A massive, unstable ice block stalls Everest climbers at base camp
KATHMANDU, Nepal — A huge block of ice on the road just above Mount Everest’s 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 poses risks for climbers, said Himal Gautam of Nepal’s Mountaineering Department.
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 climb the mountain.
According to the department, 410 foreign climbers were issued permits to attempt to reach the summit of Everest during the spring climbing season, which ends at the end of May.
The “Icefall Doctors,” the elite guides who establish the annual climbing route by setting up ropes and securing aluminum ladders over crevasses, typically finish their task by mid-April.
The Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, which would deploy the team to trace the route, plans to assess the serac through aerial survey. The avalanche risk is high and they are waiting for the serac to melt on its own to a safe level, said committee chairman Lama Kazi Sherpa.
The serac is part of the Khumbu Icefall, an ever-changing glacier with deep crevasses and enormous ice overhangs that can reach the size of 10-story buildings. It is considered one of the most difficult and delicate sections of the climb to the summit.
In 2014, a piece of glacier broke away from the mountain, triggering an ice avalanche that killed 16 Sherpa guides as they carried their clients’ equipment to the top of 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 assistants 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) peak since its first ascent on May 29, 1953 by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay.
