IoT Reaches New Heights: Traffic Signals, LED Signs to be Installed on Mt. Everest

What you’ll learn:

• The astounding numbers of climbers attempting a Mt. Everest summit.
• The problems and challenges that these crowds both bring and encounter.
• How a linked IoT traffic-light system plus en route LED signage is part of a proposal to mitigate the crowd-management problems.

The challenging and often deadly path to the top of Mount Everest (approximately 8,850 meters/29,000 feet) has changed a lot since the first successful climb on May 29, 1953, by Edmund Hillary and Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay. Since then, almost always with the help of oxygen, hundreds have made a successful climb (Fig. 1) while many have turned back. Some have summited as many as 10 times.

Of course, many attempted climbs (or their corresponding descents) are unsuccessful due to weather conditions, climber preparation, avalanches, or sudden shifts of the mountain’s ice shelves and terrain (Fig. 2). Due to the difficulties and dangers in bringing bodies down, most who die on the mountain (around 340 known thus far) remain where they fall.

The challenges of the climb can’t be minimized. The jet stream sits on top of Everest almost all year long with winds that can exceed 300 km/hr (200 mph). The temperature can drop to −62°C (−80°F) in winter, but it also becomes very hot, with temperatures reaching over 100°F (38°C). There are two-to-four-week windows in mid-May and early November as the jet stream moves north, calming the winds and warming temperatures enough for people to try to summit. Even so, it’s a brief, fast-changing, unpredictable, and risky climbing window.

Despite the physical challenges, risks, uncertainty, time (count on being there four to six weeks), and on-site cost (a permit costs about $40,000), more and more people try. During the short window, hordes of climbers are going in both directions—it almost looks like an urban pedestrian-only street on a nice day but without any shops along the way (Fig. 3).

It’s not just the Everest climbers who cause crowds, though, as the region receives nearly 60,000 trekkers and mountaineers annually. 

Signs of a High-Tech Solution

Due to the crowding and riskiness of the climbing cycle, a non-profit group hopes to work with the administrators of the prime Everest routes (China on one side, Nepal on the other), using Internet of Things (IoT) technology to manage the problem. Phase 1 of the plan is to install wireless basic traffic lights along the most-common routes, with red/yellow/green indicators to inform climbers if they should proceed at normal pace, use extra caution, or just stop and wait for clearance.

Note that this isn’t the first “connectivity” in place at Everest. A private Nepali company installed five 4G base stations from base camp to intermittent camps, plus one at 5,200 meters. On the Chinese side, China Mobile and Huawei deployed a 5G base station at 6,500 meters along with two lower-altitude stations (Fig. 4). All are solar powered, of course.

However, cellular service for individual climbers and Sherpas doesn’t address the crowd-management issue. For this, Phase 2 of the plan is to supplement the simple traffic lights with large alphanumeric, single-color LED signs showing messages to all climbers in the area (Fig. 5).

The brief messages can be dynamically updated from base camp or by guide sherpas using a smartphone app while they are en route to the top. In this way, they can provide updated, timely information and guidance in real-time to nearby climbers. Sample messages might be “change route to other trail,” “two-hour delay here,” “hunker down now,” “new crevice ahead,” “descending climbers ahead, please wait,” and similar.

Special design considerations will be needed to minimize power use and ensure operation at the ultra-low temperatures that are normal. Signage and traffic signals will be shut down during nighttime to save precious power, as well as during the daytime when visibility is reduced to zero by storms.

In addition to cautionary messages, Phase 3 has linked IoT sensors arrays installed at various heights to provide temperature, wind, and other relevant reports on conditions further ahead or below (for descenders) to help them better work out their literal next step.

Not all locals think this “smart IoT Everest” is a good idea. Some say there’s already enough commotion due to the crowds in the area as well as climbers, resulting in the desecration of the mountain that has religious significance to many.

They’re instead suggesting building a highly advanced 3D-reality center at or even below the base camp. This would allow climbers to have a near-reality immersive experience if conditions deteriorate or are too crowded, by fully simulating the climbing experience with wraparound visuals as well as inclusion of cold, heat, wind, ice, vibration, and slippery conditions.