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Mount Everest traffic jams
Hundreds of people try and climb Mount Everest every year.Getty Images
Mount Everest traffic jams
So many climbers are trying to scale the world's tallest mountain that in certain sections they have to wait in line before proceeding.Splash News
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Mount Everest traffic jams
The problem of having too many climbers is particularly bad at the Hillary Step, a bottleneck near the summit. Getty Images
Mount Everest traffic jams
To help alleviate the "death zone" that's been created at the Hillary Step, Nepalese climbing specialists are installing a second rope.Getty Images
Mount Everest traffic jams
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Mount Everest traffic jams
AP
Mount Everest traffic jams
AP
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Nepalese climbing specialists will fix a second rope at the Hillary Step, a dangerous “death zone” bottleneck near the Mount Everest summit, to ease congestion on the world’s highest mountain, a hiking group said on Thursday.

Hundreds of climbers from around the world attempt to scale the 29,035 foot Everest summit every year, but a 40-foot near vertical wall of rock at about 28,840 feet often causes major problems.

Exhausted climbers have been forced to wait there for several hours, awaiting their turn to climb up or come down a single rope, exposed to risks of thin air in what is known as the “death zone”.

Dawa Steven Sherpa, a member of Expedition Organisers’ Association (EOA), said separate ropes will be fixed also at obstacles like the Geneva Spur, Yellow Band and Balcony to ease the congestion.

“We want to fix ropes as early as possible so it leaves many weather windows to get to the top without any climber being pressed to climb at the same time and create the traffic jam,” Sherpa told Reuters.

Nepal says it will post army and police personnel at the Everest base camp for climbers’ security after a brawl between European mountaineers and local sherpas over rope fixing last year.

They will also ensure that the climbers don’t leave garbage on the mountain, another concern on the peak that attracts increasing number of climbers.

The government has asked climbers to bring down at least 17.5 pounds of rubbish to the base camp. Mountain climbing is a key source of income and employment for impoverished Nepal.

More than 4,000 people have scaled Mount Everest since it was first climbed by New Zealand’s Edmund Hillary and Nepal’s Tenzing Norgay Sherpa in 1953. A total of 240 have died on its slopes.

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