Along with our Great Barrier Reef and America's Grand Canyon, Mount Everest is commonly and justifiably included in the list of the world’s greatest natural wonders. Like the former two, it’s the whole Everest massif, not just its singular, pre-eminent summit that constitutes this wondrous phenomenon. The stellar cluster of adjacent peaks and the glaciers they feed; on the southern, Nepal side, the valleys carved deep by tumbling rivers, cloaked in rich and distinct altitude-graduated vegetation; on the other side, the starkly different, high undulating plateau of Tibet, where aridity lies bare, the bones of the earth exposed to the thin cold air and intensely bright high-altitude light. All add to the richness and complexity.

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The mountain itself is the central jewel, the enduring symbol of human hope, striving and achievement, the primary reason why, especially on the more diverse Nepal side, tens of thousands flock to make the arduous trek up towards points below it to gaze in wonder at the all-round spectacle, and why climbers, and those who aspire to be climbers, harbour the desire to stand on the highest point on earth.

The crowds have brought comparatively great wealth to the Sherpa people, who live in the valleys on the Nepal side. There’s hardly a house where glass windows don’t feature prominently, whereas in other parts of Nepal, adorned by lower but no less spectacular mountains, glass windows are rare or non-existent, the people are poor.

The government reaps a rich reward as well, collecting more than $4 million annually from climbing permits alone. Yet little of this gets put back into managing the burgeoning problem of overcrowding.