The odds on Everest | Point of view
The pre-monsoon climbing season on Everest this year has seen 11 deaths so far; three of them were Indians. There have been photographs for some years now, of long queues of climbers, even hundreds on a given clear day, being herded up a flank on the mountain like a train of shackled sheep. Even so, the photos of the traffic jam on the summit ridge this year, accompanying news of
