Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption Mount Everest has claimed six lives so far this season

Update 20 July 2017: This story originally reported that four bodies had been found in a tent, taking the year's death toll to 10 instead of six. However, Nepalese officials later confirmed that this information was incorrect and that no climbers had been reported as missing.

This year's climbing season on Mount Everest has seen record numbers trying to reach the summit.

But among the record-breaking attempts, there has been the familiar tally of casualties.

The death toll so far this season stands at six, including an Australian, Francesco Marchetti; an Indian, Ravi Kumar, whose body was found on Monday; and 85-year-old Min Bahadur Sherchan, who died attempting to reclaim his title as the world's oldest person to reach the top.

World-renowned Swiss climber Ueli Steck also died during an acclimatisation climb at the end of April.

Meanwhile, a 29-year-old Spaniard is being hailed as having reached the summit in the fastest-ever time, without rope or extra oxygen.

Kilian Jornet reached the top, from the Tibetan side, in just 26 hours, his team said on Tuesday.

The record cannot be verified until he returns.

An Indian woman, Anshu Jamsenpa, is also believed to have set the new woman's record for the fastest double ascent, having climbed the mountain twice in one week.

She will now have to approach Guinness World Records to register her climbs after they have been certified by Nepal's ministry of tourism.

The Everest main climbing season is a short window of a few weeks, ending in early June with the arrival of the monsoon. Most climbers head up in May, although there is also a shorter opportunity later in the year.

More than 382 climbers have successfully reached the summit from the south side so far this season, with at least 120 doing so from the Tibet side, according to Reuters news agency.

How dangerous is it to climb Mount Everest?

More than 200 people have died on Everest since 1920, with the vast majority of those deaths taking place since 1980.

In fact, to find the last year without any known deaths, you have to go back to 1977. The deadliest season in the mountain's history was 2015 when 24 people died, mostly as a result of avalanches. Last year, five people died on Everest itself.

Image copyright Dream Himalaya Adventures Image caption Anshu Jamsenpa also scaled Everest twice in 2011

However, the numbers of people attempting the climb have also skyrocketed since 1990, when the Nepalese government withdrew restrictions on how many teams were allowed on to the mountain - which means the percentage of climbers who die has actually dropped.

How are climbers killed?

Mountaineers on Everest die for a number of reasons - more than 20% are killed by exposure or acute mountain sickness.

But according to statistics given to the BBC by the Himalaya Database in 2015, by far the highest number of people who died did so because of avalanches (29%), with falls being the next largest cause of death (23%).

What happens to their bodies?

The problem of what to do with those who lose their lives in remote or difficult locations is one that plagues the mountain.

Bodies which can be retrieved are brought back down the mountain, but others are left on the snowy slopes and crevasses. Some bodies have been known to reappear as glaciers move.

There are a number of notable corpses, including Francys Arsentiev, the woman who became known as "Sleeping Beauty".

She lay where she died, wrapped in her purple jacket next to the main route, from 1998 until 2007, when her body was lowered down the side of the mountain and out of sight.

There is more information about the so-called "graveyard in the clouds" here.</s>Four people have been found dead in tents on Mount Everest, bringing the death toll for this climbing season to 10.

Nepalese Sherpas discovered the bodies in tents at Camp IV, the camp closest to the summit of the world's tallest mountain. It stands at an altitude of more than 26,000 feet, near the so-called death zone where there is very little oxygen.

Mingma Sherpa of the Seven Summits Trek group, the company the Sherpas worked for, confirmed the news to The Associated Press and Reuters on Wednesday.

The identities of the deceased climbers have not been released, though The Himalayan Times reported that two were Nepalese and two were foreigners. It said one was a woman.

While the cause of death is not yet known, the fact that they apparently died inside tents led seasoned Everest blogger Alan Arnette to speculate: "It is most likely they died from carbon monoxide poisoning by using their stoves in the tent without proper ventilation."

The Times said the Sherpas found the climbers while trying to recover the body of "49-year-old Slovakian solo climber Vladimir Strba who died at Camp IV on Sunday afternoon."

Everest is particularly busy at the moment because the Nepalese government has issued a record 371 permits for foreign climbers, the AP notes.

Deaths on Everest are tragically common — at least 200 people have been killed attempting to climb it since 1920, the BBC reported. "However, the numbers of people attempting the climb have also skyrocketed since 1990, when the Nepalese government withdrew restrictions on how many teams were allowed on to the mountain — which means the percentage of climbers who die has actually dropped."

