The gross reason why the number of climbers on Mt Everest will be cut this year. Photo / Getty Images
The gross reason why the number of climbers on Mt Everest will be cut this year. Photo / Getty Images
It's the tallest mountain in the world, but China has decided to cut down on climbers wanting to scale Everest for a pretty grim reason.
It's the tallest mountain in the world, and attracts around 800 people each year to climb.
But China has announced it will cut the number of people attempting to scale Mount Everest from the north by a third this year as part of plans for a major clean-up on the world's highest peak.
The total number of climbers attempting to reach the summit of the world's highest peak at 8850m will be limited to fewer than 300, and the climbing season restricted to spring, state media reports said.
China will cut the number of people attempting to scale Mount Everest from the north. Photo / Getty Images
The clean-up efforts will include the recovery of the bodies of climbers who died at more than 8000m up the mountain.
Parts of Everest are in China and Nepal. Each year, about 60,000 climbers and guides visit the Chinese north side of the mountain, which China refers to by its Tibetan name, Mount Qomolangma.
China has set up stations to sort, recycle and break down rubbish from the mountain, which includes cans, plastic bags, stove equipment, tents and oxygen tanks.
Chinese officials last summer said they had removed 8.5 tonnes of rubbish, including large amounts of human excrement, from the mountain.
On the Nepalese side, mountaineering expedition organisers have begun sending huge rubbish bags with climbers during the spring climbing season to collect refuse that can then be winched by helicopters back to the base camp.
Everest claims multiple victims each year, often in the "death zone" above 8000m, where the air is too thin to sustain human life.
In 2017, 648 people reached the top of Everest, including 202 from the north side.
Mountaineers have complained of a rise in dangerously inexperienced climbers attempting to reach the summit. Photo / Getty Images
Six people are confirmed to have died on the mountain that year, one of them on the north side.
According to The Telegraph, the large numbers now attempting to scale Everest has raised concerns about overcrowding and the lack of climbing experience held by some of the visitors.
Mountaineers have complained of a rise in dangerously inexperienced climbers attempting to reach the summit, while others have to wait in "traffic jams" and bottlenecks on busy parts of the mountain.
The reality is, when climbers enter what is known as the death zone, the body is basically dying.
