People can’t believe why anyone would want to climb Everest after witnessing current scenes at summit

Scaling Mount Everest is something most of us could only dream of - or to some, it would feel a nightmare.

Standing at 8,850 meters (29,035 feet), climbing the mountain is not for the faint-hearted.

Climbers who venture higher than 26,000 feet enter the mountain's 'death zone' where oxygen levels are so low the body begins to shut down.

At this altitude, the body's cells will begin to die and judgement becomes impaired.

The death zone has claimed the lives of 340 climbers attempting to reach the summit, with their bodies left preserved on the frozen mountainside.

With the climb being so treacherous (and the cost of climbing being in the tens of thousands) you'd imagine few would risk the challenge.

Well, it turns out that the summit of Everest is actually pretty crowded, with X user Iain Cameron sharing a video (originally recorded by Rajan Dwivedi) revealing a queue of climbers scrambling through the snow.

"Everest a couple of days ago. Why would anyone want to be a part of this? The worst kind of adventure capitalism," he captioned the tweet.

In the video, hundreds of climbers can be seen in their red and orange thermals, clinging to the ropes as they wait to ascend higher up the mountain.

"Craze for Everest!" the writing on the video reads.

"Weather window is key. Captured while descending."

Judging by the responses to the post, X users were also shocked to see the mountain so overcrowded, with one user writing: "How is this any fun?"

"The Nepali gov’t must reduce the number of permits each season to address overcrowding near summit. While climbers accept the inherent risks, controllable factors like this traffic should be managed better," a second person replied.

"Many fatalities occur not from climbing but from exhaustion caused by long queues at high altitudes, reducing the chance of a safe descent."

"That sucks, reminds me of waiting for a ride at six flags," a third added.

This isn't the first time people have been left shocked by the state of Everest either, with several photos emerging over the past couple of years showing a serious amount of rubbish left behind by adventure tourists.

In fact, the ecological damage of Everest is having an impact on the health of tourists, with many of them getting sick to do water contamination from human waste dumped on the mountainside.

Speaking about the damage, geologist Alton Byers said: "The real problem is the tons and tons of plastics, beer cans, whiskey bottles, steel food containers, and other solid waste the lodge owners import."

Featured Image Credit: (X/@theiancameron/Getty stock images)

Topics: Travel, World News, Mount Everest