The Fury of Mother Nature

Highest among the seven summits, located at the altitude of 8848 meters, The Mount Everest stands atop of the world .It are popularly known as Sagarmatha in Nepal. However, the surprising thing is that no one knew of Everest as the roof of the world until the 19th century. 

Even seasoned climbers struggle with this peak. The mountain wasn’t conquered until 29 May 1953, by Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norway using the southeast ridge route. There are two main climbing routes, one approaching the summit from the southeast in Nepal (known as the standard route) and the other from the north in Tibet. The Standard Route is considered as a convenient route however; Everest has an air temperature −17 °C (1 °F) and presents dangers such as altitude sickness, fast and freezing wind of the jet stream, frostbite, Snow Blindness as well as hazards from avalanches and ice fall . 

From the base camp at 5270m, the last camp (Camp 4) is at altitude of 7100m. The majority of hiker deaths occur in what is called the "Death Zone" between Camp IV and the summit, due to lack of oxygen above 8000 meters and the use of oxygen tanks becomes a necessity. It’s known as the Death Zone because the body cannot acclimatize on its own here. The body begins to eat itself to survive because there’s no actual food going in. Because of the dangerous and unstable terrain in the Death Zone, many of those who succumb to the conditions remain on the summit as there is no way to safely transport their bodies back down. For adventurers it is a once in a lifetime experience while for the sensible ones it is a Suicide Mission.

The wrath of Mother Nature cannot be avoided, as of 2016; there are well over 200 corpses still on the mountain, with some of them even serving as landmarks. Everest hiking population skyrocketing over the last few years and the amount of deaths and injuries rapidly increasing. Sad and tragic as all that is, it was the choice of the hikers to climb up the mountain. I’m sure they weren’t ignorant enough to think there wasn’t the risk of death or serious injury if something would have happened. As for the dying hiker, yes in our conscience it sounds wrong, but when you are hiking up such a huge mountain in such harsh 

terrain, unless you got the equipment and a stroke of luck, there really is nothing they can do unless they want to risk more lives. However, as adventurous as it sounds people should realize the fact that no summit is worth a life. In the verge of wanting to do more, to be more they perish to their deaths.  When people come here, they sure know their risks. But they always want more. But when you met somebody a week ago and now they are no more, it breaks your heart. One should realize that one has to take a calculated risk and strike a balance between the inner call and the call of the mountains. Humans do not think clearly with low oxygen, and the combination of extreme weather, low temperatures, and steep slopes often requires quick, accurate decisions. Hence most of the deaths occur due to making wrong decision at wrong time .Furthermore it has been found that most of the deaths occur in decent rather than in accent .