Joy, pain and awkward truth behind every climber's tale

Everest is there for the conquering but Rod Ardehali finds distressing stories of overcrowding, pollution and locals who disappear from view after helping climbers reach their dream

- Rod Ardehali

The short flight from Kathmandu to Lukla offers the first true sense of the expedition's scale. Stretching for thousands of miles in each direction, the breathtaking vistas of the Himalayas deliver an ominous glimpse into the thrilling terrain awaiting the 12 of us, who have arrived from across the globe with one shared ambition.

Through one of the few small windows of our twin-engined aircraft, we witness vast rolling hills and frozen waterfalls etched into the face of the Khumbu Valley, where, very soon, we will be trekking to our ultimate destination: Everest Base Camp, some 5,364m above sea level.

However, before we begin our ascent, first we must navigate Lukla’s airport. Home to the world’s shortest runway, the 527m landing strip slopes steeply down the side of a cliff and marks the gateway to the Everest region.

Each year it welcomes hundreds of thousands of climbers, trekkers and thrillseekers in search of adventure. But beyond being an extreme adventure playground, there is a growing tension at the heart of Everest. Reports emerge each season of overcrowding at the summit and plastic pollution across the ranges. Distressing stories of climbers dying due to long queues in the notorious “death zone” are remarkable now only for their predictability.

Meanwhile, tales of luxury goods such as hot tubs, flatscreen TVs, electric heaters and coffee machines carried to the peak by privately hired local porters are all too familiar within the climbing community. Porters who are all too quickly erased from the stories of climbers basking in the glory of their successful expeditions.

With that in mind, I’ve also come to see how this region – which remains sacred to the Indigenous Nepali and Tibetan communities living at high altitudes – exists alongside the booming adventure tourism industry that brings both income and aggravation to this stunning region.