Five climbers on Mount Everest are dead, three are missing this summit season

High above the clouds on the highest peak on earth, mountaineers tackle the arduous climb to Mount Everest.

The best time to climb is the narrow window of the spring summit season, which typically runs from April to May. The weather is clearer and less windy, but that’s no guarantee of safety: At least five people have died and three others are missing since the climbing season began, officials said.

The conditions caused bottlenecks and disturbing videos circulated of long lines of climbers waiting in dangerous positions on a cliff.

The popularity of via ferrata in recent years has led to concerns that overcrowding, competition and inadequate testing of novice climbers are making the via ferrata even more dangerous.

It is feared that even more climbers have lost their lives.

Most climbers climb the mountain from Nepal, which involves a ten-day trek to base camp, weeks of acclimatization to the altitude, and another week of climbing to the summit.

But the journey is grueling. More than 300 people have died on Everest, and an estimated 200 of their bodies are still there because they were too difficult to recover.

Last spring saw a grim record: According to the Himalayan Database, a mountaineering organization, 18 people died, making it the deadliest year in recent history.

Nepalese authorities confirmed that at least five people have died this year, and the number could rise.

• 37-year-old Nepalese climber Binod Babu Bastakoti died on Wednesday just above the base for the summit attempt.

• Kenyan climber Joshua Cheruiyot Kirui, 40, also died near the summit on Wednesday. Nawang Sherpa, a guide who accompanied him, remains missing.

• British mountaineer Daniel Paul Paterson (40) and his Nepalese guide Pastenji Sherpa (23) are missing on Tuesday after an iceberg collapsed near the summit.

• Romanian climber Gabriel Viorel Tabara, 46, also died in his tent at an advanced base camp on Tuesday.

• Two Mongolian climbers, Usukhjargal Tsedendamba, 53, and Purevsuren Lkhagvajav, 31, died on May 13 while attempting to reach the summit of Everest without supplemental oxygen and Sherpa guides.

The collapse of a snow cornice has left numerous mountaineers stranded.

One group was briefly stranded when an avalanche collapsed near other climbers and several people fell.

Climbers descending from the summit on Tuesday passed the Hillary Step, a point at an elevation of about 28,871 feet, when an iceberg collapsed near Everest’s south summit.

Several climbers managed to get back to the top, but despite all search efforts, Paterson and his guide “could not be recovered,” according to 8K Expedition.

Authorities have not yet confirmed the deaths of the two, but recovering them alive would be difficult, Lakpa Sherpa, leader of the 8K expedition, said on Saturday.

“There was a lot of traffic that day,” Sherpa said, adding that at least 150 climbers were left behind due to a lack of coordination. “People couldn’t wait. They tried to go too far.”

Vinayak Jaya Malla, a mountain guide who was at the summit on Tuesday, shared footage of climbers crouching on a narrow ridge at the summit and of one climber apparently pulling himself up through the snow using a safety rope.

“Many climbers were stuck in traffic and running out of oxygen,” he said on social media, adding that four other climbers who nearly died were stuck on the rope.

After the avalanche collapsed, it was impossible to cross it, he said. Eventually, the climbers descended via a new route.

Fewer permits were issued for climbers this year.

The window for climbing this year is longer than last year, said Khimlal Gautam, an official at Everest Base Camp.

This year, 421 climbers were granted permits, compared to 478 last year. However, it is difficult to say whether the climbers were at risk due to overcrowding, he said.

“It is clear that Everest, and especially the Hillary Step, gets very crowded as climbers vie for the top,” Gautam said, adding that some climbers had ignored instructions to avoid crowds.

This year’s climbers included Lucia Janičová, the first Slovakian woman to climb Everest, and Kami Rita Sherpa, who set a new record with her 30th ascent this month.

This article originally appeared in the New York Times.