Avalanche disaster revives fears about Nepal's crowded mountains

Hong Kong (CNN) -- An avalanche, such as the one that killed at least eight climbers in Nepal this weekend, is known in mountaineering circles as an objective hazard -- a risk that you cannot control and one all climbers must accept.

But with Mount Manaslu playing host to some 231 mountaineers from 25 teams this season -- an unusually large number for the world's eighth largest peak -- the natural disaster is likely to revive concerns about whether the Himalayan mountains favored by commercial expeditions are becoming too crowded.

The avalanche was triggered by a huge piece of ice that fell from a glacier. It destroyed some 25 tents at one camp and survivors spoke of being swept hundreds of meters down the mountainside.

Manaslu had proved particularly popular this year after Chinese authorities restricted tourist visas, making access to Cho Oyu or Shishapangma, two 8,000m (26,000 ft) peaks on the border with Tibet, difficult, said Grayson Schaffer, senior editor at Outside magazine.
"The devastation of the avalanche was certainly magnified by the number of people that were in its way," he told CNN.
Ang Tscherting Sherpa, the former head of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, said that avalanches on this scale were relatively rare on Manaslu, which was regarded as one of the easier 8,000m peaks to surmount.

The problem of over-crowding is most stark at Mount Everest, the world's highest peak, which attracts hundreds of climbers each year eager to take a shot at the 8,848m (29,029 ft) summit.

In May this year, climbers spoke of "traffic jams" as more than 150 climbers waited their turn to summit the mountain during a window of good weather.