National Geographic 33

Carla Pérez can feel the difference when she crosses the invisible line that marks 8,300 meters, or roughly 27,000 feet, above sea level. 'Before that wall, you still have a lot of control over what you think and what you do,' she says. 'It's, like, normal—almost normal.' But when Pérez, 42, climbs higher, things change. 'You start to lose your control of your mind. You cannot talk very well—it's like you are drunk,' she explains. Her body responds sluggishly to her commands: Thoughts and movements materialize on an agonizing delay. And there is no reprieve from the cold or the deep exhaustion. 'It makes you feel very vulnerable,' Pérez says. 'You are dying, actually. I think you are very close to dead.' That's where the real test begins.
Only five of the world's 14 8,000-meter peaks exceed 8,300 meters: Everest, K2, Makalu, Kanchenjunga, and Lhotse. Pérez, a trailblazing mountaineer from Ecuador, has so far summited the first three without the use of supplemental oxygen. And she plans to complete the set. Pérez was the first woman from the Americas to summit K2 without supplemental oxygen. She was the first woman from anywhere to summit K2 and Everest in the same year, and along the way became the first Latin American woman (and just the sixth woman ever) to summit Everest without oxygen. Climbing this way, without the support system that has helped make the highest peaks in the world achievable for generations of climbers, is her preferred challenge.
Climbing called to her from an early age. Her father would take the family on day hikes in the Ecuadorian highlands—she still remembers her first summit, a volcano about half the size of her later achievements, at age four. Soon she was eyeing what she calls the 'white mountains,' the high, glaciated peaks. 'I didn't know that people climbed that,' she says. 'Coming from Ecuador, we didn't have the same culture of climbing, of mountaineering, or skiing … It was just a question mark in my head.' At 18 she received a scholarship to attend university in France—she chose Grenoble, on the edge of the Alps, and soon she was exploring new mountains with her classmates. 'The world started to open.'

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'And would thus discourage people from rocking up with the approach that they can attempt the summit with no prior experience, as we see each year with many of the low-cost outfitters who are prolific in Nepal.' There have been many articles written about inexperienced climbers on the peak putting themselves or others in danger—Lakpa Rita Sherpa said he's seen people who've never put on a crampon before who come to attempt the summit. This type of climbing prerequisite has been floated a few times over the past 30 years, with the government proposing a requirement for climbers to summit a 6,000-meter peak before Everest. The rule was discarded following pushback from expedition companies and climbers. 'The reason people don't want to cut the numbers on Everest is they're worried they'll lose work,' said Lakpa Rita, who has spoken with officials in the past to find ways to address overcrowding. 'It's all about the money.' (What to know about climbing the world's tallest mountain) All climbers would need to submit a medical certificate from within the last month, and from a government-approved medical institution in Nepal to confirm they're in good health. This would require a person to pay for an expedition, travel to Nepal, and perhaps be told they're not in good enough health to thinks that regardless of the law, it's a good idea to get a rigorous health check prior to climbing—like a cardiac stress test for climbers over 50, and a check of iron levels for female climbers. The rule that sirdars (head Sherpa), high-altitude guides, and helpers on expeditions must be Nepali citizens has been proposed before, and similar policies exist in other countries with high-altitude tourism (Ecuador has a similar mandate requiring the use of local guides on certain peaks). On Washington's Mount Rainier, there are only three American guide services that are allowed to operate on the mountain and 15 guide services that can apply for single trips on the Rita appreciates that proposals like this would give a Nepalese guide or employee better opportunities, and the ability to make more money, but emphasized that it would be difficult to monitor and enforce. If attempting a new route on Mount Everest, climbers must get permission from the Ministry of Tourism. Climbers must stick to that route and can only reroute in case of an emergency and with the approval of a government liaison officer. Climbers who are attempting any kind of record must declare it in advance. (Tidying up the top of the world) A new insurance requirement will cover the costly, and often dangerous, removal of dead bodies from the mountain. And to better address the problem of trash on the mountain, the $4,000 refundable garbage deposit will be replaced with a non-refundable garbage fee, and the Ministry of Tourism will manage and remove trash from the peak. According to Lakpa Rita, rules like this that focus on the compliance of expedition companies versus tracking medical and summit certificates for each individual climber, are more likely to succeed. A rule that Lakpa Rita said is being applied is the recent requirement to bring feces off the mountain using human waste bags. He said he did video chats with local officials to tell them how to execute this. When he was sirdar for Seattle-based Alpine Ascents International he required his Sherpas to use these bags on the mountain, even before any rules were in place. 'For things like this to work,' he said, 'the expedition companies have to be very honest.' In 2015 the Washington Post reported that climbers were leaving some 26,500 pounds of feces every season, calling the peak a 'fecal time bomb.' Whether any of the recent proposals will be implemented—and more importantly, enforced—remains uncertain. Arnette encourages climbers to take a look at the proposed rules, decide what makes sense personally, and figure out how to apply them yourself. Many guiding companies, like Alpine Ascents International and Furtenbach Adventures, already require their Everest clients to have high-altitude experience. For now, this season on Everest is coming to a close. Arnette wrote on his blog that total Everest summits, from both sides of the peak, total 'at least 525 people.' With additional research by Sonal Schneider