(SeaPRwire) –   An unprecedented 274 climbers reached the summit of Mount Everest in a single day this week, as critics warn the world’s tallest peak is growing dangerously overcrowded with adventure seekers willing to pay $15,000 for a chance to stand at the top.

This sharp surge broke the previous Nepali record of 223 climbers set in 2019, Rishi Bhandari, secretary general of the Expedition Operators Association of Nepal, told Reuters on Thursday.

“This is the highest number of climbers to summit in a single day to date,” Bhandari said, adding that the final total of successful summits could climb even higher, as some climbers have not yet filed official reports of their successful ascents.

Nepal has already granted 494 Everest climbing permits this season, with each permit costing climbers $15,000.

Climbers are only ascending from the Nepali side of Everest this year, as China is reported to have not issued permits for expeditions attempting to climb from the Tibetan side.

Mountaineering experts have long criticized Nepal for allowing large volumes of climbers on Everest, warning that overcrowding can create life-threatening bottlenecks high up the mountain in Everest’s deadly “death zone”, where oxygen levels drop to dangerously low levels.

Nepal has tried to address safety concerns in recent years by tightening regulations and raising fees for climbers, though some expedition leaders have defended the high number of people attempting the summit.

“If teams carry enough oxygen supplies it is not a major problem,” expedition organizer Lukas Furtenbach of the Austria-based Furtenbach Adventures told the outlet. “We have mountains in the Alps like the Zugspitze that see 4,000 people on the summit per day. So 274 is actually not a large number, when you consider this mountain is 10 times bigger.”