‘Death. Carnage. Chaos’: Mount Everest climbers step over dead body on way to summit
A filmmaker has revealed how climbers stepped over a dead body to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
Elia Saikaly scaled Everest for the third time this month while filming a documentary about four Arab women making the ascent.
He described a gruesome scene at the summit, where climbers had to go past a dead body to reach the top.
At least 11 people have been killed while climbing Everest this season, and a photo of hundreds of climbers in a queue to reach the top went viral last week as many voiced concerns about dangerous overcrowding.
In a Facebook post, Mr Saikaly, from Ottawa, Canada, wrote: “I cannot believe what I saw up there. Death. Carnage. Chaos.
“Lineups. Dead bodies on the route and in tents at camp 4. People who I tried to turn back who ended up dying.
“People being dragged down. Walking over bodies. Everything you read in the sensational headlines all played out on our summit night.”
Mr Saikaly posted an image on Instagram of the dead body on the mountain, just to the right of queuing climbers.
He wrote: “Here we all were, chasing a dream and beneath our very feet there was a lifeless soul. Is this what Everest has become?”
The identity of the dead climber is not known.
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Another climber, US doctor Ed Dohring, said he was shocked by what he saw on Everest when he reached the top a few days ago.
“It was scary,” he told the New York Times. “It was like a zoo.”
Mr Dohring said he had to step around the body of a woman who had just died on his way to the summit, where climbers waited hours in line.
Climbing experts say the mountain has been overcrowded and there have been too many inexperienced climbers there this year.
They blame battling adventure companies for taking untrained climbers up Everest and the Nepalese government for issuing more climbing permits than the mountain can handle.
British climber Robin Haynes Fisher, 44, died on Saturday as he descended from the summit.
The latest climber to die on Everest was a US lawyer who died shortly after getting to the top of Everest.
Christopher Kulish, 62, from Boulder, Colorado, died on Monday at a camp below the summit.
About half a dozen climbers lost their lives
on Everest last week, most of them while descending from the world's highest peak.
Mr Kulish had just reached the top of Everest with a small group after crowds of hundreds of climbers congested the 29,035ft (8,850m) summit last week, his brother said.
He had achieved his dream of scaling the highest peaks on each of the world's seven continents.
"He saw his last sunrise from the highest peak on Earth. At that instant, he became a member of the 'Seven Summit Club,' having scaled the highest peak on each continent," Mark Kulish said in a statement.
Many climbers attempt the summit during the few windows of good weather seen each May.
Most of those who died recently are believed to have suffered from altitude sickness, which is caused by low amounts of oxygen at high elevation and can cause headaches, vomiting, shortness of breath and confusion.
