Mount Everest Climbers Get Gourmet Meals, Bar Drinks and Even 5G

When Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Mount Everest in 1953 they wore woollen suits and wielded wood-handled ice axes.

But today’s climbers can now enjoy luxury tents, bars and gourmet meals and even 5G mobile reception at the summit.

Lukas Furtenbach, the founder of firm Furtenbach Adventures, which specialises in upmarket expeditions, said every climber gets a tent boasting a bed, electricity and even wifi.

Other ‘lounge’ tents have bars, movie screenings and hot showers, he added.

And the 5G internet is provided by China Mobile and Huawei, who installed three masts on the 29,029ft (8,848m)-high mountain and are set to add a fourth.

The internet is offered at speeds of one gigabit per second on the mountain, in the Himalayas, which borders Nepal and China.

Mr Furtenbach told The Times: ‘Every climber has a two-room stand-up tent with a bed, desk, electricity and wifi, and large lounge tents with a bar, movie screening, library, hot showers.

‘Last year we even had a sauna and infrared cabin powered with a clean fuel cell.

‘And wherever possible clients can fly in and out from base camp by helicopter.’

Furtenbach runs extra-fast expeditions which reach Everest’s summit in four weeks rather than the usual eight.

Climbers have the help of at-home acclimatisation exercises and additional oxygen.

In recent years, Everest has become increasingly crowded as thousands of climbers look to conquer it.

Last year, an astonishing photo emerged of a huge queue of climbers waiting to reach the summit.

Three tonnes of rubbish was also recovered after officials embarked on a major clean-up operation.

Teams of cleaners found the mountain littered with climbing gear, plastic bodies and even corpses.