The reward for climbers who ascend Mount Everest is a view like none other, an expansive vista of the Himalayas from the highest point on the planet. On Wednesday, those who made it to the top saw something else: Hundreds of other climbers. The final leg of their journey to the summit was a traffic jam of trekkers enticed by good weather, the route clogged by a single-file march of 250 to 300 people along a precarious cliff that caused delays of about three hours. “I have had bottlenecks on mountains before but not this many people at such high altitude,” Nirmal Purja, a climber who photographed the scene, said in a message. At least two climbers died after having reached the summit on Wednesday, and their deaths may have been related to the delays.

Source: New York Times May 23, 2019 16:24 UTC