Everest week of hell sees 9 killed on packed route forcing others to dodge frozen bodies

dailystar.co.uk:

Everest's worst death toll in seven years is down to "incompetent climbers" being issued permits according to a top mountaineer who had to step over nine corpses on a recent climb.Seasoned climber Nick Hollis was mentally prepared to walk over the long-dead bodies of frozen climbers, but was taken aback by the number of fresh ones en route to the summit.Nepalese officials say 11 people have died on Everest this season - nine on the Nepali side and two on the Tibetan side, making this the deadliest season since 2015.“What I hadn’t expected to see was so many bodies of climbers who’d died either that day or the day before,” Hollis said in an interview at his home in southern England.“It’s no exaggeration to say you are walking over bodies.”The 45-year-old British climber has just conquered Everest and completed all Seven Summits of the world - putting him into an elite group of around 500 people globally who have scaled the highest mountains on all seven continents.His final summit - the 8,850-metre (29,035-foot) peak of Everest in the Himalayas - was made “much tougher than expected”, partly due to the presence of too many slow and inexperienced climbers, perilous to themselves and others.That death toll - coupled with photos seen around the world depicting queues of climbers inching their way up Everest’s south ridge - have raised concerns that authorities are issuing too many summit permits, and that inexperienced mountaineers are being encouraged to undertake the dangerous climb by unscrupulous guiding companies.The Nepalese government issued a record 381 permits this year, each costing $11,000 (£8,700).