Mount Everest Death Toll Rises To 11 Amid Overcrowding.
TEXT: CUOMO PRIME TIME.</s>CUOMO: Well thank God, it's almost over up on Everest. The dozens who are left in the Base Camp are not going to attempt to ascend after one of the deadliest seasons ever. 11 people killed, and it wasn't because of a single calamitous event, as we're used to hearing. This was different. Scores of climbers clamoring up a single route, creating a fatal traffic jam, all right? Now, this is the photo that everybody was talking about. Look at this. I mean, are you kidding me? Now look, this is not an easy thing to ascend, obviously. And remember, you're doing this all at great detriment physically because you don't have the oxygen. But, come on! Come on! 250 to 300 people, hours of delays in conditions that change in a matter of minutes, just to summit. On Everest, every minute is crucial, OK? Now, let's just take a look at it, right? It doesn't look to scale like a big deal. But, come on, it's 12,000 feet. You're starting off at - at something that's going to be higher than anybody else is ever going to be on, unless they're on an airplane, all right? Now, you don't want to be in a logjam up there in a place called the Death Zone, all right? It starts here, the Base Camp, all right? Now, this is what it looks like to you. You know, you have all these people coming around, they're trying to acclimatize here before they make the trek, 18,000 feet, 50 percent of oxygen at sea level, all right? It's all about thin air and getting the body used to it. What you can't control are the conditions. So now, you're not at your best. You got freezing temperatures, blizzards, avalanches. That's why you usually wind up having a death event. Since 1922, the year that climbers have started recording the deaths, you had more than 200, OK? And why? Well most of them die up on the peak. That makes sense. Their bodies are frozen. You can't recover them because it's too dangerous and too expensive a task to retrieve them, frankly. Now, most die, and as I said earlier, in what is called the Death Zone, above 26,000 feet. Well, why is it? Well, obviously, it's the highest. It's most dangerous. There's the least oxygen, we're not supposed to be there. The body cells literally start to die. Your judgment is impaired. The risk of heart attack, stroke increases dramatically, all right? So, what we've seen in the past is that that's what's going to take you out. But now we have a new factor. 11 people are dead, you know. God bless them, the best to their families, and those who love them. But this didn't need to happen. This is about overcrowding in that zone, all right? The latest fatality just yesterday was an American, 62 years old, Christopher John Kulish, and a 64-year old Austrian man also died. They died hours after actually summiting. Now, this is not that unusual to die on the way back down. They made it to the 29,000 feet. That's like 20 Empire State buildings that they climbed, 33 percent oxygen. That means you're going up a big flight of stairs, and you're getting one out of every three breaths. I mean, just think about the deprivation. Now, why on the way down? Well several factors. Let's take a look at them. You have altitude sickness. Like I said, the cells start to change. You're not supposed to be there, sickness from prolonged exposure, bad weather, smaller window to make back down. So, you make this risk, right? All these things in life, the metaphor, scared money never wins, got to get to the top, coming back down, sometimes you're stuck. You're coming through a single route through Nepal, inexperienced climbers holding up the lines. The permitting process has come under scrutiny. The Nepal government, specifically, is getting scrutiny because they failed to require proof of climbing experience for those that they issue permits to. Now, one more title that this all raises for us. What is it that fuels our need to test our limits, no matter the risk? Why climb the mountain? What is the real test? Let's get into that with D. Lemon, next, now that we got the facts and situation under control.</s>TEXT: CUOMO PRIME TIME.