Giant Chunk of Glacier Blocks Mount Everest Route
Icefall doctors say a helicopter lift to Camp 2 may be needed as a 100-foot serac blocks rope fixing and delays Everest preparations by weeks.
- A 30m unstable serac blocking Mount Everest's route below Camp 1 has halted rope-fixing preparations, leaving icefall doctors from the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee unable to find a safe bypass.
- Preparations are weeks behind schedule for the spring season, as teams usually fix routes to Camp 3 by mid-April, though Sherpas currently await melting to allow rope-fixing to Camp 2 within days.
- Nepal's Department of Tourism issued 367 climbing permits this year, mostly to Chinese nationals, while spring fees increased to $15,000 for foreigners and $1,000 for Nepalis.
- Ram Krishna Lamichhane, Department of Tourism director general, said officials are considering airlifting rope-fixing teams and logistics to Camp 2 to open the route above the serac.
- Climber Purnima Shrestha warned that a compressed climbing window could trigger 'traffic jams' this year, as favourable weather is expected only until May.
106 Articles
106 Articles
A huge, unstable ice tower blocks the route to Mount Everest between Base Camp and Camp 1. Dawa Tashi Sherpa has experienced what can happen when such an ice block breaks. He survived such a tragedy twelve years ago as the only one.
The guides haven't found a way around it, just when the best season is about to start.
The climbing season in the Himalayas has barely started, and queues are forming under the world's highest mountain, Mount Everest. A giant chunk of ice has blocked the path to the summit.
A huge ice block hinders the preparation of the route for ascent to Mount Everest and could delay the start of the mountaineering season at the highest peak in the world. A team of particularly experienced climbers - known in Nepal as "icefall Doctors" - prepares the ascent route to the Everest summit every year with ladders and ropes. This year the work had to be interrupted due to a large chunk of glacier ice above the Khumbu icefall two weeks…
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