Outside Magazine has an even more in-depth summary of the 2023 season. It looks like nothing will change anytime soon despite the number of deaths because, of course, money and human nature.
There were probably multiple factors responsible for increased deaths on Everest this year, including colder than normal weather. One article mentions the toil on older climbers; perhaps trends also indicate increased numbers of people with physical/health limitations attempting the summit, making them more vulnerable. It’d be interesting to see stats on average age of climbers over the years.
I was surprised by the report of 200 helicopter flights between Base Camp and Camp II. That’s a lot of people needing rescuing (or a lot of people explicitly breaking the rules to avoid the Ice Fall).
Unfortunately, the cost and time required to climb Everest makes it harder and harder for someone to do until they’ve worked long enough to build up a good nest egg. I think economic conditions will continue to push the average age higher.
I was reminded of this thread during Jeopardy on May 30, with this question: “The world’s highest unclimbed mountain is 24980-foot Gangkhar Puensum in this thunder dragon kingdom north of India.” (The answer is Bhutan)
The Bhutan government banned climbing over 20,000 ft in 1994, for religious reasons, and has banned climbing of all mountains since 2003, so Gangkhar Puensum is likely to remain the tallest unclimbed mountain while the ban is still in force. The next highest unclimbed mountain that is not off limits due to religious or political prohibitions is Muchu Chhish - Wikipedia at 24,452 ft. There are many others not off limits, on this list: Highest unclimbed mountain - Wikipedia
So why aren’t climbers going for these unclimbed peaks instead of Everest? Is it their remoteness, danger, lack of name recognition or bragging rights?
My short answer: Because they lack the ability to do so. No Sherpas there to carry all their gear.
Or fitting the route beforehand with helpful fixtures.
But just as importantly, even after all the inflation that it’s experienced, climbing the Everest is still harder currency at the bar than climbing any other mountain, let alone something outside the Top 15 highest peaks that “no-one” has heard of.
yep… governments should really step in for affordable housing and everesting … og knows the middle class needs it …
Jokes aside … door-to-door it probably takes 2+ months to do this … that’s not an easy task for the avg. Joe-the-workdrone to do (beyond the mere financials of the endeavour)
Sherpas carry someone down a few thousand feet from close to summit. Really quite the feat
Here you go. I downloaded ascent data from the Himalayan database and made a pivot table/chart of average age by climbing season:
EDIT: These are from summits, folks who made it all the way up.
From the same data source:
| decade | summits | mean age | deaths | mean age |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1973-82 | 105 | 31.2 | 24 | 32.1 |
| 1983-92 | 348 | 32.8 | 51 | 34.0 |
| 1993-02 | 1170 | 34.5 | 57 | 37.0 |
| 2003-12 | 4589 | 35.0 | 59 | 42.4 |
| 2013-22 | 4927 | 36.2 | 71 | 40.0 |
That suggests climbing Everest is far far safer than it was in the 70s. For 105 successful summits then there were 24 deaths. In the 2010s then we should expect 1126 deaths, but there were only 71. That’s 94% safer on a per-person basis.
IIRC the helicopter rescue of Beck Weathers and another climber in 1996 from Camp I was the first time that was ever done. Now, it’s becoming a common occurrence. 200 flights? And up to Camp II? Sheesh.
I just read a thread in reddit … some guy who has just been diagnosed
with MS asked for opinions on whether he should climb everest…
My friend mentioned the idea of setting an extreme fitness goal to motivate me to take my health and fitness very seriously. I’ve run a half marathon with MS (before I was diagnosed) so why can’t I do this with the proper training of course.
Fortunately, he was given some good advice.
Sure. Half-marathon, Everest - eh, same difference. 
The distance from Base Camp to the summit is only 12.5 miles, less than a 13.1 mile half marathon. Easy peasy!
Although it’s further from the center of the Earth, so with less gravitational time dilation you’ll have to move more quickly to beat your personal best half marathon time.
Everest is a high-altitude garbage dump.
That article does rather invite parody. “Too many people are trying to climb Everest” says person with first hand knowledge of the problem because they tried to climb Everest. I feel motivated to go myself to verify the overcrowding. Perhaps I will seek sponsors and dedicate my Everest climb to raising funds to stop people climbing Everest.
The article from cowboy state daily has a video from twitter of the line snaking to the top. One step, wait…one step…wait. Got any oxygen I can borrow? (May 30 2023)
Rising your life to do something that very, very few have or will ever do makes a certain sense to me. The Apollo astronauts were risking their lives, but not many people can say they walked on the moon.
People who summit Everest are wholly anonymous now; there’s Edmund Hillary, Tenzing Norgay, and literally thousands of other people, most of them rich people because it’s expensive to do. Five percent of the people who have tried to climb it have died doing it, and that is way too fucking high to do something so you can tell stories about it at a party where people will get sick of your blathering.