Climbers bypass crowds on Tibet side of Everest
KATHMANDU, Nepal — As climbers begin to reach the summit of Mount Everest, some veterans are avoiding the Nepali side of the world’s highest peak because melting ice and crowds have made its famed Khumbu Icefall too dangerous.
Not far from the safety of the Everest Base Camp, the icefall is a climber’s first real test: a treacherous 760yard stretch of ice with shifting crevasses that has claimed the lives of about a quarter of those who have died on the Nepali side of the mountain, including 16 Nepali guides in 2014.
Several veteran climbers and Western climbing companies have moved their expeditions to the northern side of the mountain in Tibet in recent years, saying rising temperatures and inexperienced climbers have made the icefall more vulnerable.
Research by the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development shows that the Khumbu glacier is retreating at an average of 65 feet per year, raising the risk of avalanche.
“The icefall is obviously a dangerous place to be, especially later on in the season and with increased temperatures experienced in the Himalayas due to climate change,” Phil Crampton of the climbing company Altitude Junkies told Everest blogger Alan Arnette earlier this year.
Nepali mountain guides, known as Sherpa, make the first trek through the icefall each year, installing ropes and ladders and carrying gear before the first climbers begin traveling through the icefall on acclimatizing runs in April and May.
In past years, climbers would have to navigate the icefall two to three times, but now many have cut back, turning to other safer peaks with similar heights for their early training.
This year, the “icefall doctors” — as the Sherpa are called — say that they’ve constructed a safe passageway. “There are fewer ladders compared to previous years and hardly any complex features to climb and cross,” said Ang Sarki Sherpa.
A sharp increase in the number of “hobby climbers” aspiring to climb Everest and local companies catering to their comfort at cheaper cost than Western firms is adding to overcrowding woes.
“The risks are higher when 99 percent of climbers are going up as tourists,” said Reinhold Messner, an Italian climber who was the first to ascend Everest without supplementary oxygen.
Since 2013, the government of Nepal has been issuing about 300 foreign permits every year, which means that, with guides and porters, the slopes of Everest are crowded with about 800 people every year. Last year, Nepali authorities awarded a recordhigh 375 climbing permits — the most since 1953. It’s 347 this season.
According to the Himalayan Database, a record of expeditions in the Himalayas since 1903, out of 8,306 summits, 5,280 have happened from Nepal and 3,026 from Tibet.
According to reports, China issued permits to 22 Chinese nationals this year, out of 180 permits issued, in a bid to control traffic.
Nepal Mountaineering Association President Santa Bir Lama said climbing Everest can never be risk-free. “From what I understand, people are opting for the north side as it is easier and saves time and money,” Lama said.