Climbing down from Everest is relatively easy compared to the ascent; however, as of December 2024, ninety-seven people who made it to the summit of Mount Everest died during the subsequent descent. That might seem like an oxymoron, so let me explain the reasoning below:
Of the 97 deaths, the causes of death while descending were as follows:
- Falls: 31
- Exhaustion: 23
- Altitude sickness: 18
- Exposure/Frostbite: 14
- Disappearance: 3
- Crevasse: 3
- Falling Rock / Ice: 2 (ground beneath them gave way)
- Other Illness: 2
- Avalanche: 1
But the crucial point to note is that all but eight of those deaths occurred above 7,900m, i.e. in the death-zone. Being in the death-zone is exceptionally dangerous, regardless of whether a climber is ascending or descending. The longer a person is in the death zone, the more likely they are to fall into harm’s way. Stay there long enough, and it is certain that a climber will die. By definition, since a person descends after they have ascended, people are at their most exposed during their descent, as they have been in the death-zone longer by that stage.
Photo: A descending climber in the death-zone aims for Everest Camp 4 . Climbers are visible on the route to Camp 3, over the Geneva Spur, to the right of photo. (credit: Greg Jack)
Many climbers have correctly aborted their ascent a few hundred metres from the summit due to exhaustion or coldness. They turned around and started to descend. Several then died before reaching the relative safety of Camp 4. As such, it was the demands of the low-oxygen, sub-zero environment that caused their death, not the climbing down itself. The critical and catastrophic sequence of events had already begun before they started their descent.
Photo: Me (blue) and Greg Jack descending from Everest Camp 4 to Camp 3.
My own experience on Everest might better illustrate the answer:
(Please note that many other climbers will have had a different encounter)
- It took me 6 weeks to get from Base Camp to the summit; it took 2.5 days to descend.
- It took me 12 hours to climb from Camp 4 to the summit; it took 3 hours to descend.
- Ascending was gut-wrenching, with as much as 10 stationary seconds between each pace at times. Descending was with a constant, wide gait.
- Climbing up a near vertical wall with a heavy pack while in oxygen debt is devastating. It’s much, much easier on descending to rappel down a rope, letting gravity do the work.
- While ascending, I was venturing into lesser oxygen, and experiencing the deteriorating mental and physical effects of same. As I was gasping for air, my body was busting itself to create additional red blood cells. While descending I grew stronger (once below Camp 4), as I’d achieved maximum acclimatisation and was now reaching farther into denser air that contained increasing amounts of oxygen.
- At its most basic level, it’s much easier to walk downhill rather than uphill. Below Camp 4 on the descent, my breathing was rarely raised.
Photo: Descending climbers within an hour of Base Camp. The red arrow marks another pair of climbers. (credit: Greg Jack)
Did I make the descent sound too easy?
The oxygen deprivation in the death-zone delivers a level of exhaustion that is quite simply beyond description. For the full 3-hour descent from the summit until a few metres above Camp 4, I was certain I would not reach the tents.