Pizza to base camp Drones conquer Mount Everest - is there a threat of more chaos?
The world's highest mountain has been a hive of activity for years. Now drone manufacturer DJI has shown how multicopters could revolutionize the movement of goods on Mount Everest. Is there now a threat of more chaos?
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- Chinese drone manufacturer DJI has teamed up with Nepalese drone service provider Airlift and certified Nepalese mountain guide Mingma Gyalje Sherpa to test a drone delivery to Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world.
- A Nepalese drone provider already carried out the first regular deliveries in the 2024 ascent season.
- Drone services on Mount Everest are to be further expanded in 2025.
Just last year, three Nepalese Sherpas had an accident in the Khumbu Icefall, and in 2014, 14 Nepalese died in the so-called Popcorn Field, another particularly tricky spot on the climbing route to the summit of the world's highest mountain.
Mount Everest has claimed over 300 lives since its first ascent in 1953, with the Nepalese leading the sad ranking. This is because they are the mountain guides and porters who bring infrastructure, equipment and food up the mountain and prepare the ascent routes for the paying customers. A life-threatening job.
Less danger for mountain guides and porters
Now the Chinese drone manufacturer DJI, together with the Nepalese drone service provider Airlift and the video production company 8KRAW, has tested whether transport drones could take over part of this dangerous route.
Who are the Sherpas?
The Sherpas are a people from the central and southern Himalayas. Today, around 180,000 Sherpas live in the eastern regions of Nepal. Sherpas often work as mountain guides and porters. Kami Rita Sherpa (53), pictured above, holds the record for the most ascents of Mount Everest with a total of 30.
Even though the drones can currently only carry 15 kilograms each due to the extreme altitude and weather conditions, the test was a success.
As a result, multicopters will be used to deliver goods to the high-altitude camps on Mount Everest in the next climbing season. This will definitely be an advantage for hundreds of Sherpas, who will have to conquer particularly risky sections of the route less often in future.
Even more commercialization on the mountain?
But there is also resistance to the drones. Critics fear that they will further promote climbing tourism. This would be a catastrophe for the already overused mountain world of the Himalayas.
Watch the video to find out how the drone transport chain is supposed to work and the advantages and disadvantages of supplying supplies from the air.