A large ice block on the route just above Mount Everest base camp has forced hundreds of climbers and local guides to delay their attempt to scale the world’s highest peak. The serac between base camp and camp one was deemed unstable and too risky for climbers, said Himal Gautam of Nepal’s department of mountaineering.
Officials are working with climbers and expedition organisers to assess the situation as climbers wait at base camp. According to the department, 410 foreign climbers have been issued permits to attempt the summit during the spring climbing season, which ends in May.
“Icefall doctors”, elite guides who lay the yearly climbing route by setting ropes and securing aluminium ladders over crevasses, usually finish the task by mid-April. The Sagarmatha pollution control committee, which deploys teams to lay the route, said it planned to assess the serac by aerial survey. The risk of avalanche is high and they are waiting for the serac to melt to a safe level, according to the committee’s chair, Lama Kazi Sherpa.
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 ten-storey buildings. It is considered one of the hardest sections of the climb. In 2014, a chunk of the glacier sheared away, causing an avalanche that killed 16 Sherpa guides.
