Climbers Now Twice as Likely to Reach Top of Everest

Climbers trying to reach the top of Mount Everest are twice as likely to succeed compared to 20 years ago.

Researchers from the University of Washington and the University of California, Davis. compared data on climbers trying to reach the top of Everest between 1990 and 2005 to those climbing between 2006 and 2019.

Two-thirds of all first-time climbers now get to the top, while only about a third did so between 1990 and 2005. The risk of dying on the mountain has also slightly decreased.

The researchers said that climbers are probably more successful today then ever before. This is because of better weather forecasts and equipment. In addition to this, we now have more experience with the mountain.

“Mount Everest is still a very dangerous mountain, and climbing it will never become a walk in the park,” lead author Raymond Huey said.

Recently many more people have been trying to get to the top of the world’s highest mountain. While just 222 people tried to climb it in 2000, that number was 955 in 2019.

Crowding on Everest has received a lot of attention after a photograph showing a long line of climbers waiting to get to the top was shared online in 2019. There are no rules about how many people can climb, and anyone who pays $11,000 can do so.

The new study did not show that crowding has any effect on the success rate of climbing Everest. But the researchers said that crowding makes people stay longer on the mountain, which makes the climb more dangerous.