Published on May 28, 2019
11 people have died in their attempts to reach the summit of Mt Everest, making 2019 the fourth deadliest climbing season on record. An Australian climber, Gilian Lee, was found unconscious but alive, and was taken back to Kathmandu to recover. A combination of increased permits, inexperienced climbers, and poor weather led to a very short window in which it as possible to reach the summit. This resulted in traffic jams at key bottlenecks along the ascent, leaving people in extreme conditions for hours on end.