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A record 274 climbers reached the summit of Mount Everest in a single day this week, as critics warned that the world’s highest peak is becoming dangerously overcrowded and thrill seekers willing to pay $15,000 for a shot at the top.
Rishi Bhandari, secretary general of the Expedition Operators Association of Nepal, told Reuters on Thursday that the surge broke the previous Nepalese record of 223 climbers set in 2019.
“This is the highest number of climbers in a single day so far,” Bhandari said. He said the total number of people who have climbed the final summit could be higher as some climbers have not yet officially reported their successful climb.
Nepal has already issued 494 Everest climbing permits this season, each costing climbers $15,000.
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Climbers walk in a long line as they approach the summit of Mount Everest in Solukhumbu district of Nepal on May 18, 2026. (Purnima Shrestha/Reuters)
This year climbers are climbing Everest only from the Nepal side as China has reportedly not issued permits for expeditions from the Tibet side.
Nepal has already issued 494 Everest climbing permits this season, each costing climbers $15,000. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)
Mountaineering experts have long criticized Nepal for allowing large numbers of climbers on Everest, warning that overcrowding could threaten life on the mountain in Everest’s deadly “death zone”, where oxygen levels drop to dangerously low levels.
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Climbers line up while climbing the slope to summit Mount Everest in Nepal on May 31, 2021. (Sherpa Foot/AFP)
Nepal has attempted to respond to safety concerns in recent years by tightening regulations and increasing fees for climbers, although some expedition leaders have defended the high number of climbers.
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“It’s not a big problem if teams carry enough oxygen,” expedition organizer Lucas Furtenbach of Austria-based Furtenbach Adventures told the outlet. “We have mountains like the Zugspitze in the Alps where 4,000 people climb the summit every day. So 274 is actually not a big number, considering that this mountain is 10 times bigger.”
