During the
1921 British Mount Everest reconnaissance expedition, two people died en route to the mountain: an unidentified porter and heart attack victim
A. M. Kellas. The first recorded deaths on the mountain itself were seven porters who perished in an avalanche in the
1922 British Mount Everest expedition. In 1996, 15 people died trying to reach the summit, the most in a single year to that date. The number reflects the large number of climbers that year rather than a spike in the death rate: before 1996, one in four climbers died making the ascent, while in 1996, one in seven died. But it also includes the
disaster of May 11, 1996, during which eight people died due to being caught in a blizzard while making summit attempts. Among them was guide
Rob Hall, the first non-Sherpa to have summited five times. Two books detailing the disaster,
Into Thin Air by
Jon Krakauer and
The Climb by
Anatoli Boukreev, both written by mountaineers who were on Mount Everest at the time, give conflicting accounts of the events. The 1996 record was surpassed in the 2014, 2015 and 2023 seasons. There were few summits from the south in 2014 and none in 2015. On April 18, 2014, 16
Sherpas were killed in
an avalanche in the
Khumbu Icefall. On April 25, 2015, 19 people—the most ever in a single day on Everest—were killed in an avalanche at base camp after a
7.8 earthquake, which killed more than 9,000 people and injured more than 23,000 in Nepal. During the 2023 season, a total of 17 climbers died to and from the summit. Almost none of the deaths are related to one another. In 2001,
Babu Chiri Sherpa died from a fall near Camp II. He had climbed the mountain 10 times and spent 20 hours on the summit of Everest in 1999, then a new record. He also climbed to the summit twice in two weeks and held the record climbing time from
base camp to summit of 16 hours and 56 minutes. Due to the difficulties and dangers in bringing bodies down, most who die on the mountain remain where they fall. Two Nepalese climbers died on October 24, 1984, while trying to recover the body of
Hannelore Schmatz. In 1999, searchers for
George Mallory's body found his and other bodies in the snow in a catchment basin near the peak. Melting glaciers are revealing bodies on Everest. The Nepalese government does clean-up efforts to remove trash left by climbers, and also recovers bodies along with these efforts. Four unidentified bodies were recovered in 2019. Another five unidentified bodies were recovered in 2024. ==Deaths==