Hundreds of climbers and guides are stranded at Mount Everest base camp after a large ice block on the route above was deemed unstable and too risky to cross. The serac, part of the Khumbu icefall between base camp and camp one, has halted all progress up the mountain.
Himal Gautam of Nepal's department of mountaineering confirmed on Friday that the ice formation was unstable and posed a significant danger. Officials are working with climbers and expedition organisers to assess the situation, while climbers wait at base camp.
This spring, 410 foreign climbers have been issued permits to attempt the summit, with the climbing season closing at the end of May. Typically, 'icefall doctors' complete the route by mid-April, but this year's progress has been delayed.
The Sagarmatha pollution control committee, responsible for laying the route, plans an aerial survey of the serac. Committee chair Lama Kazi Sherpa noted the high avalanche risk and said they are waiting for the serac to melt to a safe level.
The Khumbu icefall is notoriously dangerous, with deep crevasses and ice blocks as large as 10-storey buildings. In 2014, a glacier collapse triggered an avalanche that killed 16 Sherpa guides, one of the deadliest disasters in Everest history.
Despite the delay, hundreds of foreign climbers and a similar number of Nepalese guides are expected to attempt the summit next month, during brief windows of favourable weather. Since the first ascent in 1953 by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary, thousands have reached the 8,849-metre peak.
