Are Mount Everest ‘Firsts’ Getting Out of Control?

It seems like everyone is climbing the world’s tallest mountain these days – and finding a way to make headlines doing it. Earlier this week, thirteen-year-old Jordan Romano became the youngest person to climb Everest. Today I read about Sean Swarmer, the first cancer survivor to reach the summit. Sherpa Apa, who recently made headlines for having reached the summit a record twenty times, says, “The way to the peak has become very congested. It has changed a lot compared to the earlier days.” No kidding?

This year, poker playing brothers (and mountaineering experts), Damien and Guillermo “Willie” Benegas hope to compete in the world’s highest poker game, on top of Mount Everest. Earlier this week, Lewis Gordon Pugh, otherwise known as ‘the human polar bear’, didn’t attempt the summit. Instead he swam the icy waters running off it – becoming the first man to swim a glacial lake on the world’s tallest mountain. Last year a 50-strong group of amateurs climbed to the 16,945-foot Gorak Shep plateau (just above the Everest Base Camp), in order to set the world record for the highest cricket match. Team Hillary beat team Tenzig by 36 runs. Then, last Monday, 22-year-old Bonita Norris became the youngest female to reach the summit of Everest before having to be dragged back to camp four by her Sherpas and guide, Kenton Cool, after she suffered a fall while attached to a rope. On the same trip Cool became the first Brit to summit Everest a total of eight times (beating his own previous record of seven). In 2007 he set the record for becoming the first British Guide to lead a client successfully up the North Face of the Eiger. Also on Monday, Leif Whittaker, son of Jim Whittaker (the first American to reach the summit of Everest), bagged the mountain, making him the first son of the first American to reach the top of Everest to reach the top of Everest. Last week American climber Chad Kellogg made a bid for the summit of Everest. His goal? To set a new speed record ascent, without use of oxygen or Sherpas. And yesterday thirty-three-year-old Elia Saikaly became the youngest Lebanese to reach the summit.

With all this traffic, Everest has become a dump for both actual garbage and bodies of climbers claimed by the mountain. A team of Sherpas that left for Everest in late April on a clean-up mission has  already found five bodies and collected over 2.5 tons of garbage.

Making it to the top of Everest is a feat worthy of ultimate respect. Climbing anything at that altitude requires peak athleticism, focus, months of daunting logistical planning, and money. Loads of money. Climbers don’t buy their way to the top, as is occasionally implied. Getting to the top of Everest is a deadly undertaking, and everybody who sets foot on that peak has earned it. But the cost of attempting an Everest expedition is more than most people make in a year. It’s probably more than I’ve made in my lifetime. And in order to flip those bills, climbers must solicit sponsors. And the most sexy way to solicit a sponsor, it seems, is by making a first attempt: The youngest. The oldest. The first person to do it drunk. The only hermaphrodite. The first person to walk it backwards. The first to do it while wearing an Alice Cooper T-shirt. The first ballroom dance on top of the world. The first astronaut to climb it in diapers.

As an editor, I understand the need for a hook as well as anyone. We cover Everest firsts on the Wend blog all the time. News organizations like us are as much a part as the problem as anything. And I respect that many Everest climbers need to drum up publicity in order to appease sponsors and raise awareness for their causes. Many of the people who climb Everest either do it to raise money for charity or do it for themselves, under the auspices of raising money for charity. But with climbing teams lining up shoulder to shoulder to reach the summit, and the world’s tallest mountain becoming the world’s tallest trash dump, I don’t think I’m alone when I say I’m feeling a little put out reading so many stories about people chasing non-technical Everest ‘Firsts.’