The Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality has removed a newly installed welcome signboard that covered an iconic stone at Everest Base Camp. According to the municipality, the board fell down because the glacier ice beneath it melted making the ground unstable.
The municipality had installed a hoarding board featuring the image of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay and bearing the altitude of the base camp in March. This move sparked widespread ridicule and outcry from locals, tourists, and climbers, drawing significant attention on social media platforms.
“The board will be reinstalled with more info about the EBC trek,” Mingma Tsheri Sherpa, Mayor of the Municipality told Everest Chronicle, adding, “Trekkers are required to know where the trekking end point is and additional information about the EBC, which we will add along with the board.”
Sherpa insisted the board is necessary and that’s why the municipality installed it.
The stone, which bears the altitude of EBC, has long been a symbol of the famous trek route and a popular spot to take photos.
Officials also said the hoarding board will find a new spot to preserve the landmark.
Sherpa, in one of his interview previously, said that the hoarding board was installed after the stone’s displacement due to soil erosion at the base camp. He said that the melting ice was causing heavy soil erosion and displacing stones. The melting of ice caused by global warming, increasing movement of trekkers, and the clearing of ice to set up tents were also altering the landscape.
The signboard’s fall due to unstable ground condition is a proof of speedy melting of ice of the Khumbu Glacier. The Municipality installed the board at a time when relocation of the Everest base camp was being discussed due to human induced warming in the base camp periphery.
Public raised concerns over physical infrastructures like the board when there already is a natural board — a big boulder with -EVEREST BASE CAMP 5364m -painted on it.
The Everest Base Camp trek remains one of the world’s most popular trekking routes, attracting thousands of visitors annually. According to Pasang Lhamu Municipality, nearly 60,000 trekkers completed the trail in 2023.
Every spring climbing season, the base camp turns into a tent city inhabited by over 2000 people, including climbers, guides, and porters.
This story has been updated to include the fact that the municipality still wants to reinstall the board, with more info and in a different place so as not to obscure the iconic stone.
