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Printable Page
04/24 02:21 CDT A massive, unstable ice block stalls Everest climbers at base
camp
A massive, unstable ice block stalls Everest climbers at base camp
By BINAJ GURUBACHARYA
Associated Press
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) --- A massive ice block on the route just above the Mount
Everest base camp has forced hundreds of climbers and their local guides to
delay their attempt to scale the world's highest peak, officials said Friday.
The serac between base camp and Camp One is unstable and is risky for climbers,
said Himal Gautam of Nepal's Department of Mountaineering.
Officials are working with climbers and expedition organizers to assess the
situation as hundreds of climbers and their guides wait at base camp unable to
move up the mountain.
According to the department, 410 foreign climbers have been issued permits to
attempt to reach the Everest summit during the spring climbing season, which
ends at the end of May.
The "Icefall Doctors," the elite guides who lay the yearly climbing route by
setting ropes and securing aluminum ladders over crevasses usually finish the
task by mid-April.
The Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, which would deploy the team to lay
the route, plans to assess the serac by aerial survey. The risk of avalanche is
high and they are waiting for the serac to melt down on its own to a safe
level, committee Chairman Lama Kazi Sherpa said.
The serac is part of the Khumbu Icefall, a constantly shifting glacier with
deep crevasses and huge overhanging ice that can be as big as 10-story
buildings. It is considered one of the most difficult and trickiest sections of
the climb to the peak.
In 2014, a chunk of the glacier sheared away from the mountain, setting off an
avalanche of ice that killed 16 Sherpa guides as they carried clients'
equipment up the mountain. It was one of the deadliest disasters in Everest
climbing history.
Hundreds of foreign climbers and about the same number of Nepalese guides and
helpers are expected to attempt to scale the mountain next month when there are
a few brief windows of favorable weather.
Thousands of people have climbed the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) high peak since
it was first climbed on May 29, 1953, by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and
Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay.