British Everest expedition leader Tim Mosedale wrote in a recent Facebook post that the increasing number of climbers has led to more guides who are less-experienced:



Major causes of death on Everest include "exhaustion, exposure, frostbite, falls and altitude sickness," Reuters reported. "But the biggest killer in recent years has been avalanches."

Avalanches in 2014 and 2015 meant that many people who intended to climb the mountain had to delay their attempt, the AP reported, which may have contributed to the higher number of climbers this year.

In addition to the deaths of the four newly discovered climbers and Strba, five others have died this season: Ravi Kuma of India, Roland Yearwood of Alabama, Francesco Enrico Marchetti of Australia, Min Bahahur Sherchan of Nepal and Ueli Steck of Switzerland.

Despite the grim news, there's also been some inspiring developments on Everest this season. The BBC reports two new possible speed records:</s>Ten people have died on Everest -- the world's highest peak -- so far this spring season (AFP Photo/ROBERTO SCHMIDT)

Rescuers found the bodies of four climbers on Mount Everest, an expedition organiser said Wednesday, taking the season's death toll to 10 as experts warn cut-price mountaineering outfits are putting clients at risk.

The climbers were found inside a tent at camp four -- at 7,950 metres (26,085 feet) -- on Tuesday by a rescue team who were there to retrieve the body of a Slovak climber who died on the mountain on Sunday.

"Our rescuers found bodies of four climbers in a tent at camp four yesterday. We don't have the details of who they are or how they died yet," said Mingma Sherpa, head of Seven Summit Treks, a Kathmandu-based agency that runs expeditions and rescue operations on the mountain.

Local media reported that two of the dead were foreign climbers and two were Nepali guides.

The Nepal government liaison officer stationed at base camp could not immediately be reached for confirmation.

Strong winds hit Everest on Tuesday, forcing many to abandon their summit attempts and remain in tents at camp four.

Respected mountaineering commentator Alan Arnette said it appeared the four climbers died of carbon monoxide poisoning after using camping stoves inside their tent -- preventable deaths that suggested both climbers and guides lacked experience.

"This is not just sad, it is totally irresponsible -- to die from carbon monoxide poisoning is to break a basic rule of camping," he wrote on his blog.

"The foreigners paid the "guides" to take care of them. While I promote self sufficiency, and will suggest the "climbers" should have also known better, these so-called Sherpa "guides" clearly did not do their job."

In recent years an increasing number of Kathmandu-based mountaineering companies have started offering Everest climbs at a fraction of the cost of their foreign rivals, who have traditionally dominated the market for expeditions to the world's highest peak.

Everest veteran Tim Mosedale said the rise of cut-price, inexperienced companies taking ill-prepared climbers to the top was a serious concern.

"Over the years there's been a huge dilution in the cumulative experience of staff whilst at the same time there's been a net increase in inexperienced or poor expedition providers," six-time Everest summiteer Mosedale, who runs expeditions to Everest, recently posted on Facebook.

"When you combine this with a decline in the amount of experience of the clients who are accepted on board it's a worrying equation."

This year a record 373 permits were issued to foreign climbers to summit Everest from the Nepal side, with another 136 granted permission to ascend from the north face in Tibet.

Four people perished on the 8,848-metre peak over the weekend, including American doctor Roland Yearwood and Slovak climber Vladimir Strba.

Both died above the 8,000 metre mark -- an area known as the mountain's "death zone" where oxygen levels fall to dangerously low levels, heightening the risk of altitude sickness.

The body of Indian climber Ravi Kumar, 27, was spotted on Monday two days after he summited and then lost contact.

An Australian climber died on the Tibet side of the mountain on Sunday.

This season has also claimed the lives of legendary Swiss climber Ueli Steck and 85-year-old Min Bahadur Sherchan, who died attempting to reclaim his title as the world's oldest person to climb Everest.

More than 382 climbers, both foreign and Nepali, have successfully reached the summit from the south side so far this season, with at least 120 doing so from the Tibet side.

Many are still waiting to make their final push to the summit before the monsoon arrives in early June, marking the end of the short spring climbing season.

Last year Everest claimed the lives of five climbers. In all, 640 people reached the summit.</s>Nepali sherpas found four climbers dead in a camp on Mount Everest, officials said on Wednesday, taking the death toll on the world's highest mountain to 10 in the past month.

The bodies of the four climbers were found inside two tents at Camp Four, located at 8,000 metres (26,246 feet), overnight, Mingma Sherpa of the Seven Summit Treks group to which the sherpas belonged said in Kathmandu.

It was not clear how they died and their identities had not been established, Mingma, who like many sherpas is known by his first name, said.

