Ethical crisis on Everest: Growing concerns as dead bodies remain abandoned by expedition agencies

After toiling hard for over a month in the Khumbu region, Jason Bernard Keninson from Australia finally achieved his dream of standing on the summit of Everest on May 19. As he was descending from the summit with his guides, Keninson started to feel weak and collapsed at the balcony at an altitude of 8,500 metres.

Keninson was climbing with Asain Trekking . His team leader was an Indian national Abhishek Anand. Initially, reports emerged that Keninson had gone missing. The liaison officer Binod Gautam was also told Keninson was missing and as he had not seen Keninson’s dead body, he decided to report him as missing. However, the company urged Gautam to declare Keninson dead.