The other side of Everest's record season: five deaths and a high-altitude cleanup

The headlines from Everest's spring 2026 season were all about records — a staggering 1,008 summits, 274 in a single day. But behind the triumph sits a sober reckoning that deserves its own telling: five people died on the mountain this season, and Nepal has mounted a major campaign to bring down both the dead and the mounting tonnes of waste. This is the other side of the record, and it matters.

The human cost

Among those lost this season were Lhakpa Dendi Sherpa, who died travelling toward Base Camp; Bijay Ghimire Bishwakarma, a 35-year-old climber and journalist who died during an acclimatisation rotation in the Khumbu Icefall; and Phura Gyaljen Sherpa, a 21-year-old high-altitude worker who fell into a crevasse on the Lhotse Face. Each is a reminder that even in a "successful" season — and by historic standards the death rate was low — Everest exacts a price, and that price often falls hardest on the Nepali workers who make others' summits possible.

The cleanup

With the crowds comes the waste. The Nepali Army, working with local authorities and expedition operators, prepared a cleanup campaign targeting the retrieval of at least five bodies from Everest and neighbouring Nuptse, along with the grim inventory of high-altitude debris: broken tents, spent oxygen cylinders, food packaging, abandoned gear and human waste. It is dangerous, expensive work, and it underlines why Nepal is tightening the rules — the new requirement that climbers first summit a 7,000-metre Nepali peak, and carry out their own rubbish, is aimed squarely at this problem.

Source: alanarnette.com (Everest 2026 season summary); Department of Tourism, Nepal.

Cover photo: Vyacheslav Argenberg via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).