Four swept away onto Tibet by collapsing ice near Everest Summit; rescued alive!
At least four climbers have been rescued from the dead zone, who were hit by a huge mound of ice that broke off right below Hillary Step (8790). The climbers were thrown towards northern face on to Tibetan side of the peak
At least four climbers have been rescued from a few meters below the summit of Mount Everest as an ice mound broke off washing them down the route about 90m below onto the northern side of the peak.
A chunk of ice mound collapsed near Hillary Step and swept them off towards the northern slope, according to Ngaa Tenji Sherpa, founder of Summit Force. “All of them have been rescued successfully and are now safe,” he told Everest Chronicle.
As they were clipped to the safety line, a potential disaster has been avoided, he said. However, the fixed line has been pulled down about 15m. Nobody has been injured in this ice incidence.
Pasang Sherpa from his company and Pastenji Sherpa from 8K Expeditions are among those rescued from the mountain. “The rescued climbing Sherpas are coming down,” he said.
The incident might not affect the summit push for hundreds of other climbers who are currently attempting summit. “I am not sure how many of them are heading up and how many are coming down though,” Ngaa said.
In an interview with Everest Chronicle, Khimlal Gautam, Chief of the Expedition Monitoring and Facilitation Field Office, said that Everest will witness one of the major crowds in the summit today. On Monday, over 160 climbers were heading towards Camp IV aiming for a summit on Tuesday.
The first wave of summit push was brief, during which around 100 climbers made it to the summit. The weather suddenly changed after May 12, which put summit push on hold for a couple of days. The weather improved only after May 17.
As favorable weather window is now concentrated between May 21 to 25, most of the climbers will attempt to reach the summit of the peak this week.
The Department of Tourism has issued 419 climbing permits for Everest this year. Thus, the last wave of summit push is going to be crowded, which might result in long queue of climbers at the death zone and other untoward incidences.
