5 Mount Everest Climbers Are Dead and 3 Missing This Summit Season

High above the clouds on Earth’s highest peak, climbers are making the arduous trek up Mount Everest.

The narrow window of the spring summit season, which usually lasts from April to May, is the best time to climb. The weather is clearer and less windy but that is no guarantee of safety: At least five people have died and three others have gone missing since the beginning of this climbing season, officials said.

The conditions have led to bottlenecks as unnerving videos have circulated of long lines of climbers waiting precariously on a precipice.

The popularity of the climb has prompted concerns in recent years that overcrowding, competition and inadequate vetting of rookie climbers are making it even more dangerous.

More climbers are feared dead.

Most climbers take on the mountain from Nepal, a process that involves a 10-day trek to base camp, weeks acclimatizing to the altitude, and another week to push to the summit.

But the journey is grueling. More than 300 people are known to have died on Everest, and an estimated 200 of their bodies remain there because they were too hard to retrieve.