Frame of a video by Ram Bahadur Gurung showing today's airlift of injured climbers from the Khumbu Icefall. Photo: Ram Bahadur Gurung
A climber from India and another from Nepal were injured this morning when an avalanche hit Everest’s Khumbu Icefall.
“A large serac broke off, and a chunk of ice approximately 20m below it collapsed onto the path, striking members of the passing group,” The Tourism Times reported.
Injured were Pemba Tenduk Sherpa, a worker with Seven Summit Treks, and Nimish Kumar Singh of India, a client with Pioneer Adventure. The two were partly buried, but luckily, nearby Sherpas ran to help them.
Pastemba Sherpa has published a video of the rescue on Instagram:
Both victims were airlifted to the hospital in Kathmandu and are receiving treatment, The Tourism Times noted. Neither has life-threatening injuries.
Increasingly unstable
The incident occurred shortly before 6 am, during rush hour for Sherpas and porters carrying loads to higher camps. Camp 2 is ready and welcoming its first foreign climbers, while a large Sherpa team led by the Expedition Operators Association of Nepal has just finished fixing the route to Camp 3, on the Lhotse Wall.
For years, those who crossed the Khumbu Icefall avoided the warmest time of day, hoping to find stable ice conditions during the cooler hours, but climate change has made the seracs and snow bridges even more unstable than they used to be.
Angela Benavides graduated university in journalism and specializes in high-altitude mountaineering and expedition news. She has been writing about climbing and mountaineering, adventure and outdoor sports for 20+ years.
Prior to that, Angela Benavides spent time at/worked at a number of local and international media. She is also experienced in outdoor-sport consultancy for sponsoring corporations, press manager and communication executive, and a published author.
