Death Toll Rises to 11 on Mount Everest Among Overcrowding.
BERMAN: Another American climber has died after summiting Mount Everest. The death toll has now risen to 11 people this year. Experts are blaming inexperienced climbers and overcrowding for the escalating death toll on the world's highest peak. CNN's Arwa Damon traveled to the base camp at Mt. Everest, high enough to feel the effects of the altitude.</s>ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We have just arrived to Everest base camp. And I have to say, even at this altitude, even without being anywhere near to the summit, you really feel the impact of the decreased oxygen levels. The scenery here is absolutely spectacular. You really understand what the draw and appeal is. If you look that way, that's the ice fall that is so famous. It's what the climbers first have to go through to get to Camp One. And then, of course, as they move on up through the different camps and the different stops, trying to reach what is the one main goal that unites everybody here. Normally, this entire area at the peak of the season is covered in tents. What you have right now behind me is just a few tents that have been left. There are cleanup crews. There's still a handful of climbers that are down there, some of the last ones to come down from the summit on what has been an especially devastating hiking season for the summit of Everest because of the level of fatalities and because of the issues that arose from all of this backlog that took place. The photographs, the long lines of people waiting inside the death zone, called that because the levels of oxygen there are so low. Every breath you take in the death zone only gives you a third of the oxygen that you would get at sea level. So you have to be climbing with oxygen tanks. And so these long waiting hours may have contributed to the deaths that we did see, at least to most of them. And a lot of these climbers aren't dying on the way up. You can make it to that goal. You can make it to the summit. It's when you come back down, that's when people's bodies tend to succumb to altitude sickness. A lot of debate right now, as to whether or not Nepal needs to be doing more to regulate the number of permits, to regulate who goes up, what level of experience they have. There's been a lot of criticism about inexperienced climbers going up. But there's also a burden of responsibility on the individual. Yes, this is such a challenge. It is such a goal that is really going to push you mentally and physically to the limit. But all of the climbers we're talking to are saying, you really need to know how to listen to your body. And just being here right now, one really feels the effect of the lower levels of oxygen.</s>CAMEROTA: OK. So Arwa Damon just got back from that base camp, where she filed that report. She spent two hours there, until she felt the -- all of the effects of the lack of oxygen, and she went back. She flew back to Kathmandu. She's live for us now in Nepal. Arwa, that is remarkable to just have seen you there. And tell us what the hikers that you encountered told you about this life and death situation.</s>DAMON: You know, they were the ones that we met there. They were part of the last group that was coming down. And so they were saying that they had deliberately avoided the big rush that happened earlier because of the weather windows only opening sporadically. They decided to take their chances and wait until the very end. We met this teenage girl actually. She was just 17 years old, hiking to the summit with her father. She has this goal in mind of trying to complete all seven summits on seven continents by the time she's 18. But she and her father were talking about how, as they were going up to the summit, they were coming across the bodies of those who have lost their lives. And she was saying that, you know, while it was disturbing, yes, it also proved to be a driving force for her, to keep her going. Because when you're in that death zone, you are fighting for every single step you're taking. Your brain is screaming at you to stop, to go back, to give up. And you have to try to push through that. One of the reasons she was saying she pushed through it -- remember, she's just 17 years old -- was because she saw the bodies of those who died, and she did not want to end up like them. She says, "I knew I had to make it to the top. I knew I had to make it back down for my brother and my mother." Now, she has a fair level of experience. She went up on a private trip with a Gurkha who was focused on her and her father, ensuring that all safety measures were carried out. The issue, though, is that there are more and more inexperienced climbers who are going up with some companies who are cutting corners to cut down costs, who aren't necessarily carrying out duty of care, and that is one of the issues, one of the underlying reasons, perhaps, why we have had so many deaths this hiking season. Plus, there's the number of permits that Nepal has issued. The government is saying that is not a factor, that that's an unfounded allegations. But at the same time, there's a big debate going on right now as to whether or not there should be more regulations put into place. Because it is a very intoxicating summit. It's a very intoxicating goal, if you're that kind of person who's oriented towards that, to want to achieve something like that. But at the same time, it's so dangerous.</s>BERMAN: Arwa, if we can, just very quickly, tell us a little bit more about your journey to the base camp, which is at 17,000 feet. Because I think it will give people a sense of just how dangerous it can be. You could only stay for two hours, because you hadn't acclimated. Explain that.</s>DAMON: Right. So most people when they're going to base camp, when they're going to be heading out to the summit of Everest, they walk from an area called Lukla that's about a 45-minute flight from Kathmandu, and that hike takes about 10 to 14 days. And along the way, you acclimatize. Your body slowly is able to get used to these lower levels of oxygen. When you do what we did, which was grab a chopper and go right away, within the space of about, you know, 30 minutes, from basically sea level all the way up to 17,500, 18,000 feet. Your body is hit by the altitude, and you feel it in your chest. You know, every step you take, you feel dizzy, because that's how weak you are without actually realizing it. My fingers started tingling, because your body automatically wants to protect itself. It wants to protect the oxygen that it has, the blood flow that it has. So it will cut off circulation to your fingers. One of the experts who was with us was saying, people also feel like circulation is cut off to their toes, to their nose. People can also tend to get nauseous. You feel incredibly out of breath. It's only recommended that you stay there for this two-hour time period that we were there, because if you stay there any longer without being acclimatized, that can then prove to be fairly dangerous.</s>CAMEROTA: Arwa, thank you very much for going through all of that to get to base camp, to explain what's happening there on Everest this season. It is so deadly, it is so dangerous, and we really appreciate your on-the-ground reporting. Thank you.</s>BERMAN: We're going to speak to a climber a little bit later in the show, too, who has just returned from near the summit of Everest to give a sense of --</s>CAMEROTA: Can you imagine what she just reported, hiking past dead, frozen bodies in the death zone?</s>BERMAN: And I think one of the important things to remember is even if you are an experienced climber, when you try to summit Everest, it can still all go wrong by luck, just by bad luck.</s>CAMEROTA: All right. President Trump is downplaying North Korea's latest missile test, contradicting his allies and his advisors. What message does this send to the world? We'll ask the former director of national intelligence, next.