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Ang Tshering Sherpa, the president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, said it was windy on the mountain on Tuesday.

Ten climbers have died on Mount Everest, including one on the Chinese side, during this climbing season, which ends this month.

The sherpas who discovered the bodies were on their way to retrieve the body of Vladimir Strba of Slovakia who died near the 8,850 metres (29,035 feet) summit on the weekend.

Strba's body has been brought down to Camp Two at 6,400 metres (21,000 feet) and was expected to be brought down to base camp later on Wednesday, Mingma said.

Hundreds of climbers are attempting the summit from both the Nepali and Chinese routes this year.</s>The bodies of four climbers were found inside a tent on Everest, an expedition organiser said Wednesday, taking the death toll on the world's highest peak this spring season to 10.

>Kathmandu: The bodies of four climbers were found inside a tent on Everest, an expedition organiser said Wednesday, taking the death toll on the world's highest peak this spring season to 10.

The climbers were found at camp four " at 7,950 metres (26,085 feet) " on Tuesday by a rescue team who were there to retrieve the body of a Slovak climber who died on the mountain on Sunday.

"Our rescuers found bodies of four climbers in a tent at camp four yesterday. We don't have the details of who they are or how they died yet," said Mingma Sherpa, head of Seven Summits Trek, a Kathmandu-based agency that runs expeditions and rescue operations on the mountain.

Local media reported that two of the dead were foreign climbers and two were Sherpa guides.

The Nepal government liaison officer stationed at base camp could not immediately be reached for confirmation.

Four people perished on the 8,848 metre peak over the weekend, including American doctor Roland Yearwood and Slovak climber Vladimir Strba.

Both died above the 8,000 metre mark " an area known as the mountain's "death zone" where oxygen levels fall to dangerously low levels, heightening the risk of altitude sickness.

The body of Indian climber Ravi Kumar, 27, was spotted on Monday two days after he summited and then lost contact. A rescue operation is currently under way to retrieve his body.

An Australian climber died on the Tibet side of the mountain on Sunday.

This season has also claimed the lives of legendary Swiss climber Ueli Steck and 85-year-old Min Bahadur Sherchan, who died attempting to reclaim his title as the world's oldest person to climb Everest.

More than 382 climbers have successfully reached the summit from the south side so far this season, with at least 120 doing so from the Tibet side.

Many are still waiting to make their final push to the summit before the monsoon arrives in early June, marking the end of the short spring climbing season.

Last year Everest claimed the lives of five climbers. In all, 640 people reached the summit.</s>Nepali sherpas have found four climbers dead in their tents on Mount Everest, officials said on Wednesday, with suspicion they died of carbon monoxide poisoning, taking the death toll on the world's highest mountain to 10 in the past month.

KATHMANDU: Nepali sherpas have found four climbers dead in their tents on Mount Everest, officials said on Wednesday, with suspicion they died of carbon monoxide poisoning, taking the death toll on the world's highest mountain to 10 in the past month.

The four climbers were found in two tents at Camp Four, at 8,000 metres (26,246 feet), overnight, Mingma Sherpa of the Seven Summit Treks group, to which the sherpas belonged, said in Kathmandu.

It was not clear how they died and their identities had not been established, Mingma said.

The Himalayan Times reported that two of the dead were foreigners and rescuers believed they had suffocated.

"It is most likely they died from carbon monoxide poisoning by using their stoves in the tent without proper ventilation," U.S. climber Alan Arnette, who blogs on Everest, said in a post.

The sherpas who discovered the bodies were on their way to retrieve the body of Vladimir Strba of Slovakia who died near the 8,850 metre (29,035 feet) summit on the weekend.

Strba's body has been brought down to Camp Two at 6,400 metres (21,000 feet) and was expected to be brought down to base camp later on Wednesday, Mingma said.

More than 5,000 climbers have scaled Mount Everest since it was first climbed by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953, and nearly 300 have died trying.

Many of the victims remain on the mountain, entombed in snow, as it its too difficult to bring their bodies down.

Exhaustion, exposure, frostbite, falls and altitude sickness are major causes of death on Everest.

But the biggest killer in recent years has been avalanches.

Eighteen people were killed in 2015 when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake triggered avalanches that smashed into the base camp.

A year earlier, 16 sherpas hauling gear to higher camps for climbers were killed when they were hit by avalanche while they were crossing the treacherous Khumbu Icefall, just above base camp.

Climbers can ascend Everest from the Nepal side and the Chinese side. One of the 10 deaths this has been on the Chinese side.

