Daring climbers hoping to scale the world’s tallest mountain have had their journey of a lifetime plagued by huge human traffic jams amid a record number of visitors. Footage shared on social media shows hundreds of people at a standstill as they climb the Hillary Step, a 40-foot vertical rock on the path up Mount Everest in Asia.
“Our team spent nearly 3 hours crossing this area due to congestion and difficult movement conditions at high altitude,” the Instagram caption reads. ” Conditions were tense as delays increased the time spent above 8,000 meters, where oxygen levels are critically low and every extra minute becomes physically demanding. “There were also several accidents and close calls witnessed during the crossing. Some climbers slipped while changing ropes and others showed signs of severe fatigue and altitude-related stress.” It comes as an estimated 275 people scaled the over 29,000-foot peak last Wednesday (May 27) – the highest number of single-day summits recorded from the route.
Located at an altitude of over 28,000 feet above sea level, just 200 feet from Everest’s summit, the Hillary Step is a near-vertical 40-foot rock face. Named after Sir Edmund Hillary and located in the “Death Zone”, it is the final major obstacle before reaching the highest point on Earth.
According to officials, the record number of climbers who reached the summit came from the Nepal side of the mountain. The milestone surpassed the previous record set on May 22, 2019, when 223 climbers scaled Everset from its southern side.
The Instagram post has sparked fresh concerns about overcrowding on the world’s highest mountain, forcing a huge queue of climbers to scale the mountainside during the narrow weather window in May. Climbers must wait until the jet stream temporarily lifts to avoid hurricane-force winds and extreme cold, with temperatures averaging -28C. When this window is short or erratic, hundreds of climbers attempt to scale the mountain at once.
This simultaneous push leads to severe gridlock at high-altitude choke points like the Hillary Step. The longer climbers wait in lines in the “Death Zone,” the higher their risk of running out of oxygen, freezing, or suffering altitude sickness.
The quantity of climbers also creates another concern, as record numbers have seen Mount Everest, including Camp IV – the highest campsite in the world – transformed into a rubbish tip, with other videos showing abandoned tents, empty oxygen bottles and human waste visible in the snow.
“What should be one of the most extraordinary places on the planet has, in many ways, become one of the ugliest faces of Everest’s commercialisation,” Everest Today, an account dedicated to climbing the mountain, posted on X on Monday (June 1). “Abandoned tents, empty oxygen bottles, food cans, torn gear, and other waste are scattered across the South Col, turning the world’s highest campsite into a graveyard of climbing equipment.
“The mountain deserves better.”
In 2024, a group of Sherpas and Nepalese soldiers cleaned up 11 tons of rubbish from the mountain. Some of the debris dated back 69 years. Since September 2025, mountaineers have had to pay $15,000 (£11,164) for a permit, up from the longstanding fee of $11,000 – the first price increase in nearly a decade.