Climbers line up to stand at the summit of Mount Everest in this May 22 photo, released by climber Nirmal Purja's Project Possible expedition. Her son, Shantanu Kulkarni, told CNN that she died after getting stuck in a “traffic jam” on the mountain. “She had to wait for a long time to reach the summit and descend,” Thupden Sherpa, who organized tours on the mountain, told Agence France-Presse. Traffic jams create dangerous situations for climbers, who are often already exhausted and carrying heavy loads while battling altitude sickness, which can make people dizzy and nauseated. When climbers choose to scale Everest, they do so understanding the perils they could encounter along the way.

Source: Washington Post May 24, 2019 14:41 UTC