How Many People Have Died Climbing Mt. Everest?

No mountain on Earth inspires more fear and fascination than Everest but just how many human lives have been lost on its slopes? With a summit 29,032 feet above sea level, Mt. Everest invokes awe and defiance in equal measure. Maybe it's just the thrill of surmounting one of the greatest challenges on the planet. Maybe it's a desire to ascend to a realm traditionally considered sacred by human

beings. Or maybe people just really like big stuff. One thing is for sure, though the privilege of climbing a peak like Mt. Everest exacts a heavy toll. It's unlikely that Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay realized what they had truly begun when they became the first people to stand at the summit of Mt. Everest in 1953. Hillary and Norgay had a support team as bottom-heavy as

Everest itself: 350 porters carrying a massive load of supplies, 10 climbers, and 20 Sherpas to guide them all. Now, though, there are five-step "how to" articles online made specifically for climbing Everest, complete with gear and itinerary breakdowns, while entire businesses specialize in taking people up Everest, assembly-line fashion. Despite this familiarity, however, Everest still kills every year. "We all realize the risks involved, and accept those risks.

Or you don't play the game." These days, would-be ascenders of Mt. Everest can follow a generic itinerary and set path that has been pounded into the snow by thousands of climbers. That's not to say that the task is easy, of course. You've got to be extremely healthy and train for years, especially when it comes to your cardiovascular system. Otherwise, the 70% drop in oxygen will straight-up

kill you. Plus, you've got to carry months' worth of heavy equipment and supplies on your back for the entire trek up and down. Generally speaking, it's a 19 day round trip just to get to Everest Base Camp, and 40 days from there to the peak. All together, the journey takes about three months. Climbing Everest isn't cheap, either. Aside from the travel expenses to get to Nepal

ascents by the same person, and, since 1990, a steady 1% of them have died. The University of Washington has published an extensive breakdown of success and death rates of Mt. Everest climbers. The number of people embarking on first-time trips jumped from 2,200 per year from 1990 to 2005, to 3,600 per year from 2006 to 2019. Over 60% are successful, a number largely attributed to improved weather

forecasting. Critically, those figures don't include Sherpas, photographers, and other support crew. And yet, more people climbing means more people dying. 11 people died in 2019 during Everest's summit window, between May and September. That's 11 out of 891 people who reached the summit a 1.2% death rate consistent with the University of Washington's findings. Contrarily, Outside Online says that, during the bulk of the May 2023 summit window,

a full 10 people died out of the 500 that reached the summit. That's not just a slightly higher number of deaths than usual it's double the percentage. Is this because of climber bottlenecks, post-COVID overeagerness, sloppy planning, poor conditions, or something else? Right now, we simply don't know. So what's the total number? Well, in November 2022, Climber News reported 310 total deaths on Everest, to which we

can add 10 more from 2023. And yet, because of the high number of climbers, more people have died on Everest than any other mountain. Perhaps more grim than the number of people who have died, however, is the amount of bodies left unretrieved. Tragically, we don't know where most of the 200 or so dead who remain on the mountain are located, or even how they died. Meanwhile,

some of the bodies that would be too dangerous to retrieve remain in sight of climbers; today, they serve as "markers" for those making the attempt. There is a makeshift memorial to the dead situated along Everest's Base Camp route. Informally called "The Scott Fischer Memorial," in honor of the climber Scott Fischer who tragically lost his life on Everest in 1996. The memorial is basically a conical pile

of rocks decorated with colorful, flag-like pieces of fabric. Sherpas, family members, and those wishing to pay respects continue to build it piece-by-piece, in memory of the people who never came down from the mountain.