At the base camp, where Buddhist flags that Sherpas had planted in devotion and thanksgiving to Chomolungma fluttered in the icy winds, Anjali Kulkarni from Mumbai was excited. She had been told about the slight incline off a shoulder that jutted from Hillary Step. Beyond that lay Mt Everest ¡ª Sagarmatha as the Nepalese call it ¡ª and she had summited it multiple times in her dreams, the 54-year-old told Delhi-based businessman Aditya Gupta as he smiled at her eagerness.
A few days later, while making his descent from the peak, Gupta learned from Anjali¡¯s husband that she had died from exhaustion on May 22 - the same day that Gupta had summited the mountain. ¡°Anjali¡¯s husband was making arrangements to bring her body down. He told me how his wife had always joked that she would rather die on a mountain than a hospital. Who knew that her words would come true,¡± Gupta told TOI recounting a gut-wrenching experience he wished no climber should ever have to go through.
Gupta, who runs a floor furnishing business and stays in Panchsheel Park, said that while making his way through a chaotic beeline of mountaineers, he saw bodies, some of them several days old and frozen, yet clinging onto ropes that mountaineers use to heave themselves up. Other Everest climbers have also described in various media reports how the race to Everest has turned ugly, with people shoving and walking over bodies in a bid to reach the top first.
¡°What I saw up there was indeed shocking. Climbing the Everest is every mountaineer¡¯s dream. But there were too many people jostling for space. At the final ridge, mountaineers have to climb while holding a five-metre rope which they are tied to. Bodies of those who died on their way were still hanging from that rope,¡± said Gupta on Thursday, while he was in Meerut to meet his parents.
This year, the Nepal government issued a record number of 381 permits to scale the peak, leading to a "traffic jam" on Earth¡¯s highest point. Long queues were witnessed at the Hillary Step - a 12 m-vertical rock face - one of the trickiest part of the ascent to Everest. At least 11 deaths have been recorded this season due to causes ranging from exhaustion and mountain sickness to frostbite. Kalpana Das from Odisha and Nihal Ashpak Bagwan from Pune were also among Indians who lost their lives while descending the icy slopes.
Veteran mountaineers have said that one reason behind increased deaths on Everest is that inexperienced trekkers, greedy for some glory, are increasingly attempting to conquer the treacherous terrain.
Gupta agreed that many amateur climbers are lured by travel operators who promise them safety and a successful expedition. ¡°Just because one has done a few treks does not mean Everest should be next. It is a long-term commitment. I had to lose weight and hit the gym daily to prepare my body for what it would go through at 29,000 feet,¡± he said.
It was his previous trekking experience and long-term preparedness that kept Gupta from panicking when he realised on his way up that the Sherpa leading his group of four had disappeared, along with a team member. ¡°One of the team members likely bribed the Sherpa to help him scale Everest faster. We knew how to regulate our oxygen so left without him. During my descent, I had another Sherpa to assist me but for the most part he was marching ahead, leaving me with no guidance at all.¡±
According to Gupta, there were other mountaineers who were helpless after they had been deserted by their guides. He remembered consoling a girl from Jammu & Kashmir who was crying because her oxygen cylinder was running out and her Sherpa was nowhere to be found. ¡°Sherpas are known to be heroes, but what I saw was a different side to them,¡± he said.