Nepali side was 223, on May 22, 2019.
The record for the most people to reach the Everest peak from both sides was set on the next day - May 23, 2019 - when 354 climbers made it, according to Guinness World Records.
"This is the highest number of climbers in a single day so far,” Bhandari told Reuters, referring to the Nepali record, adding the number could rise as some climbers who had reached the summit might not have informed the base camp about their feat yet.
There are no figures available from China on how many climbers reach the peak when the Tibetan side is open, but Bhandari said in the normal climbing season of April and May, about 100 people head to Everest from that side.
Records come with overcrowding risks
Department of Tourism official Himal Gautam said he had received preliminary information that more than 250 people climbed the peak on Wednesday.
"We wait for climbers to return, give us photographs and other evidence to prove their ascents and provide them with climbing certificates,” Gautam told Reuters. "Only then we will be able to confirm the numbers.”
Nepal has issued 494 permits to climb Everest this year, each costing US$15,000.
Mountaineering experts often criticise Nepal for allowing large numbers of climbers on the mountain, which sometimes leads to risky traffic jams or long queues in the so-called "death zone" area below the summit, where the level of natural oxygen is dangerously below what is required for human survival.
Nepal has acknowledged risks from congestion and inexperienced climbers by introducing tighter controls and higher fees.
Expedition organiser Lukas Furtenbach of the Austria-based Furtenbach Adventures said big numbers on Everest were not a problem if expeditions were sufficiently stocked and managed.
"All our teams are behind the big crowd so we were not affected by that,” said Furtenbach, who has 40 climbers currently waiting at different camps to move up.
"If teams carry enough oxygen it is not a big problem,” Furtenbach said from the base camp.
"We have mountains in the Alps like the Zugspitze where we have 4,000 persons on top per day. So 274 is actually not a big number, considering this mountain is 10 times bigger." - Reuters
