Climbing Season Ends After Everest Avalanches
May 8, 2015
The 2015 climbing season at the world’s tallest mountain came to a close this week, following a series of avalanches that killed at least 20 people on Mount Everest and injured many others. The avalanches were triggered by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck near Kathmandu, the capital and largest city of Nepal, on April 25, killing thousands throughout the country.
On Everest, the quake sent what one eyewitness described as “a tsunami of ice and snow” thundering into Base Camp, a city of tents that serves as the official start of the Everest ascent. There, the snow crushed or buried many climbers and Sherpa guides. The Sherpa are a people of Nepal, many of whom make their living assisting the foreign tourists who flock to climb Everest each spring.
Everest, known by the Nepalese as Sagarmatha, rises about 5 ½ miles (8.9 kilometers) above sea level. Avalanches, crevasses, and strong winds combine with extreme steepness and thin air to make the climb difficult. In fact, the peak remained unconquered until 1953, when Sir Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa guide, became the first men to reach the top.
Since the 1980’s, increased tourist demand and improvements in equipment have turned the once forbidding peak into a relatively popular destination for less advanced climbers, with hundreds of people each year paying about $100,000 each to attempt the summit. Their climbs are made possible in large part through the work of hundreds of Sherpas, who maintain camps, serve as guides, and carry equipment.
Despite its popularity, Everest remains a dangerous place, and over the years hundreds of people have died on the mountain. The 2014 climbing season ended with an avalanche that killed 16 Sherpa guides. The incident brought particular attention to the plight of the Sherpa, who take risky jobs to earn a living in relatively poor Nepal.
The 2015 earthquake and avalanches damaged routes that cross the treacherous Khumbu Icefall, a tumbled section of glacier just above Base Camp that climbers must traverse on the first leg of their journey. In the days following the quake, many survivors had left Base Camp, but others remained to help with rescue efforts or in the hopes of being cleared to continue their ascent. Such hopes were effectively dashed when the so-called “Icefall Doctors,” a group of Sherpas in charge of maintaining the Khumbu Icefall crossing, announced on May 5 that the route could not be made safe before the season’s end. More than 700 people had been on Everest at the time of the avalanche, some of them above the icefall, and efforts continued to rescue stranded survivors.
The closure of Everest for the season will be hard for the Sherpas, who depend on the climbing season to make a living, and for Nepal. Some 10 percent of its economy is based upon tourism (most of which comes from climbers and trekkers at Everest). The gross domestic product (GDP—the value of all goods and services in a year) is not likely to be large enough to cover the losses and damages from the devastating earthquake.
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