Every Everest season we get numerous questions about the Khumbu Ice
Falls. So here in brief is some information....
In 1952 Swiss mountaineer André Roch coined
the Khumbu Icefall the “Suicide Passage.” Not much has changed in the
past 60 years. The mile-long frozen waterfall that ascends almost 2,000
vertical feet from Everest Base Camp to the Western Cwm is the only way
to approach the mountain from the south side. Its constantly shifting
maze of crevasses and frozen ice towers—which can topple at any
second—makes every climber feel queasy.
“You have the chance of being in the wrong place at the wrong time all
of the time in the Khumbu Icefall,” says Scott Simper, Jamie Clarke’s
climbing partner and photographer.
To make traversing the Icefall easier, every year in the beginning of
the season, a team of six Sherpas, called the “Ice Doctors,” which are
led by 57-year-old Ang Nima Sherpa, set a fixed line of ropes and
ladders to help climbers navigate their way through the hazards and
crevasses. It’s a dangerous job, but Ang Nima has a secret weapon.
“There’s some danger, but I go to the monastery, and every day I pray to
Buddha and Buddha helps us,” says Ang Nima, whose camp is right next to
our Expedition Hanesbrands headquarters.
Since they arrived at Base Camp in early April, Simper and Clarke have
traveled through the Icefall six times on their acclimatization trips up
and down the mountain. Their team of climbing Sherpas, responsible for
stashing gear and food higher on the mountain, have traversed it maybe
ten or 12 times.
“On one trip the Sherpas were within one second from being crushed by a
falling ice tower,” says Simper. “It really freaked them out.”
So what makes the Icefall so crazy?
It’s like a maze in a video game that gets more hazardous the longer you
play: First you wind your way from Base Camp through an unroped,
relatively benign section of mini ice towers.
“It’s a very fascinating, very beautiful place to get your feet wet,”
says Simper.
The next section is called the Dam, a 20-minute segment of 70-degree
climbs. After that, you climb up and down a few ladders to the “Popcorn”
section, where the ropes meander up and down and over about eight
ladders that bridge deep blue crevasses.
After Popcorn comes the “Football Field,” a flat,
wide section where climbers finally have the chance to take a breather.
From there they go through a section Simper and Clarke call the “Valley
of Death” a section where climbers are surrounded by the largest seracs
in the Icefall, whose bases are being melted by the sun. That section
exits into what they call “Crazy Town,” a deep trench into which the
climbers descend (and hopefully ascend), with dozens of spires and
crevasses, where the leaning tower almost crashed on the Sherpas.
Finally, there’s a climb up to a flat spot, then back down three ladders
strapped together over a deep crevasse, then a climb up and over three
more ladders to reach the top of the Icefall and the Western Cwm. The
freakiest aspect: The route can change from day to day, so the climbers
never know what to expect.
“The Icefall is like a bunch of dominoes waiting to fall over,” says
Simper. “Speed is safety.”
Despite the risks, dozens of climbers travel
through the Icefall unscathed every day.
“No sound mountaineer would enter the Khumbu Icefall if it weren’t for
the jewel of Everest beyond,” says Jamie Clarke.
Taken from
http://www.climbwithus.com/#/updates/article?id=159
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