Nepal has issued permits to 371 foreign climbers this season, up from last year's 281, each of which cost US$11,000.

In addition, hundreds of sherpas are climbing the mountain, or helping others to.

Permit fees are a major source of income for cash-strapped Nepal which earned more than US$4 million this year from Everest permits, officials said.

The climbing season closes at the end of May when the rainy season traditionally begins, bringing cloud and snow at high altitudes.</s>Nepali sherpas have found four climbers dead in their tents on Mount Everest, officials said on Wednesday, with suspicion they died of carbon monoxide poisoning, taking the death toll on the world's highest mountain to 10 in the past month. Light illuminates Mount Everest, during the in Solukhumbu District also known as the Everest region, in this picture taken November 30, 2015.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Channelnewsasia.com.</s>Nepalese sherpas have found four more dead climbers in a camp on Mount Everest, taking the death toll on the world's highest mountain to 10 in the past month, officials say.

The bodies of the four climbers were found overnight inside two tents at Camp Four, located at 8,000 metres, Mingma Sherpa of the Seven Summit Treks group to which the sherpas belonged said in Kathmandu on Wednesday.

It was not clear how they died and their identities had not been established, Mr Mingma, who like many sherpas is known by his first name, said.

Ang Tshering Sherpa, the president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, said it was windy on the mountain on Tuesday.

Ten climbers have died on Mount Everest, including one on the Chinese side, during this climbing season, which ends this month.

The sherpas who discovered the bodies were on their way to retrieve the body of Vladimir Strba of Slovakia who died near the 8,850 metre summit on the weekend, along with three others including Australian Francesco Enrico Marchetti.

This season's dead also include an 85-year-old man hoping to be the oldest person to summit Everest and famed Swiss alpinist Ueli Steck.

Mr Strba's body has been brought down to Camp Two at 6,400 metres and was expected to be brought down to base camp later on Wednesday, Mr Mingma said.

The Nepalese Tourism Department issued a record 371 permits this year to people to scale the mountain.

The increased number of climbers this year is likely because many people were unable to climb in 2014 and 2015, when deadly avalanches disrupted the climbing seasons.</s>It’s a scene that would have been unheard of just a few decades ago.

The Hillary Step – a 40-foot wall of snow and rock just below Mount Everest’s 29,029-foot summit and well into the so-called “death zone” above 26,000 feet – looks more like an escalator at a crowded shopping mall than one of the most precarious places on Earth for a human to be. Dozens of climbers in colorful down suits shuffle along lines of fixed rope at a dangerously slow pace in their push to summit the world’s highest mountain.

When Sir Edmund Hillary, whose name is attached to the infamous step, and Tenzing Norgay in 1953 became the first people to summit Everest, they were utterly alone on the mountain’s upper slopes. More than 60 years later, hundreds of people attempt, every March through October, to reach the top of the world during the peak climbing season.

While major improvements in climbing gear, weather forecasting and communications equipment -- along with the advent of professional guiding services -- have made the endeavor slightly safer, it also has opened up the mountain to less-experienced climbers and created the high-altitude traffic jams on the mountain that in the past have proved deadly.

“The biggest problem on Everest is the toxic mix of inexperienced climbers and unqualified guides,” Alan Arnette, a climber who summited Everest in 2011, told Fox News. “That is the new reality on the mountain.”

Overcrowding is a recent phenomenon on Everest as the mountain -- which straddles the border of Nepal and the Chinese autonomous region of Tibet -- was closed to foreigners for centuries and for most of the last century Nepalese authorities would only grant a climbing permit to one group per season. During the 1980s, Nepal – seeking to improve the country’s financial situation – began issuing multiple permits during the climbing season and the ensuing number of people attempting Everest skyrocketed.

In 1990, 72 people made it to the summit of Everest, while in 2016, 641 reached the peak.

The Nepalese Tourism Department issued a record 371 permits this year to people to scale the mountain. The increased number of climbers is likely because many people were unable to climb in 2014 when a deadly icefall killed 16 Sherpas, and an earthquake-triggered avalanche the following year took another 18 lives.

Climbers who had permits for the 2014 season were allowed to receive a free replacement permit good until 2019, while climbers with 2015 permits were given only until this year.

Veteran climbers and many guide services say that the large number of people on the mountain is not the main problem, but exacerbates the other dangers on Everest. Large groups and unproven climbers slow the progress of everyone else – keeping people on the mountain longer and exposing them to risks like avalanches, collapsing columns of ice known as serac falls, crevasses and rapidly changing weather conditions.

