This is the busiest season on Mount Qomolangma, or Everest as it is known in the West. It's so busy that there is even talk about "traffic congestion" at the planet's highest peak.

At what mountaineers call the "second terrace" at 8,680 metres above sea level on the north face, one may find a crowd of dozens waiting helplessly when someone slows down in front of them.

This season's fine weather allows for ambitious mountaineers from around the globe to try their luck to conquer the world's "third pole." Crowds of them are itching at the base camps for their moment to come.

Many have succeeded. At least 27 people managed to make it to the top on May 14 and 15, followed by 42 on May 18, and a further 28 on May 20. As long as the good weather continues, this list will get longer.

But this success is accompanied by sorrow. In the single week from May 15 to 22, five foreign nationals were confirmed dead a Briton on May 15, a Swede on May 16, a Brazilian, a French person on May 19, and a Russian on May 22.

That alone made May 2006 the deadliest month in recent years.

The widely touted surprise return of Lincoln Hall, the 50-year-old Australian climber, on Saturday, two days after being given up for dead on the frozen peak, was indeed a miracle.

But that should in no way make us complacent. Scaling Mount Qomolangma is a dangerous, sometimes fatal, mission.

The latest fatalities on Mount Qomolangma have prompted the China Tibet Mountaineering Association and veteran mountaineers to warn that mountaineering is an extremely dangerous sport that requires participants to be fully aware of their own capabilities and to respect nature. People should not aim to challenge the "third pole" if they are in a poor state of health, lack logistical support, or there are unfavourable weather conditions.

Poor weather did have a role in such tragedies. But a common cause is inadequate preparation.

Booming commercial mountaineering has brought some unlikely candidates to the top of the world in recent years, cultivating a misleading sense that Mount Qomolangma is not as inaccessible as it appears.

In order to cut costs and widen profit margins, commercial organizers usually provide very weak logistical back-up, placing customers in harm's way.

But Qomolangma is not for everybody.

We say climbing Mount Qomolangma is an expensive undertaking not only because it entails costly logistics. It is expensive also because the price might be as high as one's life.

Sources with mountaineering authorities disclose that every year a great number of amateurs, including some who do not even have any mountaineering experience, apply to climb Mount Qomolangma.

That is outrageous. Such attempts demand more than courage and money.

Excessive crowds should not only alert us to the environmental consequences on this ecologically sensitive area, but also the high safety risks.

China Daily 05/29/2006