How rush by Hongkongers and others to climb Everest is changing the mountain

Climbers like Stephen Venables say the rise in the number of people visiting world’s highest peak brings added revenue for Sherpas, but also more trash, and pushes prices up for Nepali locals

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Crossing ladders on Mount Everest in Sagarmatha National Park, Nepal.

Published: 7:00am, 10 Jul 2016Updated: 6:13pm, 10 Jul 2016

Stephen Venables etched his name into mountaineering folklore when he became the first Englishman to conquer Everest without the aid of supplementary oxygen. The sense that enveloped him when he reached the roof of the world – at about 3.40pm on May 12, 1988 – was one of complete isolation, Venables recalls, as he took in the scene at 8,848 metres. After a short while, he focused his attention on his descent – and survival.

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“In the end I came as close as you’d want to come to death,” says Venables, who lost three toes to frostbite after being forced to make camp for the night alone as he made his way down from a place where temperatures can range from minus 20 to minus 35 degrees Celsius.

The danger might remain but times have certainly changed on the world’s highest peak.

“It’s unrecognisable now,” says Venables, on a recent trip to Hong Kong during which he addressed the Royal Geographical Society. “Back in 1988, the days of people being guided up the mountain had just started. It was hard to get a permit.