Climbing Mount Everest

Is climbing Everest safe?

No. Of everything we rate, only a K2 expedition carries a higher risk of death than a single Everest expedition. A 2026 study in The Journal of Physiology by Dodge and colleagues, using Himalayan Database records, found that 0.7% of people who went above base camp between 2007 and 2024 died. That is about 1 in 140, or 7,000 micromortsMicromortA one-in-a-million chance of death. It lets you compare the risk of very different activities on one scale.More in the glossary, roughly the risk of 17 BASE jumps or 1,600 skydives packed into one trip.

The good news is that the rate has halved. In earlier decades, 1.4% of people above base camp died.

How the risk adds up

Through the end of 2024, 335 people had died on Everest since 1922, according to Alan Arnette's analysis of the Himalayan Database: 217 foreign climbers and 118 hired staff, mostly Sherpas. The worst season on record was 2023, with 18 deaths. In 2024 there were 8.

The causes over the whole history:

Cause	Deaths
Avalanche	77
Fall	75
Altitude sickness	48
Exhaustion	30
Exposure and frostbite	26

Avalanches top the list largely because of a few disasters in the Khumbu Icefall and around base camp, such as the 2014 avalanche that killed 16 Nepali guides. Falls, altitude illness and exhaustion are the slower killers, and they cluster high on the mountain.

Why summit day is the danger

Most climbers who die, 76.5% in the 2026 study, do so on summit day. The mean altitude of fatal incidents involving climbers on the standard routes was about 7,970 metres. In the 2008 BMJ study of deaths up to 2006, the symptoms reported most often before death were profound fatigue, confusion and loss of coordination. The 2026 update says they are still frequent.

The way down is where many die. In spring 1982–2006, 3.0% of climbers who reached the summit on the standard routes died on the descent. In 2007–2024, that fell to 0.8%, still eight times the rate for Sherpas (0.1%). Climbers reach the top exhausted and short of oxygen, often late in the day, and then have to descend steep ground in a state the body cannot sustain.

What has made it safer

The study does not prove why deaths fell. Over the same years, weather forecasts improved and expeditions came to use more bottled oxygen, more fixed ropes and more Sherpa support per client. The two main routes are now run largely as guided commercial expeditions. An expedition with a Western guiding company costs about $71,500 on average, and Nepali operators about $45,000, according to Arnette.

Those changes have not removed the risks that money cannot buy off. Avalanches and icefall collapses strike whoever is underneath. Crowding on summit days can leave climbers queuing in the death zone. Sherpas take a large share of the objective hazard: 82% of Sherpa deaths happen during route preparation, carrying loads and fixing ropes.

Who should be careful

• First-time high-altitude climbers. Reputable operators usually ask for previous high-altitude experience, often on a 6,000- to 8,000-metre peak. Skipping that step is one of the biggest risk factors you can control.
• Anyone with heart or lung disease. Talk to a doctor with altitude medicine experience well before you commit.
• Climbers who struggle to turn back. A missed turnaround time is a common thread in summit-day deaths.

How to reduce the risk

1. Choose an operator on safety record, not price. Ask about oxygen allowance per client, guide ratios, Sherpa pay and insurance, and the turnaround rule.
2. Acclimatise fully using the operator's rotation plan, and do not skip rest days.
3. Set a hard turnaround time and agree with your guide that they can enforce it.
4. Avoid the crowded summit windows if your operator can pick a quieter day.
5. Carry enough oxygen for the descent, not just the climb.
6. Descend at the first sign of oedema: confusion, unsteady walking, breathlessness at rest or a wet cough.
7. Buy insurance that covers helicopter rescue at altitude and confirm the height limit in writing.

How we scored it

Fatality risk (6) and the rescue environment (6) are the lowest scores we give. Injury risk (22) reflects frostbite and altitude illness, and controllability (35) the mix of choices that help and hazards that do not. Compare BASE jumping, the other bottom-band activity, and rock climbing at more ordinary heights.