Editing Mount Everest (section)

===Ascent statistics up to 2010 season===
[[File:EverestAscents.svg|thumb|left|Ascents of Mount Everest by year through 2010]]
[[File:Sunrise over Everest.jpg|thumb|The sun rising on Everest in 2011]]

By the end of the 2010 climbing season, there had been 5,104 ascents to the summit by about 3,142 individuals, with 77 per cent of these ascents being accomplished since 2000.<ref name=8000ers /> The summit was achieved in 7 of the 22 years from 1953 to 1974 and was not missed between 1975 and 2014.<ref name=8000ers /> In 2007, the record number of 633 ascents was recorded, by 350 climbers and 253 [[Sherpa people|sherpas]].<ref name=8000ers />

An illustration of the explosion of popularity of Everest is provided by the numbers of daily ascents. Analysis of the [[1996 Mount Everest disaster]] shows that part of the blame was on the bottleneck caused by a large number of climbers (33 to 36) attempting to summit on the same day; this was considered unusually high at the time. By comparison, on 23 May 2010, the summit of Mount Everest was reached by 169 climbers – more summits in a single day than in the cumulative 31 years from the first successful summit in 1953 through 1983.<ref name=8000ers />

There have been 219 fatalities recorded on Mount Everest from the [[1922 British Mount Everest Expedition]] through the end of 2010, a rate of 4.3 fatalities for every 100 summits (this is a general rate, and includes fatalities amongst support climbers, those who turned back before the peak, those who died en route to the peak and those who died while descending from the peak). Of the 219 fatalities, 58 (26.5 per cent) were climbers who had summited but did not complete their descent.<ref name=8000ers /> Though the rate of fatalities has decreased since the year 2000 (1.4 fatalities for every 100 summits, with 3938 summits since 2000), the significant increase in the total number of climbers still means 54 fatalities since 2000: 33 on the Northeast Ridge, 17 on the Southeast Ridge, 2 on the Southwest Face, and 2 on the North Face.<ref name=8000ers />

Nearly all attempts at the summit are done using one of the two main routes. The traffic seen by each route varies from year to year. In 2005–07, more than half of all climbers elected to use the more challenging, but cheaper northeast route. In 2008, the northeast route was closed by the Chinese government for the entire climbing season, and the only people able to reach the summit from the north that year were athletes responsible for [[2008 Summer Olympics summit of Mt. Everest|carrying the Olympic torch]] for the [[2008 Summer Olympics]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/15/world/asia/15nepal.html|title=Nepal Puts Everest Off Limits During China's Olympic Torch Relay in May|work=The New York Times|first=Somini|last=Sengupta|date=15 March 2008|access-date=17 February 2017|archive-date=12 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220512190159/https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/15/world/asia/15nepal.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The route was closed to foreigners once again in 2009 in the run-up to the 50th anniversary of the Dalai Lama's exile.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/4806464/China-closes-Tibetan-side-of-Everest-to-climbers-ahead-of-anniversary-of-Dalai-Lamas-exile.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/4806464/China-closes-Tibetan-side-of-Everest-to-climbers-ahead-of-anniversary-of-Dalai-Lamas-exile.html |archive-date=10 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=China closes Tibetan side of Everest to climbers ahead of anniversary of Dalai Lama's exile | work=The Daily Telegraph | first=Malcolm|last=Moore|date=25 February 2009|location=London}}{{cbignore}}</ref> These closures led to declining interest in the north route, and, in 2010, two-thirds of the climbers reached the summit from the south.<ref name=8000ers />