The Rise and Fall of Everest Base Camp

Every spring Everest Base Camp becomes a temporary city of up to 2,000 people at 5,364 meters — with its own economy, its own class system, and its own rules. This is the full history of Everest Base Camp: from the 1953 British expedition and the era of military-style siege climbing, through the commercialization of the 1990s, the 1996 disaster, the rise of luxury camps and $100,000 clients, the 2014 and 2015 disasters, overcrowding, social media, environmental pressure and a gradual loss of the place’s old identity. Base Camp never disappeared. It became larger, richer and more successful than ever. But somewhere in that transformation, the version remembered by earlier generations of mountaineers was gone. This is the rise and fall of Everest Base Camp.