“Overcrowding is certainly an issue,” Gordon Janow, director of programs at the Seattle-based guide service Alpine Ascents, told Fox News. “It’s become one of the variables that you have to deal with and try to mitigate the risks the same way you do with avalanches and crevasses.”

Deaths on Everest have become a tragically normal event during the climbing season. So far this year, 10 people have died in a series of accidents, four more than mountaineering officials expect in a typical year.

On Wednesday, authorities said Sherpa rescuers found the bodies of four climbers inside a tent at the highest camp on Everest, a few thousand feet from the summit. The rescuers were in the area to recover the body of a Slovak mountaineer who had died over the weekend.

"Some years there are more, and some years there are less, but deaths on the mountain are normal," Jiban Ghimire, who runs a prominent expedition company, Shangrila-Nepal Trek, told The Associated Press. "It is the nature of the work. We can't say what will happen on the mountain.”

Despite the number of deaths and concern in the climbing community, experts say that there is very little chance that anybody will address the issue of overcrowding. Nepal is heavily reliant on the money it gets from the climbing permits – which cost around $11,000 per climber – and many poorly trained Sherpas have started their own cut-rate guide services to cater to a growing market of middle-class climbers from China and India.

“Demand to climb Everest has gone through the roof,” Arnette said. “So now you have Sherpas in Nepal who two weeks before were herding yaks and now they’re guiding clients up the mountain.”

Arnette said that it’s up to the climbers to know their limits, have the proper skills for high-altitude mountaineering and pick a guide service with experience on Everest or similar peaks. But with less than a week to go in the official Everest climbing season and an estimated 150 people still expected to make a push for the summit, he had some advice from his previous experience on the mountain.

“In 2011, I summited at five in the morning and I was the fourth person to make it up,” he said. “The best way to avoid overcrowding is to start early. The crowding can be managed if you move fast and efficiently.”</s>Light illuminates Mount Everest, during the in Solukhumbu District also known as the Everest region, in this picture taken November 30, 2015. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar/File Photo

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepali sherpas have found four climbers dead in their tents on Mount Everest, officials said on Wednesday, taking the death toll on the world's highest mountain to 10 in the past month.

The climbers were found overnight in two tents at Camp Four, at 8,000 meters (26,246 feet), Mingma Sherpa of the Seven Summit Treks group, to which the sherpas belonged, said.

The identities of the four remained unknown as none of the expeditions on the mountain reported any of their members missing and the head of the Nepal Mountaineering Association said they may have been climbing on their own.

"It is possible that some individual climbers obtained permits and were climbing without much support due to the cost factor," said Ang Tshering Sherpa.

"It was windy and very cold in the mountain yesterday (Tuesday). It appears they died due to suffocation as they must have been using a stove to keep warm inside the tent.”

The Himalayan Times reported that two of the dead were foreigners, but did not give their nationalities.

"It is most likely they died from carbon monoxide poisoning by using their stoves in the tent without proper ventilation," U.S. climber Alan Arnette, who blogs on Everest, said in a post.

The sherpas who discovered the bodies were on their way to retrieve the body of Vladimir Strba of Slovakia who died near the 8,850 meter (29,035 feet) summit over the weekend.

Strba's body has been brought down to Camp Two at 6,400 meters (21,000 feet) and was expected to be taken to base camp later on Wednesday, Mingma said.

More than 5,000 climbers have scaled Mount Everest since it was first climbed by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953. Nearly 300 have died trying.

Many of the victims remain on the mountain, entombed in snow, as it its too difficult to bring their bodies down.

Exhaustion, exposure, frostbite, falls and altitude sickness are major causes of death on Everest.

But the biggest killer in recent years has been avalanches.

Eighteen people died in 2015 when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake triggered avalanches which smashed into the base camp.

A year earlier, 16 sherpas hauling gear for climbers to higher camps were killed when they were hit by an avalanche while they were crossing the treacherous Khumbu Icefall, just above base camp.

Climbers can ascend Everest from the Nepal side and the Chinese side. One of the 10 recent deaths was on the Chinese side.

Nepal has issued permits to 371 foreign climbers this season, up from last year's 281, each of which cost $11,000.

In addition, hundreds of sherpas climb the mountain or help others to do so.

Permit fees are a major source of income for cash-strapped Nepal which earned more than $4 million this year from Everest permits, officials said.

The climbing season closes at the end of May when the rainy season traditionally begins, bringing cloud and snow at high altitudes.
Four climbers are found dead on Mount Everest, bringing this season's death toll to 10.