to do with the deaths. joining me now is cnn senior international correspondent arwa damon. arwa, what are you learning about this increase in deaths? reporter: well, ryan, those photographers that you re referring to, that long trail of people, that was taken in an area that s known as the death zone. it s the last push to get to the summit and it s called that for a very good reason, because there is so little oxygen there. when you breathe, you take in just a third of the oxygen you would take in at sea level. your body is literally deteriorating. what a lot of these climbers suffered from is the fact that they weren t able to get back down once they had actually summited. and we spoke earlier to a very experienced jordanian mountaineer. he s done the seven of seven, he s gone to both poles. here s what he had to say about this year s climbing experience. i think coming down is going
hikers climbing to the top of mt. everest are of course already braving incredibly dangerous conditions. but it is getting worse. look at that image, it s a literal human traffic jam. what can you tell us about it? reporter: poppy, it s called the death zone, when you re at that altitude your body is actually dying, it s degrading. we re joined by a jordanian mountaineer who s done both poles. you ve been to everest before, how is this experience different than what you ve seen?