Into the death zone
The biggest talking point this season came when a daring mission was launched to retrieve the body of an Indian climber, Ravi Kumar, from a 200-meter crevasse at 8,400 metres—an area known as the ‘Death Zone’ for its inhospitable conditions.
Traditionally, those who perish high on the mountain are left entombed in snow because of the obvious dangers to rescuers trying to retrieve bodies from such high altitude.
This complex three-day mission would push the Nepali climbing experts to the far edges of human endurance.
“Our high-altitude climbing experts flew to Camp II at 6,400 metres by helicopter, and then climbed to the Balcony,” said Mingma Sherpa, managing director of Seven Summit Treks, the company that executed the operation.
“It took more than three hours to just pull up Ravi’s body from the crevasse in the ‘death zone’, where the scarcity of oxygen is debilitating.”
The dangerous operation was launched following immense pressure from the Indian government. The mission, which also recovered two other bodies of Indian climbers from the mountain, is expected to exceed $200,000.
Ravi Kumar was one of the six fatalities on Everest this year. On April 30, in another tragic incident, Ueli Steck, a renowned mountain climber dubbed the “The Swiss Machine” for his rapid ascents of some of the world most imposing peaks, died on the slopes of Mt Everest.
He had also obtained the permit to climb Mount Lhotse, the fourth highest mountain in the world at 8,516 metres.
Steck was climbing Mt Nuptse in preparation for an ambitious ascent of Everest through a route that had only once been successfully traversed before.
A week after Steck’s death, an 85-year-old Nepali climber, Min Bahadur Sherchan, who was attempting to become the oldest person to climb Everest passed away at Base Camp.
Sherchan, a former British Gurkha soldier, was trying to reclaim the record from Japan’s Yuichiro Miura, who climbed Everest aged 80 in 2013.
Miura broke Sherchan’s own record set as a 76-year-old in 2008.
But apart from the obvious tragedies, Everest remained clouded in controversy and high drama this year.
The most controversial issue this season came when the news of the collapse of The Hillary Step—a famous rocky outcrop considered the last major obstacle before the final push for the summit—surfaced in the international media.
The reports were based on a Facebook post by Tim Mosedale, a British mountaineer who summited Everest on May 16.
Mosedale wrote on Facebook: “This year, however, I can report that the chunk of rock named ‘The Hillary Step’ is definitely not there anymore…This year and last year a snow ridge formed which we were able to ascend with relative ease.
But in future years, if the ridge doesn’t form, it could be a particularly difficult area to negotiate.” The 12-metre rocky outcrop stands on the mountain’s southeast ridge and was named after Edmund Hillary who was the first to scale it in 1953.
Subsequently, Nepal government issued a statement confirming that the rock face located just below the summit of Everest is intact and covered with snow, refuting reports that it had fallen off as a result of the 2015 earthquake.
“The Tourism Department has collected information following news reports of the destruction of the Hillary Step with the help of icefall doctors who prepare climbing routes on Everest.
Video Report 2017/2074
Into the death zone
The biggest talking point this season came when a daring mission was launched to retrieve the body of an Indian climber, Ravi Kumar, from a 200-meter crevasse at 8,400 metres—an area known as the ‘Death Zone’ for its inhospitable conditions.
Traditionally, those who perish high on the mountain are left entombed in snow because of the obvious dangers to rescuers trying to retrieve bodies from such high altitude.
This complex three-day mission would push the Nepali climbing experts to the far edges of human endurance.
“Our high-altitude climbing experts flew to Camp II at 6,400 metres by helicopter, and then climbed to the Balcony,” said Mingma Sherpa, managing director of Seven Summit Treks, the company that executed the operation.
“It took more than three hours to just pull up Ravi’s body from the crevasse in the ‘death zone’, where the scarcity of oxygen is debilitating.”
The dangerous operation was launched following immense pressure from the Indian government. The mission, which also recovered two other bodies of Indian climbers from the mountain, is expected to exceed $200,000.
Ravi Kumar was one of the six fatalities on Everest this year. On April 30, in another tragic incident, Ueli Steck, a renowned mountain climber dubbed the “The Swiss Machine” for his rapid ascents of some of the world most imposing peaks, died on the slopes of Mt Everest.
He had also obtained the permit to climb Mount Lhotse, the fourth highest mountain in the world at 8,516 metres.
Steck was climbing Mt Nuptse in preparation for an ambitious ascent of Everest through a route that had only once been successfully traversed before.
A week after Steck’s death, an 85-year-old Nepali climber, Min Bahadur Sherchan, who was attempting to become the oldest person to climb Everest passed away at Base Camp.
Sherchan, a former British Gurkha soldier, was trying to reclaim the record from Japan’s Yuichiro Miura, who climbed Everest aged 80 in 2013.
Miura broke Sherchan’s own record set as a 76-year-old in 2008.
But apart from the obvious tragedies, Everest remained clouded in controversy and high drama this year.
The most controversial issue this season came when the news of the collapse of The Hillary Step—a famous rocky outcrop considered the last major obstacle before the final push for the summit—surfaced in the international media.
The reports were based on a Facebook post by Tim Mosedale, a British mountaineer who summited Everest on May 16.
Mosedale wrote on Facebook: “This year, however, I can report that the chunk of rock named ‘The Hillary Step’ is definitely not there anymore…This year and last year a snow ridge formed which we were able to ascend with relative ease.
But in future years, if the ridge doesn’t form, it could be a particularly difficult area to negotiate.” The 12-metre rocky outcrop stands on the mountain’s southeast ridge and was named after Edmund Hillary who was the first to scale it in 1953.
Subsequently, Nepal government issued a statement confirming that the rock face located just below the summit of Everest is intact and covered with snow, refuting reports that it had fallen off as a result of the 2015 earthquake.
“The Tourism Department has collected information following news reports of the destruction of the Hillary Step with the help of icefall doctors who prepare climbing routes on Everest.
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