Everest dangers are clear from the Icefall fear

On Everest, everybody is aware that the Khumbu Icefall is dangerous. They've already well known about it for many years for its danger.

It is known ever since the very first Everest mountaineer, George Mallory, turned away from the Khumbu Icefall in 1921, insisting that it was not possible to pass.

This is a river of ice, a kilometer or so of continuously shifting glacier punctuated by deeper crevasses and overhanging hills of ice that can be as high as 10-story buildings. It can easily move two meters (six feet) in simply 1 day. Crossing over it could take 12 hours.

In the Khumbu Icefall, crevasses might open — or perhaps close — in less than a day. Ropes will probably be snapped by the shifting ice and leave ladders damaged. Emerging glaciers — on the Icefall itself or on the Western ridge of Everest — can separate off in a moment, triggering off avalanches that deliver 1000s of ton of ice straight down the mountain.


That is exactly what occurred a week ago when a section of glacier sheared away from the mountain peak, triggering an avalanche of ice that killed 16 Sherpa guides as they ferried clients' gear up the mountain. It was the most hazardous disaster in Everest climbing history. More at