More than 150 climbers have scaled Mount Everest on a crowded day on top of the world’s highest peak because of improved weather conditions, an official in Nepal said on Thursday.
Mountaineering Department official Gyanendra Shrestha said it was hard to say exactly the number of people who have reached the summit or their nationalities but it was a busy day on the summit. Many of them were returning safely to lower camps.
Climbers have been reaching the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) summit almost daily since May 11, but high winds had forced a two-day break before climbing resumed.
Last Thursday, two Britons and a Mexican became the first foreigners to climb Mount Everest in two years together with three Nepalese guides, after disasters in 2014 and 2015 killed dozens and forced mountaineers off the world’s tallest peak.
The successful climbs came after two years of back-to-back disasters.
An avalanche triggered by a powerful earthquake killed 19 climbers and injured 61 others at base camp last year. In 2014, 16 Sherpa guides were killed by an avalanche above the base camp.
Last year’s climbing season was scrubbed, and nearly all of the climbers in 2014 abandoned their attempts after the avalanche. The only team who reached the summit that year from the Nepal side was a Chinese woman and her five Sherpa guides.
Asharq Al-Awsat English
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