Drones Toting Life-Saving Equipment Could Make Climbing Everest Safer

Climbing season is open on Mount Everest . With the help of drones, one of the world’s most dangerous pursuits could become much safer.  

In just 15 minutes, special drones can move vital goods up the world’s tallest mountain. The drones can help ease the burden of Sherpas lugging heavy loads up the slope of Everest. Climbers say the use of drones could reduce climbing deaths on the mountain.    

Currently 1 in 100 people who attempt to climb Everest die. At 29,035 feet above sea level, the summit reaches as high as jets fly. The deadly dangers climbers face include lack of oxygen, exhaustion, extreme cold, falls, and getting lost.     

The $70,000 drones not only lighten the loads of Sherpas, they’re also better than helicopters. They can fly higher and they use less fuel.

“Sherpas bear enormous risks. The drone makes their task safer, faster and more efficient,” Tshering Sherpa told The New York Times. He's the head of the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee. (Members of the Sherpa ethnic group often use the word as a last name.) 

Airlift is the company that provides the service. It will use its two high-performance drones to deliver goods this season and to pick up garbage. Picking up trash is a major task made far worse by decades of climbers leaving refuse all over the mountain.   

Much of the drone company’s efforts will focus on helping the Sherpa Khumbu “Icefall Doctors.” Their main job is to maintain the ladder bridges that cross the 300-foot deep crevasses between Everest Base Camp and the first of four camps on the way to the summit.

Reflect: What’s a new way you can imagine drones being used to help people?