Summits could have been more. The Khumbu Icefall was going to be closed the 29th, then the Icefall Doctors decided to extend it.
But Nepal issued a record 408 permits for Everest. Couple that with a recent trend to have multiple summiting sherpas per client, that’s potentially a lot of people.
Meanwhile China eventually closed the Tibet, north side. After making some ridiculous statement of having a barrier at the summit to separate those from the Nepal, south, side.
Crowds all depend on the weather windows. When there’s very few days to summit, you get the conga line. Bunch of expeditions left due to covid, like Lucas Fuhrtenbach of Austria, and at least one expedition left to losing too many sherpas to covid so they couldn’t climb with no support.
Colin Brady a young climber from the UK, admitted to summiting having tested positive.
A messy summary of a messy season-
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